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Invasion which is the superior version?

To this day Invasion of the Body Snatchers is known as one of the best scfi films in the genre. Based off a book by Jack Finney called The Body Snatchers (1955) this film has been remade multiple times in different era’s. So we will be going over each adaptation and ultimately deciding which one is the overall best. This is all my opinion obviously I would love to hear what others have to say about the films. I’ll be watching each of these in a row while doing these reviews and giving each film its own post. So lets get started!

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 

Directed by Don Siegal who would later go on to do many films with Clint Eastwood the most notable being Dirty Harry and Escape from Alcatraz. He was a major influence on Clint Eastwood’s directing career and even shares a cameo in Play Misty for Me it is also worth noting that Don has a brief cameo scene in the 1978 remake of Invasion of the Body Snatcher’s as a pod person. I won’t spoil the fun and tell you where you will have to watch and look out for it! Anyway the film starts off with Doctor Hill a psychiatrist going to a California Hospital to see a raving lunatic being held by the police. After talking to the madman who claims to be a doctor he agree’s to listen to his story. From this point on the tale of the body snatchers is told in flashback. So the story begins with our raging madman from the hospital who really in fact is Doctor Miles Bennell played by Kevin McCarthy he gets a call from his nurse while at a convention to come back to town because of so many people asking to see him. When he arrives his nurse Sally picks him up she informs him a lot of patients want to see him and will only speak to him. While driving home they see a young boy Jimmy running away they think he was running away from going to school and they continue on. When they finally get to his office a lot of his appointments have cancelled as DR. Bennell and his nurse look out the window everything in the small town seems normal. This is when Becky shows up played by Dana Wynter she is back in town after a divorce from her husband and is the now love interest to Dr. Bennell. She tells Miles that her cousin is having a problem she is believing that her uncle is not really her uncle and is in fact an impostor. Miles wants to have a talk with her and tells Becky he would speak with her. Later in the evening Miles is about to go home when they bring him the boy that was running away from before Jimmy he is believing that his mother is in fact not his mother and an impostor. After he talks to Jimmy and his Grandma telling him that he should stay with her for a few days we end up at Becky’s cousins Wilma’s house. Miles gets done talking to her uncle which she states that he has all the memories that his uncle would have but he shows no emotion at all and that twinkle he used to get in his eye when talking to her is now gone. Miles wants her to schedule an appointment with his friend psychiatrist Dr. Dan Kauffman. Miles takes Becky out to dinner while there out they run into two doctors these doctors are talking about the same scenarios as Miles encountered people thinking others are not who they are. They break is down to a mass hysteria and say its happening from fear on the news. When Miles and Becky arrive at the restaurant they do not stay long a phone call interrupts them and they have to rush to a patients house Jack  Belicec who says it is urgent he come. When they arrive Jack and his wife Teddy show him a body that’s inside on a pool table. Miles realizes that the body has no real detail to it and that it has no finger prints. Miles tells Jack to watch the body overnight and report to him if anything happens. He goes to bring Becky back home. Inside Becky’s house there is a noise downstairs her father appears from the basement door. Miles says good night and heads home. We cut back to Jack’s house where Jack has fallen asleep in a chair. Teddy is nervously pacing she goes to look at the body and see’s that it has a cut in the same exact spot that her husband has a cut and is looking exactly like jack. She screams and wakes her husband as they flee from the house. They go to Miles house where he calls Kauffman and asks him to come over because of an emergency. Miles then fears that something is wrong with Becky. He thinks about her dad being in the basement so late at night. Miles rushes out of the house to go check on her. Miles decides not to go through the front door or knock sensing something is wrong so he breaks in through a basement window. In the basement inside of a storage unit he finds a body that looks just like Becky. Miles sneaks quietly up the stairs he sneaks into Becky’s room he tries to wake her but she won’t react. Miles decides to carry her in his arms down the stairs and out into his car. He brings her back to his house where Jack, Teddy and now Doctor Kauffman are. Kauffman wants to see the bodies so they go back to Jack’s The body has disappeared and Kauffman thinks they are crazy and everything is in there mind.They then go to Becky’s where the body has also vanished. Kauffman tries to explain to them that this is all in there head. Becky’s dad comes down the stairs asking what is going on and that he has called the police. When the cops arrive they try to inform the chief about that body at Jack’s. The cops already know everything about it they found that body in a burning haystack earlier in the night and it is now at there morgue. The next morning Miles is walking to work when he runs into Wilma who tells him that she is good and everything is now fine with her and her uncle she asks about Becky and Miles tells her she is staying at his place. Becky then goes into a shop where she informs a group of men that Becky is at Miles house. At Miles office Jimmy the young boy who tried running away earlier is now in the waiting room with his mother and everything is back to normal with them. That night Miles, Becky, Jack and Teddy are having a barbecue at Miles house. In Miles greenhouse we see a pod that starts oozing and is beginning to create a pod person. When Miles enters he see’s a body forming he calls out to Jack as everyone runs to him to see what has happened. After discussing things they realize that the way the pods finally take over is when you fall asleep that is when they get your mind. Miles tries to call the FBI but the operator tells him that all connections are down. At this point the gang separate Jack and Teddy leave to go get help. Becky stays with Miles. He goes into the greenhouse and destroys all the pods with a pitchfork. Miles and Becky then drive away they stop at a gas station where Miles decides to use a pay phone to try and get a direct line. Inside the booth he sees the gas attendant put something in his trunk. Miles gets back into his car thanks the gas attendant and drives off. A little up the road he stops the car goes to the trunk and finds that there are 2 pods in it. He burns them and drives off to his nurses house. As they approach Sally’s house he notices a lot of cars. He doesn’t trust the situation so he has Becky take the wheel while he goes to see whats going on. After spying through a window he see’s a bunch of people in the living room and a man holding a pod. A hang grabs Miles its the Police Chief from earlier he tells Miles they have been waiting for him. Miles breaks away and runs into the car and Becky drives off. The police put out a report to look for Miles and Becky, they decide to ditch there car and go on foot. They make it to Miles office and hide there until morning. That morning they are watching out a window as they see a bus with strangers on it coming into town that the police immediately pick up. Then they see hundreds of people begin to gather and trucks with pods coming. People are taking pods and walking off showing that this is not just in the little town of Santa Mira. Jack finally arrives at Miles office but he is not alone he comes with Kauffman and 2 officers they are all pod people. They tell them that the process is painless and when they wake up they will be in a world with no emotion and the only will they will have is one to survive. We learn the origin of the pods which is pretty basic these seeds were from outer space and landed in a farmers field and they have the power to take over any living organism. They leave Miles and Becky in the office while they guard the doors in the other room letting them wait till they fall asleep to turn. Miles comes up with a plan he makes a noise to lure them back into the room where he and Becky attack them. They run downstairs and out into the street. Miles tells Becky to walk and have no emotion to try and blend in with them. Unfortunately Becky reacts to seeing a dog almost get hit by a truck. A chase pursues and now the entire town is out after them. Sirens are going off as Miles and Becky run into the hills. The town is after them so inside a cave they decide to hide under these old bridge boards. The pod people run right over them. They are safe for now. Miles decides to take a look outside the cave so he leaves Becky to check. Outside he see’s in the farmers field the pods being grown and harvested. He quickly returns to see a barely awake Becky. He picks her up in his arms but collapses from exhaustion on the ground he kisses Becky and instantly realizes something is wrong. She has turned into a pod person. She fell asleep while he was only gone minutes and they took her over. Pod Becky tries to get him to join her he refuses and she begins to scream He’s here He’s in here alerting the town pod people of his location. Miles runs down the mountain while he is chased by the town until he reaches a major highway. They let him go not wanting to cause alarm and knowing that nobody will believe his story. Miles screams at all the passing cars and people trying to warn them but they all think he’s a drunk and nuts. The movie cuts back to present time. Where the two doctors examining Miles walk out of the room. They think that he is insane and as they talk a body is being rolled in. They ask what happened and the guy tells him that his truck got hit by a bus and the strangest thing was they had to dig his body out of these huge sea pods. The truck was coming out of Santa Mira. The Doctors now believe in Miles story and begin calling to have roads shut down out of Santa Mira and help sent.  

