Alien. Title says it all really. I mean, you know when you're about to watch this film that it's highly unlikely to be some teen-comedy-chick-flick. And with an 18 certificate you know it's not going to be for the faint-hearted either. Nope, this is a film where you know what you're getting right away. Or do you........?
Released in 1979 and directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Walter Hill, Alien is a film that was pretty much unique for its time: a sci-fi film that didn't portray a happy, all-is-well antiseptic version of the future. Right from the opening shots of the film where we are given a guided tour of the Commercial Towing Vehicle Nostromo, you can see that the future is ever-so-slightly dirty, and possibly depressing. We are told that the Nostromo is returning to Earth towing a refinery which is processing 20 million tons of crude oil - in this future, the Earth's natural resources are exhausted, and we're now importing from outlying worlds.
The story is a reworking of the classic movie "Lifeboat" with a slight difference - an added passenger. Halfway home, the Nostromo is diverted to investigate a strange signal coming from a
small moon orbiting a large gas giant. Once on the planet, a member of an away team is attacked by an alien facehugger, which unknown to his colleagues implants an embryo inside him. After returning to the ship and apparently recovering, the crewmember (played by John Hurt) "gives birth" to the beast in one of cinema's most truly memorable scenes. The creature evades capture and grows rapidly, then begins killing off the remaining 6 crew members one by one. They can't kill it, as its acid blood will eat through the hull of the spaceship, so their weapons are useless. And that's pretty much it.
There is so much to write about in this film that it's difficult to know where to start. Firstly, Ridley Scott. Gladiator and Blade Runner be damned, he's NEVER directed a film as well or as succinctly as this one. Once the alien has been revealed, Scott creates an enormous tension. Every nook and cranny is dangerous, every shadow a threat. In the widescreen version of the film, the backgrounds become even more dangerous - any scene with 2 or less characters present has an open door, or a hatch, or a corridor, or a ventilation shaft in the background, out of which the beast could appear at any moment. The claustrophobic scene where Dallas (Tom Skerritt) goes hunting through ducts for the creature is absolutely numbingly terrifying. Scott terrifies his audience by doing absolutely nothing - he lets his sets do his work for him. Most important though is his handling of the alien itself. Once the alien is adult-sized, you hardly ever see it - it is the threat of its presence which conveys its menace. only in 2 very, very short shots do you see the creature in its entirity. It is kept elusive and mysterious - just as it should be.
Secondly, the cast. There are only seven humans, a cat and a beastie. All are excellent, and no-one is bad. Particularly good for me are Yaphet Kotto as the engineer Parker, Sigourney Weaver as Ripley (obviously), and the under-rated Veronica Cartwright as the perpetually-scared navigator Lambert. ALL should have been oscar nominated.
Thirdly, the set and costume design. I've already alluded to Scott's use of the sets to hide and scare, but they are also absolutely HUGE: the chambers in the derelict spacecraft found by the away team (one is a matte painting), and a couple of the rooms in the Nostromo are so big as to be almost Cathedralesque (if that's not a word, then it should be). All just set off the mood of the film perfectly. Also, the alien design (by the very weird Swiss artist H.R.Giger) is one of the greatest creations in sci-fi history - a truly terrifying beast with a magic and power all of it's own. No other sci-fi alien will ever be as scary as the feared "bug" of the Alien Saga movies.
Fourthly, the music. There's hardly any. During the ultra-tense "search" sequences, no background music is used at all - just the natural sounds of wind, chains clanking, and dripping water are used to convey the menace of the environment. What little added sound we do experience is eerie and unsettling, just like the film. Too many films are spoiled by over-enthusiastic soundtracking, and Alien, with hardly any, is the perfect example of how a director can use the soundtrack to great effect.
This film was a masterpiece of its time, and as sci-fi horror goes, has yet to be beaten, and I doubt it ever will. One of my ambitions in life is to see Alien in a cinema, not just on video or TV, in order to experience the full impact of the movie. It's fascinating, it's terrifying, and it even seems distinctly plausible. Follwed by 3 sequels (Aliens is just as good, Alien 3 is weak, Alien Resurrection not bad), Alien spawned dozens of rip-offs and clones that just couldn't hold a candle to Ridley Scott's dark master. My favourite film of all time, I STILL experience nightmares caused by this film.
So this is the challenge: are you brave enough? I hope you are. You'll never go anywhere in the dark again once you've seen this...........
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Superb review! I'm ashamed to say that I only saw Alien for the first time this year, but it's way up at the top of the list of my favourite films now.
l-m-n-o-p 24.07.2005 19:20
I've only seen it on TV and that was on a poor quality VHS, but it was still brilliant. Right up there with Halloween as scariest film ever. Good review ~ Pete.
RippedoffPete 26.01.2004 03:45
Very good review. I'm old enough fortunately to have seen this film at the cinema when it was first released in 1979, and believe me the eerie atmosphere that the film portrays was magnified tenfold, compared to watching it on TV. An enthralling experience from start to finish.
By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together ... more
with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi withAlienthat, despite the passage of years and countless ...
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By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together ... more
with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi withAlienthat, despite the passage of years and countless ...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
Alien is the first movie of one of the most popular sagas in science fiction history, and ... more
introduces Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, the iron-willed woman destined to battle the galaxy's ultimate creature. The terror begin when the crew of the spaceship No...
Alien is the first movie of one of the most popular sagas in science fiction history and ... more
introduces Sigourney Weaver as Ripley the iron-willed woman destined to battle the galaxy's ultimate creature. The terror begins when the crew of the spaceship N...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Excellent presentation of the film itself in terms of both image and sound; comprehensive photo gallery; interesting interview with James Cameron. Disadvantages: No Director’s Commentary; only one trailer included; no music audio options — essentially, this is not an extras-lite DVD, but it simply has nowhere near as much content as the Alien DVD it follows.
![Alien [DVD] [1979]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78531320.jpg "Alien [DVD] [1979]")
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