From my favorite movies..

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Back to the roots of cinema, i'm surprised to discover that those old movies stay as good still today: sure it says also that today cinema goes down for quality and moviegoer experience but here we have a nearly perfect movie: a really intelligent story in a remarkable setting with an outstanding cast, everything tied with a inspired director and in 80 minutes!This space invasion with green pods is a brilliant idea that modernizes the vampire subject with stunning visuals: this pods - eggs would inspire later Alien, Gremlins and this silent, soft takeover looks like the future Salem novel from Stephen King. The movie really pinches a good nerve because this paranoia was real in those cold war years and later, as a child, i was totally terrified to be taken away at night, with family that turns to be enemy! This fictitious town of Santa Mira is the idyllic small town, America between Smallville and Twin Peaks. But it's also a incredible slice of the American way of life because at that time, 1956, everything looks shining, new, modern and really cozy...The late McCarthy was just really good and i understand why Joe Dante appreciated him: His girlfriend Dana Wynter is much more than the poor screaming woman and is the proof that old fashion was not outrageous nor too much closeted!At the end, with today eyes, you feel that this movie reunites a lot of ideas, moments that would be used and abused long after. So instead of always going to the stupid, soulless reboots, prefer come back to the original source!

For a truly insightful look at America's pervasive "Red Scare" culture of the 1950s, one need look no further than Don Siegel's (original) 1956 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", wherein the pod people are metaphors for the near universal fear of a "Godless, soulless" Communist takeover coming from within via sleeper agents born, raised, and trained to seamlessly blend in with American society (they look, talk, and seem just like us, but are alien and out to destroy us). Everything one needs to know about America's fear of Communism in the 1950s is contained in this film. This is Scifi at its very best, as social commentary as well as a potent art form and a valuable historical source.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is both horror and sci-fi, but it is a psychological thriller foremost. Though some say it is a product of its time, based upon the specific fears of its time, the film is really rooted in the basic fears of every person. If you want to know what those basic fears are, look to the nightmares that are common to all people.The story involves a small town doctor (Kevin McCarthy) who begins to notice a pattern in the unusual behaviors of his patients. Given no prior experience with such behavior, he has to look for explanations outside his usual (medical and personal) experience. This leads him to a preposterous truth. As the viewer watches Dr. Miles Bennell and his beautiful girlfriend (Dana Wynter as Becky Driscoll) unravel the mystery, there is suspense, and fear rooted in the unknown.The doctor becomes frustrated because no one will believe him. This is a common dream theme; it produces anxiety in the viewer as the paranoia ratchets up, especially because the stakes are so high. Being chased is another common nightmare theme and it is well exploited.Director Don Siegel said he only wanted to create a scary film. Music, effects and excellent directing produce that result. Notice the way the director plays with the size of the spaces as the story progresses. The acting is solid, especially by the leads. And I enjoy watching King Donovan.This is a classic film. Its central theme has been copied or modified many time since.

Just like so many of the sci-fi horror films that were so popular in the 1950s, this movie is about an alien invasion but that's where the similarity ends. This movie doesn't feature monsters, violent deaths or scenes of widespread destruction but instead focuses on a far more insidious threat that seems impossible to stop and robs people of their humanity. This quiet invasion deprives its victims of their individuality, their emotions and even their objectivity because, after being transformed, the people concerned are conditioned to believe that a life without love, desire, ambition and faith is not only simpler but also preferable to the way in which they'd lived previously. The full horror of what takes place is conveyed through the experience of a small town doctor who, as a result of all that he sees and learns, goes from being perfectly calm and rational to being hysterical, terrified and completely out of control.It's in this highly agitated state that Dr Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) is admitted to a hospital emergency room where he's invited by a psychiatrist to describe the events that led to his current meltdown. Bennell explains that, following a request from his nurse, he'd returned to his Santa Mira practice from a medical convention to deal with a sudden high demand for his services but, on his return, the numerous patients who'd wanted to see him urgently, had changed their minds. It soon became evident however, that something unusual was going on in the town because first a little boy who insisted his mother wasn't his mother was brought in to see him and then, he visited his ex-girlfriend's cousin who'd reported that her uncle wasn't her uncle. As there didn't seem to be any rational explanation for the apparent delusions that these people were suffering, Bennell had spoken to local psychiatrist Dr Kauffman (Larry Gates) who thought that, what was happening was probably an epidemic of mass hysteria.Bennell started to rekindle his romance with Becky Driscoll (Dana Wynter) who, like him, had recently been divorced. When the couple were out on a date one night, he'd received a telephone request to visit his friend Jack Belicec (King Donovan) who'd found, what looked like, a human body on his pool table. Disturbingly, it resembled Jack but didn't have any fingerprints or all of his facial features. Later, Bennell also found a similar incomplete duplicate of Becky in the basement of her house but when he called in Dr Kaufmann to see the "bodies", they'd disappeared and so Kaufmann simply assumed that Bennell was as deluded as some of his patients.When Bennell, Becky, Jack and his wife Teddy (Carolyn Jones) were together one night at Bennell's greenhouse and saw replicas of themselves emerging from huge seed pods, it became clear to Bennell that the townsfolk were being replaced by duplicates and that the changeover was taking place when they were sleeping. Bennell tried to contact the FBI for assistance but failed because the telephone operator repeatedly told him that the lines were busy and soon, after seeing further evidence that confirmed his theory and realising that he and Becky were the only citizens left in the town who hadn't been replaced, decided that they had to go on the run. The events that followed had then led to his breakdown.Screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring's brilliant adaptation of Jack Finney's original story called "The Body Snatchers", features dialogue that's both economical and effective and this together with Don Seigel's superb direction clearly played a major part in the success of this movie which now enjoys classic status. Seigel injects great energy, drive and pace into the action and also does a great job of building the looming sense of paranoia which becomes ever more prevalent as Bennell's predicament makes him increasingly isolated and desperate. The scene in which Bennell and Becky hide in a trench and watch their pursuers run over the planks that cover them is quite inspired and perfectly executed.The fears expressed on this movie (e.g. loss of identity, individuality and humanity) reflected the anxieties of many people in the Cold War 1950s and explains why some commentators suggested that Bennell's story had an anti-communist, anti-McCarthyite subtext which Mainwaring and Kevin McCarthy claimed was never intended.The quality of the acting in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is consistently good with Kevin McCarthy's performance standing out because of the range of emotions that he expresses so convincingly and the terror that he conveys so powerfully, especially in some of his close-ups. His performance was also vital to the movie's success because the whole story revolves around his character's experience.I