My Review

If you look online a lot of people think that this film has a lot to do with McCarthyism. I don’t believe that it was ever intended.it could be since i’m not from that era but all I got was a alien invasion taking place. In this film i found that the side characters are kinda bland, you never really get to care about them. The main focus is on  Miles and Becky. Kauffman could have been taken right out of this film and it would not really have affected any aspect of it.The lead characters do hold up you really root for the doctor and want him to get free escape and just for everyone to believe his story. For 1956 seeing the pods and the effects of them still holds up really well. In the greenhouse scene when you see the pods oozing and creating a new life form its generally scary and I can imagine at that time what people must have thought. I loved the small town concept of looking out the window and knowing when things were normal and not right. The doctor knowing all the townspeople and just realizing something was wrong. This is how I imagine that time period being in a small suburban town everyone knows everyone and the routine of daily life. For me there are some moments that stick out as disappointing. For one the ending this was a Hollywood ending the original ending would have been perfect. For those of you who don’t know the original ending had Miles running into the highway screaming trying to warn people only to see trucks going everywhere with pods. The studio wanted a more optimistic ending so they went with what we got. It really isn’t terrible just a little disappointing. The film is from the 50′s so i’m sorry ladies but the female characters are not portrayed strongly. They scream fall and don’t survive. In fact Jack’s wife Teddy we never get to see her again after she leaves with Jack from Miles house so really she could have escaped and not become a pod person but we will never know. Another spot is at the end when they have Miles screaming and trying to warn others. He says your next and they do a close up having him talk to the audience trying to break the 4th wall. I felt that it was very out of place and just thrown in making it a bit corny. But overall this is a good movie. The story is strong, the effects decent although not used often, the acting is done well,this is a classic film from the 1950′s and one of the best I think everyone should give it a watch and create a opinion for themselves but for me i’m going to give Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956 a 8/10. Its good but not the best alien movie from that era.