Alien (1979) - Film Review
Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm & John Hurt
Screenplay: Dan O'Bannon
Directed By: Ridley Scott
Certificate: 18
If
you're one of the few people out there that enjoys their sci-fi, but isn't exactly a fan of the Star Wars series, you
still have a lot to thank the first 1977 Star Wars film
for. The immense success that George Lucas found with it not only
marked the beginning of a gigantic media franchise, but also
rekindled Hollywood's love of space and science fiction. It gave way
for a whole new bunch of sci-fi films to be made, one of them being
Alien, which was released just two years later. While
not exactly as successful as Star Wars, due to its far
more adult and mature content, it still marked the beginning of
another sci-fi franchise that continues to exist today. Alien
was the film to start it all, so does it still hold up after
all this time?
In
2122, commercial starship Nostromo is returning to Earth when its
seven-member crew is awoken from stasis. They have been awoken after
the ship detected an unknown transmission coming from nearby
planetoid LV-426. Contractually obliged to investigate, the crew land
on the barren planet to track down the source of the signal. A small
investigation crew is put together and ventures outside, where they
discover a derelict alien spacecraft full of large egg-like objects.
When one of the crew is attacked by a living organism from one of the
eggs, the others do their best to help but it may already be too late
for all of them...
Through
our modern eyes, it can sometimes be easy to look back on ambitious
blockbuster films that are released around the same time as Alien,
and pass comments on their production values. However, with Alien
itself, there's really no room for that, as more than thirty-five
years later, its production design still entirely holds up. It still
looks absolutely brilliant – the inside of the Nostromo itself is
surprisingly expansive and doesn't feel a million miles away from
something we'd expect to see from space travel today. You've got the
bright whites of the stasis chambers, the compact living areas, as
well as the dark and shadowy areas of the ship. Meanwhile, the
planetoid we land on, LV-426, is made to feel as alien and hostile as
possible with its dusty howling winds, darkness and emptiness. The
production plays a lot off the familiar trope of “In space,
no-one can hear you scream”, which is also the film's tag-line
in its promotional material. There isn't a single point whilst
watching Alien where you feel comfortable or at ease,
and this is really testament to how much skill went into making the
film.
Coupled
with this is a striking sense of gritty realism and isolation that
runs throughout. Rather than glossy and idyllic sci-fi, Alien
presents us with hard realism best seen in the Nostromo itself. It
feels lived in, and whenever we're with the crew sitting and having
something to eat, it doesn't feel like we're watching a movie but
just the day-to-day life of these seven people. Now that is how you
immerse your audience into the world you've created. The crew even
have their own believable and individual roles – the captain, the
warrant officer, the navigator, the technician, the science officer –
they all feel part of a working system. Something else that creates
immersion is the fact that there's no clear main character among them
for the majority of the film. While we now associate the Alien
franchise a lot with Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, it isn't until the
third act, when the alien is on the loose in the Nostromo, that she
emerges as our main character.
Of
course we can't talk about Alien without also
discussing the alien itself, the now-famous xenomorph. H.R. Giger did
a simply wonderful job in its creation, as the xenomorph is just
terrifying and fully deserves its now iconic status. It's the
ultimate movie alien. Ridley Scott also knows exactly how to direct
the alien, as we barely get a decent look at it at any point in the
film. It's always secluded in shadows or steam, but the gaps we're
left to fill in with our own imagination make the alien even more
terrifying than if we had got to properly see it. When we do get to
see it, the alien is one intimidating creation and I know I sure
wouldn't want to be stuck in a room with one. The latex suit looks
terrific, and you can pick up on a disturbing layer of sexual imagery
within this alien. The way it uses and kills humans is uncomfortably
intimate – the parasitic facehugger from the eggs shows parallels
to male rape as it attaches itself to your face, forces its way down
your throat and lays its own eggs there. The alien is then born in a
violent explosion from the chest (another gruesome and brilliant
iconic scene, and credit must go to John Hurt's performance). The
fact that we learn all of this along with our main characters
heightens the suspense for what may be about to come next even
further. Even when the alien is born and grows into a full-fledged
xenomorph, the violent sexual imagery doesn't stop there. There's
something about its body that appears vaguely feminine, yet the head
resembles a giant phallus, and later in the film, it even appears to
kill one of the crew anally.
A
big part of the fear we get from the xenomorph also comes from the
powerful performances we're given from our main cast. Everyone here
is excellent and is able to put across a whole range of emotions over
the course of the film. When it comes to making me understand how
dark and terror-stricken the Nostromo crew must feel, it's perhaps
Veronica Cartwright who stands out the most as Lambert. The most
fearful and emotionally struck of the crew, her reactions and fear of
the alien feels so real and genuine – partly because, at least in
the chestburter scene, it is, given that none of the actors knew it
was going to happen. With their constant worries about whether or not
they're going to be paid their shares, Harry Dean Stanton and Yaphet
Kotto as Brett and Parker respectively, add yet more realism to the
film as well as making for an entertaining duo. John Hurt is as great
as anyone would expect, Tom Skerritt makes an impression as Dallas,
while Ian Holm is remarkably convincing as both a serious science
officer and as an android. However, it is of course Sigourney Weaver
who steals the show as Ripley. Now one of the most famous and loved
characters in film history, Ripley is just a phenomenal character,
and honestly one of my favourite characters in any kind of field of
entertainment. At first it appears that the position Ripley's in by
the end of the film is just the result of luck and chance, but even
early on when there's no clear-cut protagonist, there are hints of
that being there. When the facehugger attaches itself to one of the
crew, she's the only one who's really adamant that they shouldn't let
it back onto the ship, and even when studying the organism later, she's
insistent that they should get rid of it, although Ash protests. It's
refreshing to see a character who just gets stuff done and is very
clear-cut on what they believe, and even more refreshing, given the
year in which Alien was released, to see a woman in the
heroic lead role by the end of the film.
As
for the end of the film itself – blimey, it's impressive. Up until
the ending, Ridley Scott had shown masterful use of suspense and
ever-looming dread. It was full of such little hope, to the point
where it was almost nihilistic, and full of enough suspense that it
would make Alfred Hitchcock jealous, and that suspense pays off
beautifully. The ending of Alien turns what was
previously a desperate situation into something that looked like it
had just come from hell itself. (Spoiler Warning!) As the last
of Ripley's crewmates are picked off by the alien, she finds herself the
last survivor. Somehow the idea that Ripley is now so alone on this
massive ship that it's just her and the alien, the film becomes more
isolated and fear-inducing then it had managed before, and I could
not be any more on the edge of my seat. Sirens wailing, steam and
harsh flashing lights obscuring any kind of decent view, the fact
that there's just minutes to go before the ship destructs ... once
again, the pay-off from that suspense is just perfect. Even when
Ripley, and by proxy the audience, feel safe once they're away from
the ship, Ridley Scott lures you into a false sense of security and
shows to you that the fight isn't over yet.
So
what else can I possibly say about Alien? It's a
masterpiece of cinema and an absolute classic for all the right
reasons. It's one of my favourite films, and finds a perfect blend
between horror and science fiction. It spawned its own media
franchise consisting of sequels, prequels, crossovers with different
movie series', merchandising, etc. etc. It all began here, with what
a lot of people consider to be the strongest Alien film
(although for me when its first sequel, Aliens, came
along, it somehow managed to be even better). If you haven't seen
this film yet, then you've heard what I have to say about it, and it
is absolutely worth checking out.
Alien
10/10