Subject: Retrospective: Puppet Masters, The (1994)

From: Dragan Antulov <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 31 May 2003 06:06:55 -0000

THE PUPPET MASTERS (1994)

A Film Review 
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003

Some movies with great potentials can be ruined or denied their 
greatness by a single detail. THE PUPPET MASTERS, 1994 science 
fiction thriller directed by Stuart Orme is one of those films, although 
it could be argued that the detail in question was beyond filmmakers' 
control.

The movie is based on the 1951 novel by famous science fiction 
author Robert A. Heinlein (and quite similar to the Jack Finney's 
story that would later inspire INVASION OF THE BODY 
SNATCHERS movies). The plot begins in small Iowa town, 
apparently being visited by aliens in flying saucer. After initial 
sensation, the local media suddenly start treating the story as a 
simple hoax. Andrew Nivens (played by Donald Sutherland), head of 
government's super-secret Office of Scientific Investigation, doesn't 
think so and comes there accompanied by team that includes his son 
Sam (played by Eric Thal) and few agents. The town seems to be 
normal, but Dr. Mary Sefton (played by Julie Warner), NASA 
scientist borrowed to the team, can't help noticing the apparent lack 
of local men's attention to her cleavage. Upon further examination, 
locals seem to lack some of the basic human emotions and Nivens' 
team soon discover explanation in the form of alien mind-controlling 
slugs stuck to people's backs. The team manages to escape town, 
unaware that some of its members got infected.

Although not having particularly original plot, THE PUPPET 
MASTERS is one of the better examples of alien invasion sub-genre. 
The plot is simple, the characters are drawn in Laconic style and 
director Stuart Orme, best known for his work at British television, 
concentrates most of his effort on action scenes. Although the script 
seems subservient to action, some of its elements seem more realistic 
than other examples of the sub-genre - this time protagonists are 
government professional, and their leader, confidently played by 
Donald Sutherland, is no-nonsense Man in Black quite qualified to 
deal with the problem of such magnitude. Unfortunately, the script is 
burdened with huge problems - in situation when any person could 
be infected by huge alien slug on his or her back, there is an issue of 
identifying friends and foes. In the novel, Heinlein found simple 
solution for this problem by having protagonists be naked from the 
waist up all the time. Unfortunately, filmmakers, unlike Heinlein, 
had to deal with neo-Puritanical sentiments of 1990s Hollywood and 
MPAA's increasing intolerance towards nudity. That resulted in 
protagonist having to abandon common sense and apply more 
complicated and less efficient method, which in many ways 
destroyed much of THE PUPPET MASTERS credibility. However, 
those willing to ignore this flaw would be awarded by stylish, well-
acted, well-directed and in many ways bleak and serious science 
fiction film - something that was rarely seen in 1990 Hollywood, and 
is even rarer today.

RATING:  5/10 (++)

Review written on May 30th 2003

Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.purger.com/users/drax/reviews.htm - Movie Reviews in English
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Film Critics Society

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X-RT-RatingText: 5/10