T's Take on Alien
Best
one
ever.
Next movie.
I seriously considered letting that be my review, but I'm sure M will pour more thought and insight into hers, and I fear her wrath.
Alien was my first real, hardcore, balls-out nerdy science fiction movie. It was delivered from my Father's quaking hands and into the VCR with the kind of relish and pride one would feel watching his adolescent son down an adult boar with naught but a sharp stick. I devoured it immediately and rewatched my favorite scenes at length until I had the dialogue memorized and every fleeting glimpse of the Alien itself ingrained in my mind. The pacing, the characterization, the dialogue, the very mythology this groundbreaking movie lays at our collective feet is astonishing to behold. My favorite scenes were never the gruesome or action(ish) bits - they were the underplayed silent portions where characters interacted with this believably big and complex hulk of technology. I could watch the crew groggily amble through hallways absent-mindedly flipping switches and pulling levers to manipulate that oblong spaceship all day.
The normalcy of Alien made it great. The relatability of the maintenance guys rolling their eyes and groaning when asked to do something, or the waves of tension that ripple through all levels of a team when their leader is weak... Company policy and aggravating protocol (which will inevitably be overlooked by employees when left to their own devices) paired with the simplicity of human intellect and the fragile nature of our bodies and minds. Truly, the goal of good science fiction is to point out the similarities between their fictitious circumstances and ours. The juxtaposition between piloting the Nostromo over an uncharted planet in the Whatever sector of blibbity-blah and watching the main characters bitching about shitty food and pay discrepancies in the mess hall is an easy and fun card to play.
I guess the worst part about reviewing movies you already love is finding things to gripe about. I suppose I could have done with more awesome violence. People like the Alien movies because they enjoy watching the perplexing and unique species interacting with people and whatever environment the narrative finds us in. At the same time, we keep coming back because we know so little. I'm content to let this sleeping dog lie. Death by space-creature is awesome.
Watch Alien.
Showing posts with label Sci-Fi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sci-Fi. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
M's Musings on ALIEN
Alien. Dir. Ridley Scott. Screenplay by Dan O'Bannon. Ft. Sigourney Weaver, Bolaji Badejo, Yaphet Kotto, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, and Ian Holm. 20th Century Fox, 1979.
**I should clarify that T & I watched the Director's Cut from 2003, which had (apparently) about four minutes of footage that was changed from the original.
A family member once described Sigourney Weaver to me as one of the most beautiful women in the world. When I confessed that I had no idea who she was, I was told she was the woman in the Alien movies. As will quickly become a recurring theme in these posts... I knew nothing about this film. Until today! She is indeed, beautiful. But, it seems to me, she can also demand to be heard, think on her feet, and survive an alien encounter (or two, or three!).
The dynamic between the different crew members on the film, largely separated by class, stood out for me as a point of interest. This crew was not bonded together in a thick-as-thieves kind of way. Each person performed their function, with only the repairmen, engineers Parker and Brett, showing a real sense of camaraderie. The "natural" submission of Brett to his superior officer is questioned by Ripley, who disagrees with his complacence and willingness to obey. I kind of liked that the two men stuck together against the badgering of the rest of the crew.
More to the point, I liked that the crew didn't "come together" as a result of the crisis. The characters do what they are told, but we don't learn about their wives back home, the children that they have never met, or any other personal details that allow us to bond with the characters or see relationships building between them. At all times, a sense of order was imposed by one officer or another. The crew seemed to generally follow the pecking order, and, after a loss or removal of a crew member, who re-jig the hierarchy based on the remaining group members. I found the whole thing quite without emotion, except for the occasional "OMG!" or "WTF?"
Even after Kane's face is raped by the Alien and it later explodes out of his chest, the crew offers few words of condolence or emotion as he is launched into space. In fact, only Lambert seems to be unable to keep her shit together. Her job at the beginning of the movie is to help chart our progress, and by mid film, her job is to snivel and scream and be passively taken by the Alien into his mucky-goo lair.
I also loved that though Ripley is protagonist of the film, this is not made clear until near the end. As she demands to be heard as she is overridden by the other characters, we follow their stories until they meet their timely demises. It isn't she that is the star of the film, she is simply the only one who makes it to the end. While we are meant to associate with her the most (cause really, we, the audience, would also make it through the ordeal) it is the wordless, evolving Alien that is only character that audience really connects with.
