Alien
(1979, Ridley Scott)
Ridley
Scott's career as a filmmaker has been filled with incredible
successes. Despite what proud accomplishments he can call his own,
there have been some bruises along the way. It seems that for every
Ridley Scott fan there is a Ridley Scott detractor, and for every
film used as an argument in support of the Englishmen, somebody can
present a solid case against him. One says Gladiator, another
says Robin Hood. One says Thelma and Louise, another
says G.I. Jane. People say American Gangster and both
the supporters and the detractors claim that as a case supporting
their respective opinions. Alien, the 1979 film, originally
from the mind of UCLA science-fiction fanatic Dan O'Bannon, is not
one such film to stir controversy. Granted, it may have its handful
of naysayers and those people may very well have their reasons, yet
for the most part the picture is considered a classic and a milestone
in science-fiction horror, principally because that meshing of the
two genres had never been done as effectively as when Alien
spooked the living daylights out of people back in the summer of '79.
The
Nostromo space craft is a large sized transportation module heading
back to planet Earth after prolonged mission. It crew have just
awoken from several months of hibernation, one of the most effective,
safest and healthiest ways apparently to complete space travel
requiring an extended period of time. There is the captain of the
vessel, Dallas (Tom Skerritt), second in command Ripley (Sigourney
Weaver), scientist Ash (Ian Holm), crew members Lambert and Kane
(Veronica Cartwright and John Hurt respectively,) and finally the
engineers who work the tired, dirty motor systems down below, Brett
(Hary Dean Stanton) and Parker (Yaphet Kotto). They gather together
for some food, laugh, complain about wages in some cases, but overall
things are running as possibly as one would hope. What had the ship
awaken the crew however was a signal received by the Nostromo
emanating from a nearby planetoid. The decision is made to venture
onto the mysterious, uninviting looking surface to search for the
origin of the call. Their discovery is both awe inspiring and
worrisome: a decrepit, near-mummified alien of unknown origin, eerily
carved cavern walls, and a large pool of sizable eggs, all of which
appear to be totally made of living organism rather than the typical
hard shell. When one of the eggs hatches and its newborn immediately
attacks Kane, it marks the beginning of a horrifying adventure the
Nostromo's crew could not have concocted in their worst nightmares...
Alien
is the film which helped make Ridley Scott a household name for the
next few years in his career. He was younger back then, working with
a smaller budget than on many of the movies he is known for today and
those may just be some of the essentials reasons why Alien is
and always has been such a remarkably effective horror movie. A word
used every now and then on this blog to compliment the quality of
work that went into the production of an excellent film is
'craftsmanship.' That word exemplifies nearly everything about Alien.
From the production design, to the effects, to the score, and even
the editing, Scott's picture feels as though it was a labour of love
whereby the cast and crew really invested everything they could so
far as individual talent, time, energy and money is concerned, this
despite the fact that the funds awarded to Scott by 20th
Century Fox were more restrained than was the case on many other
large scale productions at the time. In fact, it was only after
Scott, now famous for his own storyboards (affectionately named
'Ridleygrams'), showed studio executives the entire film via a
collage of storyboard drawing that Fox agreed to increase the budget
from 4 to 8 million dollars. Needless to say at this point, 33 years
after its initial release, that Alien has had a massive
cultural impact on people both within and outside of the industry.
From the design of spacecrafts in movies and even the aesthetic
presentation of future creature from outer space, Scott and his crew
made a breakthrough in science-fiction horror.
When
discussing the visual qualities of the picture, there are ostensibly
three critical elements which spring to mind. The first, and most
obvious is the alien antagonist itself. The second would be the
Nostromo and finally, even though the film does not spend much time
there, the planetoid from whence the alien came. The alien design,
courtesy of one H.R. Giger, a Swiss artist whose frightening drawings
of bio-mechanoid monstrosities were the inspiration for the titular
villain, is certainly one of the more unique, unexpected monsters in
film history. The cinematography smartly chooses to shyly reveal the
beast without overbearing visual cues so as to leave the audience
questioning (and fearing) what the devil the entire creature might
look like until the very end, yet constantly teasing us with iconic
peaks at either its head, its tails, and the second miniature head
with springs from its watery mouth and rams through its victims
skulls in a fraction of a second. Then there is the matter of how the
filmmakers choose to depict the creature from its birth all the way
to its death. Rarely before or even since then has a horror film
spent such care in elaborating the details about a monster's entire
life cycle. First the gooey egg, than a spidery-like face hugger
which inseminates a seed into a human victim through the mouth and
down the throat, followed by a baby monster which springs forth
directly through the host's chest and finally the tall, lanky beast
whose stealth abilities catch nearly everyone off guard, sending each
to a horrible death. Most people reading this article have more than
likely already seen the picture, and so the need to venture further
into explaining what it looks like is uncalled for. Writing on a very
personal level, the number of times I watch the film matters little
in the hopes that I shall ever feel totally comfortable in my seat
whenever it appears on screen in this movie. 5, 6, 7 times maybe, I
have lost count by now, yet that vision of death as designed by Giger
and brought to life by Scott continues to make me feel uneasy in the
1979 original.
