8mm Forum: INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 1956

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Posted by Laksmi Breathwaite (Member # 2320) on April 06, 2012, 09:54 PM:

In the 1950s, several sci-fi films used small towns as their settings. Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), one of the best of its kind, is set in Santa Mira, California, meant to stand in for any average town in America.
The narrative's premise is most interesting. A peaceful town is imperceptibly taken over by an alien force: Giant plant pods, products of atomic mutation, turn themselves into replicas of people. The pods turn human beings into faceless, emotionless automatons, incapable of any feeling, be it anger or love. Once again, the image used is that of an initially normal and ordinary town suddenly thrown out of balance. “At first glance, everything looked the same,” the narrator says, “It wasn't. Something evil had taken possession of the town.” The rest of the film explores that “something.”
Americans were forced to suspect their neighbors, their own family members of communism. This fear gave rise to the popularity of science fiction in the 1950‘s, as the “invading alien monsters” were symbolic of Soviet Russia. Perhaps no other film could deliver with such subtlety and precision its anti-communistic stance as that of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). The film follows Dr. Miles Bennell who upon returning from a doctor’s convention discovers patients accusing mothers, uncles, and even spouses of being impostors. Upon his inspection, the accused look, act, and are who they claim to be, down to recognition and memories. Reason would led anyone to believe these people are who they say they are, yet the accusers remain adamant that something is different, something that can’t be seen but is felt. These impostors show no emotion, or at least, not at great length. One accuser states, “there's no emotion. None. Just the pretense of it. The words, the gesture, the tone of voice, everything else is the same, but not the feeling.” These newly formed individuals represent the dehumanization of individuals either from communism or from the Cold War mentality.

They are Pod people, created by alien “seeds drifting through space for years,” and they are slowly taking over the town. These seeds can be interpreted as the representation of the communist ideals in the minds of Americans. Starting by taking over a few loved ones but then gradual taking over the whole town. The goal of the Pod people remains ambiguous other than to “take over” and the audience is left to speculate as to their master plan. In its cultural contexts, audiences in the 1950s would have speculated on either the communist principle or the radical rebellious changes in its youth that would become evident and symbolic of the 1960s. Another interpretation could see the Pod People themselves as products of McCarthyism, becoming mindless, soulless stock abiding by the will of Joseph McCarthy because of the second Red Scare of the 1950s. Dr. Mills states, “In my practice, I've seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. Only it happened slowly instead of all at once. They didn't seem to mind... All of us - a little bit - we harden our hearts, grow callous. Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is to us, how dear.” In the film, the phones, police, even doctors cannot be trusted. This adds to the sense of paranoia resonating with the audience’s hopelessness. The town’s psychiatrist defines it in the film as “epidemic mass hysteria,” caused by “worry about what’s going on in the world probably.” Whatever the interpretation, wrapped up in the horror of Invasion of the Body Snatchers were American fears of invasion, communism, science, McCarthyism, and Nuclear War of the 1950s

[ April 07, 2012, 01:47 AM: Message edited by: Laksmi Breathwaite ]

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 07, 2012, 12:43 PM:

Great post Laksmi, and thatnks for the screenshots.

Actually, on super 8, you really are not missing much image info (or perhaps none at all), for this film was originally released as a "Superscope" film, which was really a 35MM film shot in full frame, and then "Letterboxed" to the theatrical widescreen, ("Vera Cruz" a Burt lancaster/Gary Cooper western was also a famous Superscope release), which would make these released a little more grainy than a, lets say, "Cinemascope" release.

The question for me is ...

Was the print used for the super 8 release, a non letterboxed for Superscope release of the film? I wouldn't be surprised if this was released in both superscope and full frame 35MM.

By the way, Laksmi, for the very adventuristic person, you could make an "oriignal cut" or "Directors cut" of IOTBS if you wished, for the director originally meant to release it, starting with the doctor arriving at the train station, and ends with the pull back of the doctor insanely wandering amidst the traffic.

This cut was screened for the executives, but they felt that it was far too scary to have it end in such a way. They ordered the director to make a "happy ending", which consisted with the story basically being told in flashback, the insane doctor beginning the film freaking out, but at the end, the pods being found out, and therefore, the hope of them being stopped.

I would of course, keep the other footage if I ever chose to resell the film, on a spare reel, but I would love to cut the film to the directors original vision, for it certainly makes for a much better view without the "happy ending"!

