Alien(1979)
With the release of Alien Covenant I decided to go back to the beginning atleast with the order that the films were released with 1979’s Alien directed by Ridley Scott.
This is the movie that basically put Scott on the map and made Sigourney Weaver a household name,Ellen Ripley an memorable character, and introduced moviegoers to a new big, bad, scary creature.
I don’t remember the exact first time I saw this movie but I do remember being a fan of it and continuing to enjoy it over the years and adding it to my film collection once I got into buying movies.
Alien has a great cast of character actors Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and led by Tom Skerritt, one thing that sets this film apart from the others in the series is the cast look and act like normal people who just so happen to be in outer space.
The movie opens with the crew awakening from a long cryo sleep as they are nearing their return to earth, when the ship receives a message from a nearby planet and they decide to go investigate what is out there.
Alien does something that most other sci fi films of the time didn’t really do which was take a simple idea and concept and turn it into much more, there has been a long debate about weather this movie is a sci fi movie or an horror movie, as a huge fan of horror films this clearly falls into the latter catagory.
The acting in this movie for the most part are all top notch, I feel that John Hurt in a small but memorable role, makes Kane a very interesting character and with this most recent viewing noticed there is a lot more to this character than what we were shown but unfortunately we don’t get to see more of him as he is quickly killed off.
Harry Dean Stanton as Brett could have been a throwaway character which he essentially is but Dean Stanton brings a lot to it with how aloof he is but at the same time isn’t as dumb as he comes across and this character could have been a relative of The Dude from The Big Lebowski since both repeat dialogue from other characters, and his death scene could be looked at as a metaphor for the overall underling of themes of rape, which I never noticed until now.
Yaphet Kotto does a very good job here as Parker, during a time when not to many black actors were given featured roles in horror or sci fi films the Character of Parker ranks up there with Duane Jones(Ben) from Night of the Living Dead and Ken Foree(Peter) from Dawn of The Dead, even though the character doesnt follow a lot of sterotypes that would become a stigma, the character does fall into a few especially in his final scene where he basically sacrifices himself for Lambert(Cartwright) a character who I always had issues with…
Sigourney Weaver is very good as the sole survivor of the Nostromo as she quickly becomes the main character once the killing off of characters begins and unlike Lambert, Ripley doesn’t crack in the face of danger, by the end of the film we can see why she became the face of the franchise later on.
Ridley Scott does a very good job here with his direction and creating an lived in world despite it being on a spaceship, it feels like these people have been out there for a while and we’re just getting a glimpse into their lives.
The Xenomorph itself is a perfect creature like Ash says, even though we don’t see it that much in the film, but when we do get a look at it boy is it scary, the practical effects are very well done, and Bolaji Badejo who was cast as the Alien brings the creature to life later in the film when he attacks Parker and Lambert. and of course during the finale of the film against Ripley.
Badejo slow methodical movements set this movie monster apart from others that came before it, and could be looked at as somewhat the inspiration with future movie monsters/creatures IE Predator and Split Second. Sadly Bolaji Badejo passed away in 1992, he didn’t continue on in films after the success of Alien but his performance here lives on.
All in all Alien is one of the most important and powerful movies of it’s time with introducting new themes to the sci fi and horror genres, making a star in Sigourney Weaver and, giving us two Iconic characters that will forever be linked in Ripley and the Xenomorph.
