Invasion of the Body Snatchers...

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 science fiction film based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney It was directed by Don Siegel. The story follows a doctor who finds that the local townspeople are being replaced by 'replicas,' produced from plant-like pods. These replicas bare an indistiguishable resemblence to their victims, except they have no emotions. They 'dispose' of their human victims and aim to replace the entire human race. The film has been hailed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and was selected for prservation in the United States National Film Registry. It has been praised as one of science fiction's greatest films and represents social and cultural issues surrounding the time of its making. Film critics believe that the film connotes issues with the fear of communism uprising, as the Americans believed there was a heightened influence from communism on American institutions by soviet agents. This idea is often referred to as McCarthyism. Some, however, believe that he film connotes a fear of the American government, and shows possible alienation and paranoia within American society around its time. The BBC wrote, "The sense of post-war, anti-communist paranoia is acute, as is the temptation to view the film as a metaphor for the tyranny of the McCarthy era." However, the creators behind the film and story stand their ground, stating there is no intended political allegory in the work. Wale Mirisch wrote, "People began to read meanings into the pictures that were never intended. The Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an example of that... From personal knowledge, neither Walter Wanger nor Don Siegel, who directed it, nor Dan Mainwaring, who wrote the script nor the original author Jack Finney, nor myself saw it as anything other than a thriller, pure and simple." I've always wanted to watch this film, but have never got round to doing so. I must say, it was well worth the way and rightly deserves its place in Sci Fi's hall of fame. It was an absolute classic sci fi and an enjoyable watch throughout. I loved the way that the film didn't rely on visual aesthetics as we see nowadays, the fear and horror was more of a psychological thing, from an audiences' point of view. Not only is the idea original, the film was well made for its time and i wouldn't have much to say in terms of criticism.