Invasion of the Body Snatchers Redux

1956 Version

The story is simple enough about a benevolent, intellectual doctor returning from vacation only to find that some weird, unexplainable feelings have been generated in the small town of Santa Mira. Some people say that relatives are not who they seem to be, despite being exact duplicates physically and mentally. This leads to one discovery to another for the good doctor, his girl, and two friends, and what we have through each discovery is one more piece to the puzzle that an alien presence is at work.

So, the other night I was listening to a string quartet from Baltimore. After the concert (excellent) we were chatting with the lead violin. She was describing her experience with the filming of of a remake of this movie. It apparently stars Nicole Kidman and one of the scenes is a banquet (filmed in the Peruvian embassy in D.C.) with the string quartet in the background. The members of the quartet have already been 'snatched.' The hardest thing for this musician to do was to play without emotion.

I am so screwed up these days that I immediately see a political ramification of this story. I think to myself as I am listening to this young lady, in a way, our government has been taken over by sinister forces? George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are the equivalent of bodies occupied by an alien spirit? A spirit alien to our Constitution and underlying beliefs.

This is, of course, far fetched. It is as far fetched as the 1953 movie "Invaders from Mars" on which, I am sure, the "Body Snatchers was based." It wasn't as devious as Body Snatchers.

In Invaders from Mars, the Martians implanted devices in a person's neck that controlled them. They were trying to wreck the rocket base. I guess the idea was that eventually, man would make it to Mars and pose a threat. Little did they know. All I can remember is that I saw it in a drive-in with my father and it scared the living bejesus out of me.

Again, I have to say it. I don't know what to do. I hope I am a reasonable citizen. We decided in 1945-46 at the Nuremberg Trials (60th anniversary of their opening this week) that officials and a people could be held responsible for awful things. Am I to be held responsible for all the children who have died in Iraq, and White Phosphorus, and Abu Gharib, and water boarding, and an unending litany of atrocities?

Its enough to distrub a man's sleep.