Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
In addition to its endless imitators, Jack Finney’s novel “The Body Snatchers” (1955) had four credited feature film adaptations, and three of them are actually good.
This 1978 version is the second, Directed by Philip Kaufman and Written by W. D. Richter. It now holds the distinction of being considered among the best Remakes ever made in-or-out of the SF,F&H Genres.
It understood what makes a truly distinctive remake: a recognition that the world has changed, and though the old stories still speak to this new world, the language should be adapted to convey the full potency. Think of why Mafia movies borrow so much from William Shakespeare, it’s not laziness, it’s the pursuit of a Contemporary Vocabulary for the for the greatest of all Dramas, which is, in fact, what Shakespeare himself did, as almost all his plays are adaptations of older material.
Here, Kaufman, a much-honored Director but not especially known for SF,F,&H, and Screenwriter W.D. Richter, also honored, though not to the same degree as Kaufman, but far more known for his Genre works, saw what Finney’s novel, a Politically potent but non-Ideological Fable of the Corrosiveness of Conformity, needed to address the Alienated 1970s as sharply as it did in Communism-and-McCarthyism Obsessed 1950s. As Critic Stella Hurtley wrote, it "validates the entire concept of remakes.”
Even if this had not been a remake, the audience probably could’ve guessed the outline of the story even before entering the theatre; good filmmakers have to be conscious of that when faced with such a tale. Here the strategy was to admit the audience would always be one step ahead of the action and build the suspense out of the Characters' desperate attempts to play catch up.
For example, there’s a prologue set in Deep Space, so no hiding the Aliens in this version, we see their wispy forms even before we see any people (it's lovely looking scene, accomplished with the cheapest FX props imaginable). Then they deposit themselves as drops of Gelatinous Ooze on the leaves of some trees in a San Francisco Park, and that Ooze sinisterly grows tendrils.
Only then is one of the main protagonists introduced, Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), who will prove to be the film’s main Hero. The odd new plant, which has now produced a flower, pricks his curiosity, but it is obvious he doesn’t feel threatened – and for the rest of the movie, even after he realizes the Earth’s been Invaded by hostile Aliens, we always know more than he does.
He works in the San Francisco Health Department with Elizabeth Driscoll (Brooke Adams), whom he pines for, but she has a boyfriend. She is even more fascinated by the new flower, and even less concerned; a hobbyist-gardener, she goes as far to cultivate it, dooming her boyfriend (Art Hindle) which is okay, he was kinda of a jerk anyway.
These characters’ pre-invasion lives are well-fleshed out; both characters are dedicated, capable, and over-worked. Unsanitary restaurants initially distract them from the new puzzle, but piece-by-piece they link this non-native plant to an apparent outbreak of Psychological Disorders. But they initially they got it backwards, they think the Paranoid people are the ones Infected; no, it’s the ones the Paranoids are afraid of that are the problem.
And that’s how the really mean undercurrents kick in. The heart of this interpretation is that when these latter-generation Doppelgangers from Outer Space switch places with our neighbors and loved ones, it is even more difficult to tell who a Pod-Person is and who isn’t than in the original film because, the film argues, we Humans were already less Human before the aliens arrived.
Early in the film, a local dry cleaner starts ranting, “My wife, she wrong, different...That not my wife!” Outside of a SF, F& Horror film, in a world where we can comfortably trust the man is a Delusional, there’s two ways for an observer to respond to him: with compassion for the Mentally Ill, or dismissal because we do not want to be face-to-face with an Aberration. In SF, perversely, if you are among the former, your fate in this film will come harder than if you are of the latter, because the latter can be swayed by evidence, but the former will be distracted by Humanism.
Another example is Elizabeth’s boyfriend -- early on, he makes out with her on the couch while watching a sporting event on TV but interrupts her mid-kiss to cheer a score; that’s the best he can manage as a Human. Later, after he’s replaced, the Doppelganger coolly prepared a Pod to suck the life out of sleeping Elizabeth, and then goes to watch TV, echoing the earlier scene, but this time he’s not watching the game, it’s a live-feed of a factory he’s responsible for monitoring.
This is a brutalizing satire on the Sheep-Like shallowness of the “Me Generation.” It references the era’s faddish Cults and Pop-Psychology with Alien’s ominous sales pitch, "You will be born again into an untroubled world." One of the Heroes' early Allies, who later betrays them, is Dr. David Kibner (played with great charm and wit by Leonard Nimoy, and his casting was obviously an in-joke based on his Character Mr. Spock on TV's "Star Trek" (first aired 1966) is the Guru of an EST-type Psycho-babble Movement, really a legitimation of Cultism.
The 1970s was an era of unusual legitimization of cynicism in Hollywood circles. The was represented by a host of films, but especially here because Forman not being forced into a softer ending like the earlier version's (1956) Director Don Seigal.
For most of its length it doesn’t come off quite as embittered as, let’s say, “The Long Goodbye” (1973), but unlike the Private Eye thriller, it does conclude with the End of the World. The Filmmakers were obviously hinting that’s what we deserve. Why not embrace being a Pod-Person? You’re halfway there already.
