INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS
US, 1956, 80 minutes, Black and white.
Kevin Mc Carthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Virginia Christine, Sam Peckinpah.
Directed by Don Siegel.
The Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a small-budget film of the mid-50s but one which caught audience imagination and is now considered a classic. It is the old story of aliens invading, taking over humans as pods, the humans becoming robots. Heroic individuals have to try to stop the invasion. The film plot has been used for very many science fiction films.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a surprise success of the mid-'50s. The science fiction tradition (with a few exceptions) had generally been on the level of Saturday matinee material with serials. Producer Walter Wanger, a skilful and respected producer, wanted his science fiction to be of better quality. With an excellent cast, direction by Don Siegel and a reliance on authentic locations and a sense of menace rather than special effects, the team created what has become a science fiction classic. It resembles a number of films of the '50s, especially The Thing From Another World - and shares its up-beat warning ending. The film was remade in the late '70s by Philip Kaufman.
The setting is now San Francisco, there are many more special effects, especially for the pods which develop into the humanoids housing the body snatchers. The film starred Donald Sutherland - and had guest appearances by actor Kevin Mc Carthy and director Don Siegel. The ending (a scream) was definitely downbeat and pessimistic.
The film can be seen as a fable about contemporary society and its humanity being drained away from it. This was especially relevant in the cold war, Mc Carthyist atmosphere of the '50s. The film, despite its strong tones of realism, also becomes a mythical symbol of the human condition and themes of freedom, oppression and despair. Kevin Mc Carthy holds the film together in the central role. Dana Wynter is an elegant heroine - which makes her transformation at the end more eerie. There is a good supporting cast including Sam Peckinpah in a small role.
The film was directed by Don Siegel who had been making small-budget action films at this period. It was to be another twelve years till be began his collaboration with Clint Eastwood with Coogan’s Bluff, Two Mules for Sister Sarah, The Beguiled and, of course, Dirty Harry.
The film creates the atmosphere of small-town America in the Eisenhower era (the kind of town that the hero went back to in Back to the Future). However, underlying the town is the sinister possibility of aliens taking over with inhumane consequences.
The film came out in the aftermath of the Un American Activities inquiries and Mc Carthyism – and serves also as a parable of brainwashing and people becoming automatons.
1. The status of the film as a science fiction classic? Its impact in the '505? Its similarity to so much B-budget material? Its transforming this material? The film's budget, authentic location atmosphere, cast? Its reliance on atmosphere rather than special effects? The quality of Don Siegel's work and his reputation over the decades? Comparisons with the remake?
2. The brief running time, small budget, '50s black and white styles? Crisp black and white photography. the use of Californian locations and atmosphere? The small American town, its way of life, people and their daily occupations? Their being transformed within this situation? The strong sense of reality underlying the fantasy - to eerie effect? The editing. the pace? The score? The flashback technique and the sense of urgency? The build-up to the ending and its sudden frightening impact?
3. The importance of science fiction for its interpretation of contemporary society and "what if ...I'? The quality of imagination? Nightmare and fantasy? Fantasy and facing up to dread? An interpretation of evil and ugliness? The title and its tone? The emphasis on symbolic extra terrestrial takers of human freedom? Their being symbolic of the taking of freedom within society and within the individual?
4. The impact of the opening? The hospital, Dr. Bennell and his frantic warnings. the doctors not listening to him. the suggestions of madness? His being allowed to tell his story? The importance of the screenplay and the use of the narrative by Miles Bennell? The echoes of the private eye film of the Raymond Chandler school - the description, the comments, the interpretation? Tough and direct? The personal involvement in the commentary and audience response to this. comparisons with the visuals? The viewpoint of Miles Bennell? The freshness of the experience as well as his reflections? The visual impact of the narrative: his return, the waiting room, the town itself. the introduction to the people, the transformations, the focus on the small number of characters, the broadening to a Living Dead population, the urgency of moving out and warning the world? The final warning?
5. Kevin McCarthy's holding the film? The opening and his urgency, talk, seeming madness, the medical response? The calmness of the events of his return from the conference, his popularity in the town, Sally and her list of patients, his puzzle about the patients withdrawing, observing the people and their ordinary way of life? The background of his divorce? The new encounter with Becky and the memories of the past? The inevitability of the love story - with its frightening ending? Becky introducing him to Wilma and the puzzle about her uncle and aunt? The boy frightened of his mother and saying she was not his mother?
6. Dr. Dan Kaufman and his views about hysteria, people's behaviour coming from an inability to cope, their humanity ebbing? The irony of his being taken over by the body snatchers? The relevance of his diagnosis about contemporary society? The people transformed and their unemotional control, the Living Dead, their taking over the world, being apostles of the seeds floating in space? The dread before the takeover happened? The snatched bodies declaring that the transformation was "not so bad"? The need for holding out, the wonder of freedom, love? Was the suffering for freedom worth holding out against the body snatchers?
7. Miles and his ability to cope? Treating his patients? Friendship with Becky? The discussions with Wilma? The visit to Jack and Teddy and the discovery of the body on the billiard table? The fright with the transformation of the body? Becky's father and the cellar? Miles' discussions with Dan and trying to understand? The plausible explanations of the disappearance of the body? The explanations by the police and their having been snatched? The party with Jack and Teddy - and the discovery of the pods? The visualising of the bodies forming and Miles having to destroy the bodies with the pitchfork? The growing panic? Sending Jack and Teddy off for help? The phone calls and his not being put through? Miles and Becky and the confrontation with Becky's father, the discovery of so many of the townspeople snatched? The escape to the office and the siege? The desperation of their hiding? The escape after the confrontation with Dan and Jack and overpowering them by injections? Sally's house and the gathering of the apostles? The trucks full of pods and the town meetings and plans for distribution of the pods? The desperation of Miles and Becky running through the streets, pursued by the townspeople? The desperation of running through the hills, hiding in the cave and concealing themselves? Becky growing more and more tired and being sustained and carried by Miles? His desperate attempts to stop her sleeping? His going outside and then rescuing Becky? The surprise and horror of her being transformed? The look in her eyes, her face, her calling out for the people to get Miles? His desperate running to the highway?
8. The sketch of Jack and Teddy, the body on the table, the bleeding hand, their helping Becky and miles? Jack transformed? The sketch of the other townspeople - Kaufman and his psychiatry, Sally and her work, Wilma and her uncle and aunt, Nick and the police? Their becoming the Living Dead?
9. The focus on the townspeople and their being transformed - a destructive mob?
10. The desperation of Miles on the highway, trying to get help? The image of the traffic rushing past him? People spurning the warnings? His desperate scream? The visual and aural impact of the scream as summing up the film?
11. The up-beat ending of the film with the hospital communicating with government to warn people and save them? How satisfying as entertainment, as science fiction and fantasy, as a fable about the human condition?
