Subject: REVIEW: THE PUPPET MASTERS

From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 1994 17:04:17 GMT

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			    THE PUPPET MASTERS
		      A film review by Mark R. Leeper
		       Copyright 1994 Mark R. Leeper

          Capsule review:  THE PUPPET MASTERS is a no-holds-
     barred alien invasion film.  It is a dark and humorless
     exercise in which virtually every scene advances the war
     between humans and parasitic, mind-controlling aliens.
     Robert Heinlein's 1951 novel comes to the screen in a
     film that takes little time away from the main plot to
     develop its characters, but does strike home with a
     story of a hard-fought battle with a fairly alien and
     devious enemy.  Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4)

     The obvious comparison to make would be between THE PUPPET MASTERS
and the three film versions of Jack Finney's BODY SNATCHERS.  That
would probably not be accurate, however, since this film is about the
aliens possessing humans rather than passing for them.  But the
paranoid, trust-nobody spirit is much like that of those previous
films.

     An alien craft lands in the rural town of Ambrose, Iowa, and
authorities rush in to investigate, only to find that the locals all
now claim that the landing was a hoax.  In this case the authorities
are two agents of a scientific sub-agency of the CIA: Sam (played by
Eric Thal), the head of the agency, and Andrew (Donald Sutherland).
Also along is an expert borrowed from NASA, Mary (Julie Warner).  They
quickly determine that there is good reason to believe the landing was
indeed authentic.  And shortly afterward they also determine that
humans are being mentally possessed by slug-like aliens who hide on
humans' backs and tap into the nervous system to enslave the hosts.
The number of people possessed in this way increases super-
exponentially.

     If one compares THE PUPPET MASTERS to any version of THE BODY
SNATCHERS, one finds the emphasis very different, and, in fact,
different from most other science fiction films.  In the earlier films,
the time is taken to establish who the characters are and to provide a
context for their actions.  This is a film in which things start
happening in the first minute of the film and from that point on
virtually every scene is devoted to the conflict.  The people never
stand around and talk about each other long enough for the script by
Red Elliot, Terry Russo, and David Goyer to develop their character.
This makes for rather flat characters but a very tense film.  Their
script also "downdates" the story, moving it into our present.
Heinlien's 1951 novel set the story in a 2007 when interplanetary
colonization was already well under way.  That and perhaps budget
constraints limit this invasion to just a first foothold in a limited
area.  Perhaps that is more realistic than the novel, but it also
leaves open the unspoken possibility that if it came to a question of
human survival, the alien menace could be ended with a few carefully
placed nuclear weapons.  A few other changes are made to keep the film
consistent with its present or near-future setting.

     Under Stuart Orme's direction THE PUPPET MASTERS is a film that is
fact-paced and yet very dark and somber in tone, reminiscent of John
Sturges's SATAN BUG.  Donald Sutherland plays his role as the head of
the security agency with a sinister dignity.  As a man supposedly
without emotion, he speaks always in hushed tones which only add to the
tension.  Eric Thal, who was Ariel in A STRANGER AMONG US, plays a
character similarly dedicated to his purpose and similarly one-
dimensional.  It must be disheartening for Thal to be the film's
ostenstible main character but to be outacted by ten-inch slugs from
the special effects department.  The slugs, incidentally, are
sufficiently alien and repulsive as well as being reasonably convincing
as effects.  Julie Warner also is given more distress than personality
by the script.  The design of the film goes slightly downhill from a
rather beautiful celestial event at the beginning to scenes of alien
architecture that look a bit cheesey in spots.

     THE PUPPET MASTERS is a nail-biter with some good moments, but
will probably be easily over-shadowed by the upcoming FRANKENSTEIN and
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.  It gets a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					[email-masked]