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Reviews
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Overlooked Si Fi Triller
The 1978 remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is in many ways the equal to the original movie. Running a little under 2 hours, the story keeps your interest and has a few really creepy and scary scenes. As some other reviewers have pointed out, the music and cinematography were quite atmospheric.
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There are a few scenes that are quite startling including a replication gone bad between a dog and man and the disintegration of one of the characters as replication has completed. Once scene where Donald Sutherland's character is joyed to hear a ship in the harbor and believes it will offer him escape from the evil pod people. In the next scene we see his spirit crushed and hear him mutter "Oh God" as large pallets of pods are lowered into the hold of the ship. The ending provides a nasty shock as well and it is clear the future of humanity bodes ill.
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This film got some exposure in the early 1980's, but has since dropped off the radar screen. I remembered seeing it in the early 1980's and recently purchased it on DVD. It has a good cast of characters including Donald Sutherland, Brooke Adams, Jeff Goldbulm, in one of hist first big roles, Veronica Cartwright and Leonary Nimoy in a role as one of the pod people nasties.
Chato's Land (1972)
One of My Favorite Bronson Flicks
A tale of western revenge, "Chato's Land" has a cast of many well known actors including Jack Palance, Richard Basehart, Simon Oakland, Ralph Waite, Victor French and James Whitmore as well as Bronson in the lead role as Pardon Chato.
Chato is a half-breed Apache who makes the mistake of visiting a town that is hostile towards Indians. Being set upon by the sadistic town Marshall, Chato kills the lawman in self defense and must run from a posse of the town's people led by Jack Palance as Quincy Whitmore. Palance is excellent as Whitmore, an ex-Confederate officer who still longs after the excitement that comes from waging war. Leading the town's men in pursuit of Chato, Whitmore is decked out in his Confederate officer's jacket and plummed hat. Along with Whitmore is Nye Buell (Basehart) dressed in top hat and frock coat offering his whiskey laden salty commentary along the way. Simon Oakland also does a fine job as Jubal Hooker, the vicious elder of the degenerate Hooker clan who takes control of the posse from Quincy and ultimately cause the death of several of the posse members.
This movie has some beautifully set scenery that captures the harshness of the desert land that Chato takes refuge in. Whitmore comments that the harsh land is something that a white man would just damn off to hell and forget, but to Chato who doesn't ask much or take much from the land, it is almost a living thing.