Posted by Akshay Nanjangud (Member # 2828) on April 07, 2012, 06:22 PM:

Osi, I didn't know that IOTBS had suffered from creative interference. Yet, this forced happy ending doesn't really change my feel of the feature. Perhaps because it was a fantasy film all along. In Murnau's The Last Laugh, the sweetened ending felt very out of place because a more grounded in reality story suddenly transitioned to fantasy. At least, this is what I feel.

Nice feature Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The Ivy Films print is pretty good too. BTW, how is the 1978 remake?

Posted by Laksmi Breathwaite (Member # 2320) on April 07, 2012, 08:12 PM:

Hey Osi! Good Idea but the ending with the pods taking over is a bit hopeless a theme. It is like the end of the world as we know it. Wow what a downer . I thought the chick turning pod was bad enough but no help for the world the pods win creepy [Eek!]

Anyway it is pretty good what if movie. And Akshay personally I like the other pod feature called Body SNATCHERS made after the 1987 one with Mr. Spock! It was based on a Army base that was taken over with Meg Tilly who turned pod.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 08, 2012, 08:33 AM:

The 1979 (or 78?) introduced me to the "Body Snatchers" , as I had never seen the original, and I was VERY fond of it! I have always dreamed of finding it as a optical sound super 8/ One of Donald Sutherland's best roles, the and the film benefits greatly from the modrn special effects available by the late 70's.

Posted by Laksmi Breathwaite (Member # 2320) on April 08, 2012, 10:25 AM:

Osi check this out the later is the BODY SNATCHERS not Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1978 science fiction film based on the novel The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney. It is a remake of the 1956 film of the same name. It was directed by Philip Kaufman and starred Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams and Leonard Nimoy. Body Snatchers (1993)teenage girl and her father discover alien clones are replacing humans on a remote U.S. military base in Alabama.

Director:
Abel Ferrara

Writers:
Jack Finney (novel), Raymond Cistheri (screen story), Stars:
Gabrielle Anwar, Meg Tilly and Terry Kinney

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 08, 2012, 03:59 PM:

Yes, I was referring to the 1978 version. [Smile]

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on April 18, 2012, 09:45 AM:

Agree with Osi.....I've seen both versions...and I like the one with the framing scenes ....Yes...it's very good having it end just on him out in the road saying , "you're next"....but with the end frame, you have 1. the possibility that the invasion MIGHT be stopped...but you also have that great closeup of Kevin....realizing a. that he's at least got someone to believe him but also b. realizing that he, too , still has to sleep..and that his own fate is far from decided. A very moving closeup...and a more ambiguous ending....which I liked better.
I used to have the Ivy Films super 8 print which was itself printed a bit light..but was OK. Then finaly got hold of a nice original 16mm print. I sold the 8mm print, but will hold on to that 16 print to the last. I have a low fade of the remake..and it wasn't too bad a film...but missed the point at the end: it's much more frightening when you CAN'T tell who is human and who is the enemy. Having the pod folks start hissing like snakes and all of that really didn't help. It was great to have Kevin show up in the film, too...still trying to warn people.

Posted by Hugh Thompson Scott (Member # 2922) on April 18, 2012, 01:48 PM:

As far as I remember,the version with the downbeat end was the one that was shown on British TV.The Ivy films version was the
first time I saw the "upbeat version" and it used to be advertised
as such by the dealers over here.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 19, 2012, 01:02 PM:

I often weighed how I would edit/cut this on super 8, as that crane shot, moving back and upward from Kevin dissolves into the framing device added to the film ...

But yes, to end it right at the last frame of that Extreme Close-up, go immediately to black and maybe perhaps (as I'm a little perverse), having no "The End" title> What a wonderful shocking ending!!!!

Mmmmm, now I'm actually wanting to track down a print of this title, DAMMIT, I'm never going to be done with collecting super 8, eh? [Smile]

Posted by Oscar Iniesta (Member # 1731) on April 19, 2012, 05:36 PM:

I had images recorded on my mind from this movie for years, and I didn´t know the title. I watch it on the spanish TV, at the beginning of the 80´s, when I was a child. The first time they see the bodies was shocking for my little brain!!!

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on April 20, 2012, 01:10 PM:

To add another detail ....

After I end with the last frame being the last fram of that extreme close-up of Kevin, it goes to black, but I have that other crane shots audio contuing into a nice fade out without having the happy ending audio on there. Cools-ville!

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