Alien
Directed by Ridley Scott
Screenplay by Dan O'Bannon
40 years after release and after becoming one of the most iconic scifi/horror franchises during that time, do I really need to tell you what the movie Alien is about? A deep space refining starship intercepts a mysterious beacon and is rerouted to investigate its origin. When they reach the planet it is emanating from, one of the crew is impregnated by an alien, whose progeny proceeds to kill off the crew one by one. Yeah, not the most complex of plots. In fact, I admire its purity.
It's the execution of the movie and the acting that elevate it to another level of filmmaking, that of a masterpiece. The filmmakers and the actors were at the top of their games.
Alien in some ways reminded me of the original Star Wars. What you had were two hungry directors who, technically, at least were virtuosos, in terms of framing and setting up scenes. You could tell the directors knew exactly what they wanted. Unfortunately for Lucas, the original Star Wars film was his last great one, whereas Scott moved on to do Blade Runner right after this.
All the actors are great, and I think it would have been a lesser picture if any of the cast had been played by anyone else. They just all seemed to fit the roles so well. I can't even imagine seeing Sigourney Weaver in this first film role back in the day. I mean she explodes off the screen with magnetism and sexiness and toughness. At a time when those kind of female roles were sadly lacking in any kind of action terms.
The visual designs of the aliens and their tech was done by HR Giger. Nobody can say that guy thought along the same visual and conceptual lines of regular human beings. He was so original that his designs SEEM alien but at the same time familiar to humanoid life.
The atmosphere of the film was greatly aided by the lighting and sound design, along with Jerry Goldsmith's score.
Scott used a lot of natural light, in the sense that when it's dark, the corridor is dark. It doesn't feel like he wanted any light that didn't belong there. For instance, when Dallas is trying to flush the alien out of the air shafts, the only lighting is from his flamethrower. Or when part of the crew visits the alien derelict, the light is only coming from the lamps on top of their helmets. There are lots of dark corners and spaces that make it more suspenseful.
The sound design also makes the film more tense. I don't know if most people notice but I can't remember a scene of the movie where I did not hear breathing. Whether it was wind travelling through the ship, or when the face hugger is on Kaine's face, or when the crew interfaces with the ship's computer, there is always the sound of some kind of respiration. And not in a zen like way. Almost in a sense that there is always something "out there", watching you, hunting you.
Of course, what needs to be said about Jerry Goldsmith, who is one of the greats, even 40 years ago, he was already a legend. Like HR Giger, in his soundscapes, Goldsmith was able to use the orchestra to make its instruments sound otherworldly and somehow instill dread, terror, beauty, and yes, even WONDER into the context of the film. It was just spot on the whole way through without EVER going over the top.
After watching the film, the next night I rewatched it with the commentary by the cast and crew and enjoyed just the same. They had almost everyone that worked on the film, except Yaphet Kotto, who played Parker. The director, the editor, the writers, and all of the actors chimed in on the making of the movie and its most classic scenes. Oh, Ian Holm wasn't on it. Weaver, Skerritt, Stanton, and Cartwright were though.
I think its incredible that one director in two movies made two of my favorite and critically lauded scifi films of all time. Both Alien and Blade Runner were movies I watched over and over on my dad's laserdisc player back in the 80s. Even that young, I could sense how special they were.
This blu-ray features both the original 1979 theatrical release and the 2003 directors cut with Jerry Goldsmith's eerie score possible to isolate on both. Ridley Scott added in about 12 minutes of new footage to the directors cut.
The great thing about Alien is that everyone knew they were making a monster movie. But somewhere along the way, the entire cast and crew realized they were so good that they elevated it subconsciously or consciously into a great work of art.
My Grade: A+
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