The interior and exterior of the ship were impressive. I loved the computer fortress room that was Mother. It was excellent that the two computers betrayed the humans, and particularly that the mother character was pithy, emotionless, and generally uninterested in the fate of hew crew.
I suppose my only criticism with the film is that the Alien itself was played by a tall black man. Bolaji Badejo, a Nigerian design student, was asked to play the role because of his height (7'2). The fact that his body was considered "alien" seems vaguely offensive. I suppose given technology restraints they needed SOMEONE to go into a suit, though so many of the earlier versions of alien seemed to be modeled on aquatic life, insects and animals. Why did the alien NEED to evolve to a vaguely humanoid shape? Are we afraid of something out there? Or, are we still expressing our fear of the other through projecting "alien" characteristics onto other human beings? Though I don't think this really is the ultimate goal of the film, it is still something to be aware of.
To end on a happy (but perhaps unrelated) note, I think the cat was the most alien creature in the film. Having recently inherited three kittens, I can't help but constantly be surprised by the actions they take and their general treatment of their "lesser" human counterparts. Why didn't the crew just do what it did? It managed to survive and get snuggles during the sleep-freeze process. Smart little bugger.
**I should clarify that T & I watched the Director's Cut from 2003, which had (apparently) about four minutes of footage that was changed from the original.
A family member once described Sigourney Weaver to me as one of the most beautiful women in the world. When I confessed that I had no idea who she was, I was told she was the woman in the Alien movies. As will quickly become a recurring theme in these posts... I knew nothing about this film. Until today! She is indeed, beautiful. But, it seems to me, she can also demand to be heard, think on her feet, and survive an alien encounter (or two, or three!).
The dynamic between the different crew members on the film, largely separated by class, stood out for me as a point of interest. This crew was not bonded together in a thick-as-thieves kind of way. Each person performed their function, with only the repairmen, engineers Parker and Brett, showing a real sense of camaraderie. The "natural" submission of Brett to his superior officer is questioned by Ripley, who disagrees with his complacence and willingness to obey. I kind of liked that the two men stuck together against the badgering of the rest of the crew.
More to the point, I liked that the crew didn't "come together" as a result of the crisis. The characters do what they are told, but we don't learn about their wives back home, the children that they have never met, or any other personal details that allow us to bond with the characters or see relationships building between them. At all times, a sense of order was imposed by one officer or another. The crew seemed to generally follow the pecking order, and, after a loss or removal of a crew member, who re-jig the hierarchy based on the remaining group members. I found the whole thing quite without emotion, except for the occasional "OMG!" or "WTF?"
Even after Kane's face is raped by the Alien and it later explodes out of his chest, the crew offers few words of condolence or emotion as he is launched into space. In fact, only Lambert seems to be unable to keep her shit together. Her job at the beginning of the movie is to help chart our progress, and by mid film, her job is to snivel and scream and be passively taken by the Alien into his mucky-goo lair.
I also loved that though Ripley is protagonist of the film, this is not made clear until near the end. As she demands to be heard as she is overridden by the other characters, we follow their stories until they meet their timely demises. It isn't she that is the star of the film, she is simply the only one who makes it to the end. While we are meant to associate with her the most (cause really, we, the audience, would also make it through the ordeal) it is the wordless, evolving Alien that is only character that audience really connects with.
The interior and exterior of the ship were impressive. I loved the computer fortress room that was Mother. It was excellent that the two computers betrayed the humans, and particularly that the mother character was pithy, emotionless, and generally uninterested in the fate of hew crew.
I suppose my only criticism with the film is that the Alien itself was played by a tall black man. Bolaji Badejo, a Nigerian design student, was asked to play the role because of his height (7'2). The fact that his body was considered "alien" seems vaguely offensive. I suppose given technology restraints they needed SOMEONE to go into a suit, though so many of the earlier versions of alien seemed to be modeled on aquatic life, insects and animals. Why did the alien NEED to evolve to a vaguely humanoid shape? Are we afraid of something out there? Or, are we still expressing our fear of the other through projecting "alien" characteristics onto other human beings? Though I don't think this really is the ultimate goal of the film, it is still something to be aware of.
To end on a happy (but perhaps unrelated) note, I think the cat was the most alien creature in the film. Having recently inherited three kittens, I can't help but constantly be surprised by the actions they take and their general treatment of their "lesser" human counterparts. Why didn't the crew just do what it did? It managed to survive and get snuggles during the sleep-freeze process. Smart little bugger.
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