Invasion of the Body Snatchers
1978
****
Director: Philip Kauffman
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Leonard Nimoy, Jeff Goldblum, Veronica Cartwright, Art Hindle, David Spielberg, Don McGovern, Irene Gorovaia, Tom Luddy, Kevin McCarthy
While strange seed pods fall from space and grow into invasive plants, two San Francisco health inspectors notice that the people around them are becoming emotionless replicas of themselves. This captivating science fiction film is based on Jack Finney's 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, which was originally adapted in 1956 and again in 1993 and 2007. The story is familiar, but Philip Kaufman's version sets it in the world of Cold War/post-Watergate paranoia. The ending is memorably haunting.
