Invasion of the Body Snatchers **** (1978, Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy) – Classic Movie Review 2,212

Donald Sutherland stars as public health man Matthew Bennell, alarmed at the strange behaviour of his friends who have turned into pod people, in the exciting, glossy, big-budget 1978 sci-fi horror movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers. 

Director Philip Kaufman’s exciting, glossy, big-budget 1978 sci-fi horror movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a welcome updated remake of Don Siegel’s 1956 paranoid infiltration classic chiller Invasion of the Body Snatchers. This first remake of three so far moves the setting for the invasion from a California small town to the big city of San Francisco. But the story from Jack Finney‘s 1955 novel The Body Snatchers remains essentially the same. Something weird has come from space to the West Coast of America and is taking over the human race who are being replaced one by one with clones devoid of emotion.

Donald Sutherland stars as public health man Matthew Bennell, who is quite correctly alarmed at the strange behaviour of his friends who have turned into pod people. ‘People are becoming less human,’ says observant San Francisco psychiatrist Dr David Kibner (Leonard Nimoy).

Kaufman wants to reflect the unsettling story with unusual images and realises them with cinematographer Michael Chapman’s striking visuals, working together to capture the film noir feel of the original in colour, while writer W D Richter looks for a parable on Seventies life rather than featuring the original’s Fifties communist paranoia.

Kaufman recalled: ‘I thought ‘Well this doesn’t have to be a remake as such. It can be a new envisioning that was a variation on a theme.’ The first change was filming in colour and the second was moving the location to San Francisco. “Could it happen in the city I love the most? The city with the most advanced, progressive therapies, politics and so forth? What would happen in a place like that if the pods landed there and that element of ‘poddiness’ was spread?’

This is a properly scary movie with a full complement of chilling things that go bump in the night, handled with classy flair by a group of intelligent film-makers. The film features a number of interesting cameo appearances. The original 1956 director Don Siegel appears as a cabbie and the 1956 star Kevin McCarthy is still here again in this movie as the running man warning us, screaming ‘They’re coming!’ to passing cars. Robert Duvall has an uncredited cameo as a priest. Kaufman, his wife Rose and Chapman all appear.

The studio making it is United Artists and weirdly their pyramid-shaped TransAmerica building regularly hoves into view.

Also notable in the cast are Brooke Adams, Veronica Cartwright, Jeff Goldblum, Art Hindle and Lelia Goldoni.

The music is by Denny Zeitlin in his only film score.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers was a hit, costing $3.5 million and grossing $24.9 million in North America.

It was remade in 1994 as Body Snatchers and again as The Invasion in 2007.

Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland) shows how the pod people identify unconverted humans.

The cast are Donald Sutherland as Matthew Bennell, Brooke Adams as Elizabeth Driscoll, Leonard Nimoy as Dr David Kibner, Jeff Goldblum as Jack Bellicec, Veronica Cartwright as Nancy Bellicec, Art Hindle as Dr. Geoffrey Howell, Lelia Goldoni as Katherine Hendley, Kevin McCarthy as Running Man, Don Siegel as Taxi Driver, Tom Luddy as Ted Hendley, Jerry Walter as restaurant owner Henri, Robert Duvall as priest on a swing, Philip Kaufman as the man wearing a hat who bothers Dr. Matthew Bennell in a phone booth, Rose Kaufman (the director’s wife) as the woman who argues with Jack at the book party, Joe Bellan as Harry the busker, and Michael Chapman as janitor in the health department.

Sutherland’s curly hairstyle is similar to the one in Don’t Look Now (1973). Veronica Cartwright recalled: ‘They would have to set his hair with pink rollers every day.’

McCarthy and Siegel helped shape the film’s twist ending. While talking with Kaufman in Siegel’s office, they said they regarded the original film’s ending as pat. Kaufman came up with a new ending that kept a secret from everyone except screenwriter W D Richter and producer Robert Solo. Even Sutherland was only informed the night before shooting and the studio bosses found out only when they saw a print at George Lucas’s house.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2,212

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