Upon returning from a convention, Dr Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy) discovers that some people in the town are claiming that their relatives look the same, but notice slight differences in their personalities. Bennell is initially sceptical and dismisses these claims as 'mass hysteria'. However, when he digs a little deeper Bennell starts to believe that this might be more than hysteria and tries to convince a cynical psychologist Danny Kauffman (Larry Gates)that some other worldly beings may be responsible for these strange occurrences.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is a nice little film that gets going pretty much straight away - a no nonsense film that is devoid of pointless filler. It's played out as a mystery and it's a relatively suspenseful film whereby you're constantly wondering what's making the townspeople mad? What do they want? Etc. The story itself was quite ground-breaking for its time and it's also a very interesting film.
Although this film was ground-breaking and interesting, I did find that it was a little vague in some areas; we learn that these 'beings' take control of people's minds and bodies when they're asleep, but the writers never bother explaining how this is done - is it some kind of mind transfer? It also doesn't explain how they jam the telephone network? On a personal note, I would have also liked it if we'd have seen more social commentary on how this mind control affected the townspeople. We see little snippets of it but I think it might have made the film slightly more interesting and slightly stronger as a whole if this aspect would have been expanded upon and given a little more focus.
Despite this though, there are enough selling points here to make this worth watching; the performances across the board were excellent and all the main players show a certain intensity that makes it very easy to get swept up in their plight. McCarthy overacts occasionally, but I suppose it's better that he puts too much effort in rather than too little.
IOTBS is a very good film that is definitely worth watching. However, for me the story could have done with being fleshed out a little more and for this reason I see it as a very good film that falls just short of brilliance.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is a nice little film that gets going pretty much straight away - a no nonsense film that is devoid of pointless filler. It's played out as a mystery and it's a relatively suspenseful film whereby you're constantly wondering what's making the townspeople mad? What do they want? Etc. The story itself was quite ground-breaking for its time and it's also a very interesting film.
Although this film was ground-breaking and interesting, I did find that it was a little vague in some areas; we learn that these 'beings' take control of people's minds and bodies when they're asleep, but the writers never bother explaining how this is done - is it some kind of mind transfer? It also doesn't explain how they jam the telephone network? On a personal note, I would have also liked it if we'd have seen more social commentary on how this mind control affected the townspeople. We see little snippets of it but I think it might have made the film slightly more interesting and slightly stronger as a whole if this aspect would have been expanded upon and given a little more focus.
Despite this though, there are enough selling points here to make this worth watching; the performances across the board were excellent and all the main players show a certain intensity that makes it very easy to get swept up in their plight. McCarthy overacts occasionally, but I suppose it's better that he puts too much effort in rather than too little.
IOTBS is a very good film that is definitely worth watching. However, for me the story could have done with being fleshed out a little more and for this reason I see it as a very good film that falls just short of brilliance.