Program Notes
Philip
Kaufman and W.D. Richter’s 1978 film INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is
a classic example of a moment in American cinema when a genre film
could be as unique and tangible as the characters that inhabit it: real
people thrust into fantasy situations and reacting as someone we know
might, rather than superheroes behaving with the shallow, stylized
determination of a character in a video game, or as mindlessly
shrieking prey condemned to die the moment they are introduced
onscreen.
The original 1956 version of the film, helmed by
gifted action director Don Siegel, was weakened when the studio tacked
on an incongruous prologue and epilogue. Without those, the film has a
grim feeling of inescapable paranoia. Often read as an anti-communist
screed, Siegel resisted specific political interpretations. He
maintained that the film used broad strokes that could just as much
encompass the McCarthy HUAC witch-hunts of the 1950’s as the specter of
Communist infiltration itself. In short, the film is simply
anti-conformist. The power of the best in science fiction has always
been to state the fantastic literally in a way that suggests a world of
metaphor. As our world changes so too do our political and
philosophical readings of these films. This is why they stay fresh and
relevant while specifically political films often become dated or the
dogmatic views of their creators begin to show through. Our own
apophenia creates new meanings for the fantastic in each new context in
which it is placed.
Inspired by the Jack Finney book with nods to
the Siegel version, Philip Kaufman’s updated INVASION OF THE BODY
SNATCHERS escalated the red-scare paranoia of the original film to a
more potent and personal existential fear -- the terror of loss of
identity, a fear and mistrust of society as a whole, from governments,
to cities, to the relationships between lovers, friends, and those we
look to comfort and guidance. The film is set in a post-Watergate
culture of paranoia, and steeped in the self-help craze of 70’s San
Francisco- a city of self proclaimed individualists desperately
searching for equilibrium in a world where traditional values had been
exposed as facades, or worse, as outright lies. Pauline Kael was noted
for exalting the film as possibly the best of its kind, and as a genre
movie it is certainly an iconoclastic standout.
In the film,
health inspector Matthew Bennell (Donald Sutherland), his co-worker
(Brooke Adams), and their married friends (Jeff Goldblum and the
classically histrionic Veronica Cartwright) are part of a small group
of San Franciscans who begin to dimly sense an encroaching invasion of
alien doppelgangers, gradually replacing the cities’ inhabitants. As
their nameless dread mounts, self-help guru Dr. Kibner (Leonard Nimoy)
tries to assuage their fears and return them back to their routines,
using a combination of EST-flavored psychobabble and clinically
incredulous condescension. The film manages to build an air of paranoia
with only minimal effects, through the use of vertigo inducing camera
angles and unsettling visual cues. For instance, Robert Duvall dressed
as a priest sitting silently on a playground swing set is a red herring
in terms of advancing the plot, but as one of many images that steep
the mood of the film towards hysteria and doom, it is intensely
effective.
Director Philip Kaufman’s career began with his 1965
film GOLDSTEIN. Written and directed by Kaufman, the film won Prix de
la Nouvelle Critique at Cannes and opened the door (albeit slowly) for
writing and directing jobs in Hollywood for the filmmaker. After
gaining attention with INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, Kaufman helped
pen RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981), and received a story credit. A
string of filmmaking landmarks followed, including THE RIGHT STUFF
(1983), THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING (1988), and HENRY AND JUNE
(1990).
Writer Richter is also notable for directing the 80’s
cult film THE ADVENTURES OF BUCKAROO BANZAI ACROSS THE 8TH DIMENSION
(1984), which did poorly at the box office and caused Richter to fold
his fledgling production company.
That the story of INVASION OF
THE BODY SNATCHERS has been retold so often in cinema shines a light on
its position in our collective unconscious, along with the grandest and
oldest of myths. Each retelling has been unique in its tone and
message, but, in my opinion, the 1978 version you are about to see is
the most unique, the most immediate, and the most relevant. In that
science fiction uses broad Rorschach blots to show us our own fears,
hopes and conflicts, this film seems to hold the mirror closer than
most, eliminating the topical and painting an all too vivid picture of
the terror of dissolution that lives in us all.
-- Wiley Wiggins, Austin Writer and Performer
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