"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."
That's Kevin McCarthy as Dr. Miles Bennell in what the American Film Institute calls the 9th greatest sci-fi film ever made -- INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Well, I don't know if it's the 9th greatest sci-fi film ever made, but its enjoyable enough.
I picked the quote above because it seemed to be the one that spoke most directly to the movies' themes. Some say the story is a reflection of the Red Scare era the film was produced during. Everyone was either a real communist or a secret communist, but either way, they all wanted to brain wash you. But, just like in CLUE, I think communism is a red herring.
See, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is the story of a small-town doctor who returns home to find an epidemic of people who don't think their uncle is really their uncle or their mother is really their mother. They can't put their fingers on why, because the impostors look just like the real thing. There's just something in the eyes. At first, Dr. Bennell brushes it off as a strange form of hysteria, but eventually he finds what appears to be the body of one of these impostors before it has fully formed into a copy of one of his old friends. He even finds a copy of his girlfriend in the basement.
It's a paranoid idea that is commonplace in sci-fi, especially of the 50s and 60s -- the idea that there's a big conspiracy against you and no one will believe you when you try to blow the whistle, and everyone, even your closest allies, turn out to be against you.
The writers of the film have been quoted as saying they didn't have any ideas about the Red Scare in mind when they came up with the story. Still, the parallels are there. But, I think it's more of a general fear than a specific one, and the Red Scare is just one example of a manifestation. That's why I chose the quote above -- the movie isn't necessarily pointing fingers at one moment in history so much as it is looking at the common fear in every human of losing something of themselves as an individual and just becoming a member of the crowd. The movie warns that even when you're not being literally taken over and replaced by alien impostors from outer space, you still run the risk every day of losing pieces of your humanity if you don't stop and actively maintain your individualism and keep your soul (for lack of a better term) fed every day. The movie warns us not to go to sleep and become complacent, but to ask questions and seek answers, push boundaries and grow and change. In the movie, it takes an overnight invasion to point this out -- when people slowly lose their humanity over the years, they don't notice until it's too late.
The movie is pretty much non-stop action from beginning to end without many slow moments. There are a few cool special effects shots showing the pods that came from outer space and are now hatching alien impostors. But, mostly, the film is pretty small without many frills with most of the suspense and scares coming from the situation, mood and tone and not so much from sudden jumps or gross-out effects.
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