The
beast in its fullest form appears a good hour into the picture,
leaving only the final 50 minutes or so for it to judiciously pick
off its victims one by one, which itself is one of the aspects about
Scott's film that makes it stand apart, the fact that it never seems
to be in any hurry whatsoever. The film is perfectly content to
presenting everything it needs to present in due time, no faster and
no slower. By today's standards, Alien can appear as a 'slow
movie' but sometimes the horror genre is at its most effective when
taking its time in building the unnerving suspense.
The
Nostromo is yet another wonder to behold, for its quirky
magnificence. Some corridor have their necessary blind spots (a
demand made by the scripts progenitor, Dan O'Banon while visiting the
set one day) and is a wonderful balance between light and dark. Where
the ship is dark, the audience quickly appreciates how 'real world'
and grimy the mechanics of the craft are. Regardless of however
fantastical the majority of the picture is, there is a level of
believability which inserts itself into this world. Suddenly, the
viewer can relate on some levels (of course the actors play a
significant part in allowing this to happen as well, lest that be
forgotten). Conversely, those brightly lit rooms have a
quintessential sci-fi flavour to them, what with the pale coloured
doors and walls, the plenty of lights and buttons to press,
characters talking to computer screens and the machine answering
back, etc. That balance of heightened science-fiction and down to
earth, nitty gritty detail pays off handsomely depending on where the
characters are and what they are doing at any given moment.
Finally,
the is the alien planet, or what we assume is the alien planet (they
may have come from elsewhere, mind you). It is so cold and looks so
strange, so foreign. The coup de grâce which never fails to give
viewers the shivers is when, as Dallas, Lambert and Kane are
exploring the terrain and sending video feedback to Ash in the
Nostromo, a bizarre, otherworldly vessel comes into view. Its
proportions are epic as can be seen in the shots from a distance when
the trio of explorers approach an entryway and are absolutely dwarfed
by this craft of unknown origin, their tiny headlights barely visible
in the shot at all. It looks like an incomplete disc of some sort,
yet its more terrifying aspects lie within its hallways, which
resemble far more damp caves carved out of a bad dream than they do
ordinary spacecraft passages. But then again, there is little
ordinary happening in this film.
Little
of the film's mesmerizing, unforgettable visual cues would matter as
much if the actors failed to inject any sense of characters into
their respective roles. What's so impressive about these performances
and, consequently, the characters, is that they are indeed more than
enough to present each of the unfortunate as real people. 'More than
enough' is the key idea here because the script, whether because it
deliberately tried to be different or completely forgot about some of
the basic screenplay tropes, does not even attempt to set up these
people in the slightest. Who is Ripley, where does she come from,
what has she left behind on Earth? So little information is provided
to the audience on those topics that it is only during the first act
of the sequel that some of those questions are answered.
Despite what the script avoids doing so far as character development
is concerned, the cast steps in and, through some of the subtle
choices, add a minimal level of depth to these individuals, at least
enough for the viewers to find them sufficiently interesting and,
above all else, worthy of empathy. If the viewer as shows any inkling
of wanting to see some of these people make it back home in one piece
as opposed to lying as decrepit corpses with their skulls bashed back
into their brains, most of that has to do with the performances and
much less with what is on the page.
That
concludes the marathon's first article. Come back later this week for
some more in depth appreciation of Ridley Scott's Alien
wherein we'll get into some of the minutia that repeat viewings begin
to reveal, and some of the more obvious details that simply make the
film such a wonder from the get go.
2 comments:
I finally saw Alien last month and I was impressed by its production value and suspense. It's really one of the great sci-fi horror films of its time and I think it still holds up.
It just makes me more excited for Prometheus.
@thevoid99: I'm ecstatic that you enjoyed the film. The suspense is virtually punishing by the film's climax!
Check out the other three films (of varying degrees of quality) and come back for the other reviews. I'd like to know what you think of the rest of the series.
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