Directed by Ridley Scott
Expectations: I love this shit.
I’ve never been much of a Ridley Scott fan, but goddamn if Alien isn’t a stunning, amazing piece of work. It’s undeniably one of the greatest genre films of all time, perfectly bridging the gap between science fiction, horror, and psychological thriller. There’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said about Alien, and even noting that everything’s already been said has been said ad infinitum. But still, I would like to share just a few of my observations during this most recent re-watch of one of my most favorite films.
When I was a kid, I watched this film several times, and its haunting, realistic, slow build-up to the reveal of the alien ship thoroughly grabbed me and refused to let go. To this day, this first hour or so of Alien is still my favorite, even though the Alien isn’t around yet. I enjoy this section for its ability to create a world, and give the characters a mystery to uncover that we can follow along with. These are just space truckers who got shafted; they are you and me thrust into the deep black of space and asked to investigate an alien ship. Ridley Scott’s camerawork is nothing short of perfect here, blending static, gorgeously composed shots with video footage from the ground team entering the ship. Just the use of video footage alone is ahead of its time and wonderfully effective, proving the point I was trying to make in my review of Chronicle about how the method of acquiring the footage is in certain cases directly proportionate to its ability to draw you in.
Whatever they didn’t spend on sets surely went to the FX work, because, once again, goddamn do they look good. There are definite moments where the age shows through, such as matte lines and obvious “dude in suit” shots, but 99.9% of it is the stuff of legend. As my favorite section is the discovery phase, it’s only natural that my favorite FX in the film come during this period. There’s just something about those eggs that always makes me crack the biggest grin I can and say stupid shit like, “Goddamn, this movie is dope.” But that said, the xenomorph’s mouth shot during Yaphet Kotto’s death scene is so fucking gnarly and awesome. I love this movie so much that I’m reduced to just listing the awesome points without any real insight or depth.
Another thing that strikes me about Alien is its approach to characters. No one is introduced traditionally and the film does nothing (except for flash a few pertinent details about the ship on-screen at the opening) to attempt to ease you into this futuristic world. Like a great Philip K. Dick story, it just drops you in mid-stream and you’ve got to hit the ground running. This is my favorite style of science fiction writing, and it’s employed so incredibly well here. The film isn’t a true science fiction piece, as it’s not really built around any specific scientific idea, but it uses elements and the iconography of the genre superbly. But as I was trying to say before I nerded out on sci-fi, the characters slowly grow over the course of the film, but none of them are singled out as main or secondary characters. The focus is on John Hurt, Tom Skerrit and Ian Holm for most of the first half, but everyone is given time to shine. This makes the transition to Ripley as the lead character that much greater, as it happens slowly and subtly over the course of the film. This makes her status as the “final girl” in this space horror film something of a revelation.
Alien took the genre film to the next level and gave us one of the most iconic film monsters of all time. I know this isn’t the type of review you might have wanted from me, but for films I’ve seen so many times and love so dearly, it’s hard to sit down and take a truly objective stance. I’m too far into the fanboy camp on this for the review to be anything else. I love this fucking movie, and it only gets better every time I see it. If you haven’t seen it, stop fucking around and get on it!