Review: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel – Philip Kaufman)

PODCAST:

S3E4M – Invasion of the Body Snatchers (movie)*

SHOW NOTES:

I go out on a limb to express a genuine and legitimate worldview, hold out a loving hand to my cohorts and get sawed off the tree. This time there was a shiny thing of fancy out on that branch placed by a rather large weasel. Instead of venturing out there to take a sniff, I stayed close to the trunk – the permanent home of the ever cautious one among us. Was I proud of using caution in a ridiculous environment characterized and ruled by the peevish obsessiveness of the Comic Book Guy? No. Until next show, hyper-nerds.

-Rick

WRITTEN FILM REVIEWS:

Film: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)” by Don Siegel (Kevin McCarthy)

Ryan: 3 1/2 Stars “…I enjoyed it…definitely worth checking out…”

Wilk: 4 Stars “…kind of like watching the twilight zone…”

Rick: 2 Stars “…it applies to whatever the current flavor of politics is…”

 

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Film: “Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)” by Philip Kaufman (Donald Sutherland)

Ryan: 4 1/2 Stars “…I like the movie better than the book…”

Wilk: 5 Stars “…probably the best version out there and I think it really stands on its own …”

Rick: 5 Stars “…the horror element is there, there’s more graphic detail…”

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FUN FACTOIDS:

During this episode Ryan mentioned that he thought Clint Eastwood had seen Don Segal’s version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and was so impressed that he asked him to work on this next film. While this is incorrect, the real story is more interesting. In the book “The Cinema of Clint Eastwood: Chronicles of America” author David Sterritt noted that the two met due to a computer glitch (according to the director’s autobiography). Two director’s were pitched to Eastwood to direct his next film (Coogan’s Bluff), one of which was director Alex Segal. Apparently, the computer generated Don Segal’s name by mistake. An executive producer had to inform Eastwood who Don Segal was and so the actor checked out three of Segal’s films (none of which was “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”), and in turn Segal checked out Eastwood’s work. With mutual admiration the two met and formed an alliance that would later span five films. It’s worth noting that after Segal’s death, Eastwood did select the director’s version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” to screen as part of a 2005 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tribute to the deceased director as discussed in this article “Clint Eastwood praises pod film” by Steve Biodrowski for cinefantastiqueonline.com.

On the show we mentioned an article on Litreactor.com by Christopher Shultz called “Book vs. Film(s): ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers‘” which breaks down some of the differences between the book and various movie iterations: https://litreactor.com/columns/book-vs-films-invasion-of-the-body-snatchers.

We also briefly mentioned that there are other movie versions of this persistent story. Here are a few below:

Film: “Body Snatchers (1993)” by Abel Ferrara (Babrielle Anwar)

“This new version follows the fates of a group of people on an Army base who discover that something is taking possession of the minds, bodies of the people they once knew and loved.” (from Amazon.com)

Stuart Gordon was involved with the screenplay of this movie. You may remember him from our episode on H.P. Lovecraft when we discussed his movie “Re-Animator” and briefly mentioned “Dagon.”

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Film: “The Invasion (2007)” by Oliver Hirschbiegel/James McTeigue (Nicole Kidman)

“As a Washington psychiatrist (Kidman) unearths the origin of an alien epidemic, she also discovers her son might be the only way it can be stopped.” (from Amazon.com)

* DISCLAIMER: Please be advised that the views and opinions of the hosts and guests of NDIOS are completely their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and beliefs of the other hosts and guests or that of NDIOS.