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Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Rating

Director

Don Siegel

Screenplay

Daniel Mainwaring (Collier’s magazine serial: Jack Finney)

Length

1h 20m

Starring

Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Jean Willes, Ralph Dumke, Virginia Christine, Tom Fadden, Kenneth Patterson, Guy Way

MPAA Rating

Approved

Review

The 1950s were filled with political and emotional strife. World War II may have been 11 years earlier, but the effects were still being felt. Threat of nuclear annihilation was high and the Senator McCarthy’s Red Scare was in full swing. “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” thought to be an innocent horror film became one of the silver screen’s greatest anti-Communist allegories.

Mild-mannered Dr. Miles J. Binnell (Kevin McCarthy) is returning to his practice in his small hometown. Strange things start happening, people swear that their family members aren’t who they claim to be, then almost miraculously, they accept them as who they are and everything becomes normal again.

When the Jack (King Donovan) and Teddy (Carolyn Jones) Belicec discover a strange body on their billiards table, they call their friend Miles and he and his girlfriend, Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter), arrive to examine the findings. The body looks just like Jack. After several bizarre encounters, Binnell discovers that these creatures are being cultivated in order to take over living bodies. It’s a race against time for Miles and Becky to avoid being turned into one of these “pod people.”

What makes “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” so interesting is that in its intended version (minus narration and explanatory sleeves), the future is not certain. These creatures are taking over one person at a time. The allegory comes in as we examine the time period in which the film is made and the medium in which it was made.

The Red Scare was an overpowering entity in the 1950s and films were conforming to a standard of anti-Communist propaganda. The unfortunate part is that most of the films made weren’t very cautious or symbolic, they were just simple-minded propaganda.

As with written science fiction, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” took an introspective look at Communism. These “pod people,” easily equated to the perception of Communists during the period, are emotionless automatons that cultivate new pods in order to subjugate the entire planet one person at a time.

“Invasion” is a cautionary tale about the loss of one’s identity and emotion. On the surface it’s an interesting film that explores the xenophobic nature of human beings and their desire for uniqueness. Below the surface, however, the film takes on an allegorical nature in the midst of the anti-Communist era. Put both together and it easily becomes of the screen’s best science fiction films.

Review Written

November 19, 1999