The plot is more or less the same: A Bay Area health inspector discovers humans are being replaced by alien duplicates that possess none of the pesky emotions that make life lovely and unbearable.
Yeah, it's a remake, but Philip Kaufman's spin on Don Siegel's 1956 film (and Jack Finney's 1955 novel) trades Cold War anxiety for post-Vietnam paranoia in ways that strengthen and sharpen the source material. The plot is more or less the same: A Bay Area health inspector discovers humans are being replaced by alien duplicates that possess none of the pesky emotions that make life lovely and unbearable. A blessing, perhaps? It was hard not to live in a state of distrust following Vietnam, Watergate, Chappaquiddick, and the assassinations of JFK and RFK. The true horror of Kaufman's Invasion, though, is that acquiescence gives way to McCarthyism; in conformity, old friends become new enemies. Also, what's the deal with that Robert Duvall cameo?