THE INVASION

Following an unfortunate re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, an American shuttle breaks into millions of fragments that scatter across the United States. The shuttle had previously come into contact with a mysterious extraterrestrial life form, and now its fragments serve as a vehicle for a dangerous alien spore that insinuates itself into the human body and mutates it: anyone who has come into contact with the spore and falls asleep transforms into a being incapable of feeling emotions. The desensitized beings spread like wildfire, and psychiatrist Carol Bennel finds herself having to fight against her desensitized ex-husband and most of the citizens who want to transform her like them and eliminate her son Oliver, who seems to be the key to eradicating the epidemic. 1955. The novel "The Body Snatchers" by Jack Finney appears in American bookstores, describing an underground alien invasion aimed at replacing humans with emotionless extraterrestrial copies. 1956. "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (retitled by us as "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), the cinematic adaptation of Finney's novel directed by Don Siegel, is produced. A less optimistic film than the original literary work that has been read as a metaphor for the American fear of the communist threat fought during the Cold War. 1978. Philip Kaufman directs "Terrore dallo spazio profondo," a remake of Siegel's film, starring Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, and Jeff Goldblum. Kaufman's film is to date the most pessimistic and horrific version of the "saga." 1993. Abel Ferrara is at the helm of "Ultracorpi - L'invasione continua," a sort of sequel/remake of Siegel's film that receives a rather cold reception from both the public and critics. 2005. "Invasion," a series created by Shaun Cassidy, begins on TV, telling of an alien invasion following a hurricane. Although not directly connected to Finney's novel, the series "Invasion" reproposes the same characteristics and themes, with emotionless alien copies. Despite its excellent quality, "Invasion" did not receive the deserved public success and the series stopped at the first season, remaining incomplete. 2007. The Body Snatchers return, this time to the cinema. The film that re-proposes the famous invasion imagined by Jack Finney is "Invasion," a blockbuster directed by German Oliver Hirschbiegel. Despite maintaining an approach similar to the novel and the first film, "Invasion" strongly distances itself from the original plot and, probably, attempts to provide a socio-political reading of the events much more voluntarily than its predecessors, playing especially the card of existential reflection. It is incredible to note how every historically relevant decade from the late 1800s has had a cinematic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"; indeed, Siegel's film arrived on screens right in the middle of the Cold War and carried (perhaps unknowingly) very specific political messages, as did its successors, which also arrived at crucial moments. "Terrore dallo spazio profondo," the most pessimistic, moves in a scenario still shaken by the failed American intervention in Vietnam and is still inserted in a Cold War climate and significant social and cultural changes; "Ultracorpi - L'invasione continua" has on its shoulders an unpopular Gulf War and a massive reference to the military world. Hirschbiegel's film could not therefore delay in arriving, since the United States have been and are still shaken by a general climate of fear and fear of the different, suitable for a science fiction re-reading. But perhaps the story of the Body Snatchers, despite always having a certain underlying relevance, also tends to wear out over time, because this "Invasion" appears somewhat weak (as was Ferrara's film) when compared to its ancestors from the 1950s and 1970s. The main flaws of Hirschbiegel's film lie in the prologue and epilogue, i.e., precisely those parts that alone could decree the success or failure of a film. The epilogue is probably not even so "disastrous," because it more faithfully reflects the conclusion of Finney's novel, giving a hopeful and "almost" positive reading to the entire story, while condemning humans as imperfect and unworthy of existence. But it is especially the prologue, the introduction, that appears decidedly disappointing. The engine that triggers the action is the re-entry accident of a space shuttle, which could also seem like a good idea by recalling the memory of the Columbia shuttle accident that occurred in 2003, and riding the trend already inaugurated by the TV series of using a realistic incident (and taken from true chronicles) to announce the arrival of the threat. However, the disaster and the spread of the invasion are described with such haste and narrative incompetence that they seem almost artificial, as if they were a handful of scenes added in post-production to justify the beginning of the story. A substantial revision has been made to the method of "transformation" of humans. No more replicating pods, but a transformation of the organism hosting the spore at the genetic level. The danger of sleep has been emphasized so much that the most successful scenes of the film are precisely those that describe the protagonist's fear of falling asleep and her attempts to stay awake. The first-rate cast includes names such as Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, but while Kidman does great, giving her Carol Bennell the right doses of fragility and heroism, Craig does not appear very convincing, relegated to a marginal role as the story unfolds and visually out of place. Hirschbiegel's direction ("The Experiment;" "The Fall") is certainly valid, although it must be said that the director had no few problems with this film, to the point of being fired by Warner Bros before completing the shoot and being replaced by James McTeigue ("V for Vendetta") who completed the film taking care of the action scenes that, according to the producers, were few or inadequate. Paradoxically, "Invasion" works better precisely in the suspense and action scenes, so much so that one might think that for once the producers had a good eye. Great credit goes to the icy photography of Rainer Klausmann, who, thanks to gray and opaque tones, manages to perfectly render the climate of estrangement and mistrust. In conclusion, "Invasion" cannot certainly be defined as one of the best films in the Body Snatchers saga, indeed, we are faced with one of the least successful adaptations of Finney's novel; despite this, the film remains interesting and is appreciated for a good pace and a certain care in the staging. Curiosity. The actress Veronica Cartwright, who plays the patient in treatment with Kidman in the film, is a true enthusiast of the Body Snatchers saga. In fact, the actress had already appeared in "Terrore dallo spazio profondo" and in three episodes of the TV series "Invasion."