The film’s Fatalism is deftly embodied by the deceptively shallow Psychobabble of David, but there’s also the counterargument, provided by the four central Protagonists, Matthew, Elizabeth, grouchy Poet Jack Bellicec (Jeff Goldblum), and his goof-ball wife Nancy Bellicec (Veronica Cartwright), all of whom are richly developed and who see the loss of humanity is a tragedy, something to be railed against. These four Lead Actors are all excellent in their roles, nicely summed up by Janet Maslin, “individually impressive and a very smooth ensemble.” Jack, for example, gets sick of David's pallid prescriptions for Happiness even before he realizes the whole of the Human Race is in danger, and with a single sentence mocking David's, he, unconsciously (but still perfectly) equates what we’ve done to ourselves with what the Aliens are about to do to us, "He's trying to change people to fit the world. I'm trying to change the world to fit people."
There's little reference to the Cultural Revolutions that created such a different would between 1956 & 1978, unless David represents the failure of those Revolutions. What do see, is a world where Activism is dead by indifference. The '50s and '60s were both eras of proud Protest. Some are apt to say Greatest Generation and the '50s were too square for Protest, that it was all those meddling kids of the Baby Boom, but lemme tell it was, that decade saw Martin Luther King Jr's rise into prominence through Protest and President Dwight D. Eisenhower sending Federal Troops to Little-Rock, Arkansas, to put down those who counter-protested King.
This film, like all the good versions of the novel, the better-quality imitators, and for that matter every Zombie movie ever made that isn’t complete garbage, share a common theme – that the Human part of the Human being is precious, and the Paranoia evoked by the Threat is rooted in being able to conceptualize what is about to be lost.
Most important in selling this theme here is the most obvious difference between this version and the original film -- the change of setting from Suburb to big City. Suburbs have close interpersonal ties, everybody knows everybody. Meanwhile, I live in a city, recently in an apartment building, I didn't even know everyone who lives on my floor, never mind the whole building. Because of this, the Pods can do as they whilst, and by the time the real Humans, distracted from real values, finally notice, it’s already too late.
The original built suspense out of its economy, this version creates suspense in its density of detail. This approach was somewhat shocking because (though you’d never realize it as you watch it) this was a pretty low-budget film. As stated before, the very high-quality FX were the product of incredibly budget-stretching inventiveness, and though being shot entirely on location in San Francisco leant the film a big-budget grandeur, the actual techniques used were borrowed from micro-budget Auteur Director Larry Cohen, like having many of the street scenes filmed by hidden camera as the Actors mixed with unsuspecting civilians.
This film is much a triumph of Cinematography as it is of Direction and Writing. It mixes the techniques of Cinema Verite with old-school Noir, daylight scenes are conventionally lit and composed but the camera is hyper, meanwhile night-time scenes is all weird angels and Expressionistic shadows, the contrast establishing a world turned upside down. The deeper into the film we go, the more takes place a night.
Like few other films in history, there’s something extra squeezed into every frame, like early on, a car windshield gets broken, this has no bearing on the plot, but as the story progresses, we look through its fracture more and more, and it becomes emotionally significant. There are too many reflections, odd details, and rays of curiously colored light. As Cinematographer Michael Chapman said, “We did whatever we could to be outrageous.”
That broken window is especially effective when David and Elizabeth witness a Car Accident. There was a man raving Insane Warnings in the middle of the street and is struck by a car. People go to his aide, but they are oddly expressionless, and transport him away without properly Stabilizing the Trauma Victim. That un-named man is played by Actor Kevin McCarthy, who played the Hero in the first version, and he's screaming the same dialogue as the first film. At that point, he's been warning us of this fate now befallen us for more than 20 years.
Other acknowledged Masters put all their best on full display here, like Sound Man Ben Burtt, filling both the ambient and specific noise with the odd hiss of a dry-cleaning machine, sirens, pig squeals, slowed-down baby cries, even an ultrasound of his own unborn child’s fetal heartbeat. In the climax, with Mathew in a Pod Factory desperate to develop a plan to save Humankind and there’s a tinny sounding radio in the background playing "Amazing Grace" (Christian Hym first composed in 1772).
The score was created by noted Jazz Musician Denny Zeitlin with the assistance of Grateful Dead Guitarist Jerry Garcia (who has a cameo in the film). It’s amazingly atmospheric and earned enormous praise. Afterwards, Zeitlin inundated with score requests after but had so hated the film's ten weeks of round-the-clock work, he’s never worked on another film.
You’ll be hard pressed to find a darker film than this one, but it is also ripe with in-jokes and cheerful cameos (well, cheerful for those who spot them). I already mentioned the Nimoy Character, Garcia and McCarthy. Robert DeNiro as a moment as a Priest, who very sinister but for no clear reason. Director Siegel appears a Cab Driver. (Fun anecdote: Siegel refused to wear his thick glasses on camera while actually driving. The Cameraman stated that the Actors in the back seat looked petrified.)
The film proved a Critical and Box Office success, ranking number one on its opening weekend and earning $25 million overall (that’s not far shy of ten times the original investment).
As Critic Pauline Kael wrote, “it may be the best film of its kind ever made.”
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