Invasion Of The Body Snatchers

We watched Invasion of The Body Snatchers tonight. Not the sorry-ass recent remake, but the 1978 version with Donald Sutherland. Victoria had never seen it. It was cool to re-visit an old chestnut like that. It’s one of those movies that wouldn’t make anyone’s top ten list, but it still has some iconic images. Like when the dog with the man’s head comes running up. Or at the end when you realize that Donald Sutherland’s character has become “one of them” and points out the woman who was his friend.
I couldn’t help thinking how different the pacing of the movie was from what’s in the theaters today. You couldn’t pay people to see a movie like that now. It’s not all smash! bang! and MTV style quick edits, or jerky hand-held camera movements. And near the end, when he destroys the aliens’ breeding grounds by cutting loose some lighting fixtures so that they’d fall down and start fires. Today’s audiences would be yawning. What? He didn’t find a way to blow up the entire block with a CO2 cannister and a Bic lighter? There’s no mano a mano showdown between our hero and some uber alien?
I liked watching it. It was like visiting some dark recess of my psyche. This movie is buried down there somewhere with other relatively obscure chestnuts like Silent Running and Death Race 2000. Now if I can just get Victoria to watch Nosferatu with me.