Invasion Of The Body Snatchers [Blu-ray]

We currently live in an age of endless movie sequels, reboots and remakes but back in 1978, such regurgitation was not commonplace. So, when Philip Kaufman decided to remake Don Siegel's classic sci-fi film, 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers,' eyebrows were raised. The original 1956 film had grown in stature since its release, with critics regarding it as one of the better genre films from that period, largely because they began to see the alien 'body snatchers' as a metaphor for either communism or conformity, depending on which side of the political divide they happened to be on. The genius of Kaufman's remake was to supplant the setting of the film from the moral certainties of small town America to the amoral uncertainties of the American city. As in the original, there are no large spaceships hovering in the skies above to herald an imminent alien invasion, or grave pronouncements on the news about our certain extinction, for this was an invasion by stealth; and by setting it in the city, where people don't really know their neighbours, it is so much more plausible that it goes on unnoticed. Largely unnoticed, for we have an engaging group of individuals who perceive that something strange is going on and club together to resist being taken over and forever losing that which makes them human - their individuality. After all, it would be so much easier to lay back, close your eyes and submit. In many ways, the film is about defiance in the face of authority and freedom of individual thought.In order to heighten the increasing paranoia and mistrust, Kaufman uses strange camera angles, bizarre sounds and shots of people silently gathering. He has also assembled a great cast: Donald Sutherland; Brooke Adams; Veronica Cartwright: a young Jeff Goldblum: and Leonard Nimoy. In my opinion, it is one of the finest remakes ever made!As well as the film, there are the obligatory extras and they are all worth a look but my favourite is, 'Discussing The Pod,' which is basically, novelist and film critic, Kim Newman discussing the movie with filmmakers Norman J. Warren and Ben Wheatley, which is heaven for a sci-fi geek like myself.

Please allow me the following thoughts before my review of the film.The original premise of Jack Finney's sci-fi novel was, from memory, that alien invaders were taking over the bodies of humans by 'regrowing' humans exactly as they are but with the alien beings and thought process within the 'new' human body --- the original humans were then destroyed. Apart from a coldness and lack of emotion ('real humans' have to show joy, anger, disgust, mirth) the new bodies would replicate billions of humans world wide, a process that would take decades to complete in theory ---- unfortunately the alien life-form could only live for 5 years in their new hosts so therefore each human body taken over would also die within 5 years. Conclusion ---- Planet Earth would be lifeless within decades, and this species of alien would move on to another world to colonize.The alien would argue that man was already destroying the planet. Ethnic cleansing, colonization, genocide, global warming, carbon emissions, plastics, you name it we've done it but our process of destruction does take millions of years, not mere decades. We have a right to defend ourselves against alien invaders who would accelerate our demise.A much more interesting prognosis for a film methinks, most of which isn't in the series of films based on the book, 'The Body Snatchers', and there have been several.Nevertheless this 1978 version is in my view as good as the 1956 black & white classic directed by Don Siegel, immensely powerful and frightening even today with our jaded appetites for anything alien related perhaps translated so well by Carpenter in 'The Thing' and Ridley Scott's 'Alien'. Donald Sutherland seemed to enjoy himself making this film perhaps because he had the delicious Brooke Adams by his side (she is married to the actor who plays tv's 'Monk'), briefly but discreetly shown nubile. The style of the filming, acting and dialogue reminded me of the Romero 'Dead' nihilistic franchise which worked for me and conveyed the doom and dread of the subject, the end of the world as we know it. Despite the big gas-guzzling cars and the permed hairstyles (both of which must have contributed to the emissions equation) the film doesn't look dated, merely in vogue for its time.There is so much psychological horror here that terrifies as much as the gore and blood of the aforementioned. A couple of oddities : Don Siegel appears in a cameo as a taxi driver, Robert Duvall is 'a priest on a swing' (with no dialogue at all !). As weird as the whole idea of the film ---- anyone thinking that microbes from outer space have landed on earth and infected us humans with Covid ? OK, I have met all kinds of oddball people and one recently said that he and I wouldn't get Covid because we smoke ---- tobacco causes an immunity. Yes really. The film is in colour, often in shadowy settings with English subtitles plus an audio commentary from director Philip Kaufman, a man whose work SHOUTS quality not quantity.

I won't mention anything about the film itself as there are already a ton of reviews here for the Blu-ray version. It's a great classic remake and I enjoyed it so no complaints there. However, I just want to point out that when I received my copy I did not get the booklet. Reading down the comments, another person did not get the book either. Going by the Amazon release date, this Blu-ray title was released in 2013 so maybe Arrow stopped printing the booklets after a while and if that's the case then Amazon should really change the description because it's false advertising and a great disappointment to the purchaser who is expecting a booklet and finds there isn't one.

Always loved this film, the Director keeps you on edge, what I liked the most were what I'd call the paranoia scenes, quick cuts, rushing about, people in streets, on buses. Who's real, who isn't?But the stuff that really get's you are the special effects scenes, very limited thank God, in a good way and execptional for the time. (1978) The leaf shot at the beginning, before CGI is wonderful, and later the key scenes with the pods and the bodies being born to the world, with the errie, frightening, and creepy sounds that go with it, scares the hell out of me every time. Very Stong cast, Goldblum, Nimoy and Sutherland, solid. A breath of fresh air with Nimoy, away from his usual roll and sadly would have loved to have seen more work away from outer space. Definately one for a Saturday dark night...