Alien [DVD] [1979]

 

 

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Director Ridley Scott once said of the film Alien that he wanted it to "Be like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre of science fiction".Alien though is way better than even that premise. The most singularly memorable experience i have ever had at a cinema( i tend to go to watch the films) i went to watch Alien in 1981 ( i was 17 ) some two years after it,s original release and even though it was in a local fleapit long since closed down i left the cinema reeling .This was the film i had waited all my life to see. A horror/sci-fi hybrid that was genuinely original and startling.
The idea for Alien came from the film "Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [1974]" which had been made by Dan O,Bannon and John Carpenter in 1974 . The film had an alien ( not a very scary or convincing but then it was that type of film ) invade a space ship and O,Bannon wanted to use that premise to make a new film but as a horror instead of a comedy. Years later working on the story for the film , provisionally entitled "Starbeast" ( luckily they abandoned that idea) he joined up with Ronald Shusett and through a number of differing ideas( usually filched from other films like "Forbidden Planet - 50th Anniversary 2 Disc Special Edition [1956]" which they freely admitted) they came upon the basic premise of Alien .
At that time science fiction was , thanks to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (Limited Edition, Includes Theatrical Version) [1977], all the rage so they had little trouble securing a deal to make the film with Brandywine productions aligned to 20th Century Fox. Brandywine led by Walter Hill and David Giler re-wrote the script making the dialogue more naturalistic ( one of the films great strengths it must be said) and introducing the character of the android Ash ( Ian Holm) with connections to the "company" who want the murderous alien taken alive for research purposes - something , which given that the ship "The Nostromo" ( named after a Joseph Conrad novel ) is returning to earth on a commercial venture, certainly rings very true.
Several things make the film work so effectively. The obvious one is the design of the alien itself - a truly shocking creation - but not just that but the life cycle of the creature, which has precedents in nature with it bursting forth from a living host exerts a truly primal fear of our bodies being invaded by a remorseless voracious entity. HR Giger , the Swiss artist who designed the overall look of the film had come to O,Bannons attention when he did pre-production work on a film version of the novel "Dune" ( later made by David Lynch) and once he showed Gigers work to director Ridley Scott they agreed that the films biggest problem -it,s look - had been solved. The bio-mechanical look
Scott was given the directors job because the studio wanted the film to be more than just a b grade creature feature and they had been impressed with his film "Duellists, The [1977]" .Scott,s approach to the film with detailed story boards led to the films budget being virtually doubled. The film was shot using old style models and Scott gave certain sections of the Nostromo a grimy industrial look , as befits a working environment.
This also tied in with the use of an older cast with Veronica Cartwright (Lambert) at 29 and Sigourney Weaver as Ripley at 30 the youngest. Tom Skerritt( Dallas) was 46, John Hurt (Kane ) 39, Harry Dean Stanton (Brett) 53, Yaphet Koto( Parker) 42 gave the crew a realistic working frisson ( especially as there was on set tension between the less experienced Weaver and other cast members) and aided the concept that they were looking for as "truckers in space". It also made the characters like ordinary working men & women( Brett and Parker griping about money and contracts) and therefore more likely to gain the audiences empathy.
The other notable departure for Alien was , of course , making one of the female crew members the heroine of the piece. The decision to make Ripley the most adaptable and one surviving member of the crew ( apart from Jones the cat) was a masterstroke creating one of the most iconic female characters in cinema history and giving subsequent sequels a defining story arc. Ironically Scott wanted the Alien to kill Ripley at the end of the film but he was overruled by the studio ( an all too rare case of them getting something correct ) who felt the creature had to die.
This DVD offers the viewer the choice of watching the original cut of the film or the directors cut complete with the much hyped Dallas cocoon scene. This cut is actually slightly shorter than the original release cut and i must say i prefer the original. There is also an excellent commentary by a cigar chomping laconic Scott and deleted scenes. This is a quality release in every way.
Alien is a film superb in every style of it,s execution. Scott gives us a faultless display of how to create terror and build tension. The use of light/ shadow and sound is exemplary proving the old maxim that in making an effective movie monster is about what you cannot see as much has what you can....although a good monster helps too.Has there ever been a better movie monster than the nightmarish xenomorph that stalks the Nostromo?Usually we wake up from a nightmare but in Alien the crew of the Nostromo are woken up by "Mother" and find themselves in one. The tag line for Alien said "In space no one can hear you scream". But we heard them alright and we joined in.

The title of this review is not an exaggeration. This is one of the movies which actually achieved perfection. There is not one flaw in it and nothing I could criticize. To the contrary, all the ingredients were mixed just to the right proportion to achieve the perfect mix: the story, the actors performance, the direction, the camera work, the lights (and shadows, especially the shadows!), the sound, the alien design and the music.

Let's begin with the story - it is very well thought and watertight. Everything happens on the board of "Nostromo", a giant spaceship which carries 20 milion tons of "mineral" (we are not informed what it is and it is irrelevant) and the whole plant that already "proceeds" it during the whole long trip back to Earth. The great idea was to make the "Nostromo" an industrial facility and the heroes the crew of a commercial spaceship. There is nothing here from the classical SF movies, such as clean neat uniforms, a half military half scientific crew of idealistic explorers, etc - no, here we have seven hard working people who are just trying to make a living. They wear practical working suits (even in space era, when you fix something, you just get dirty and sweating), think about their contracts, spend lot of times bitching about the work conditions and the food (especially the food), etc. And when the unexpected threat appears, they act like normal human beings - they desperately try to survive. That gives the movie an air of credibility and creates a bond between the viewer and the characters. Also, the industrial character of the ship gives an infinite number of hideouts to the unexpected and unwelcome guest...

All actors are just incredible. The cast is brilliant and it is worthy to remind it once more:

Tom Skerritt is captain Dallas
John Hurt is first officer Kane
Sigourney Weaver (incredible incredible performance) is second officer Ripley
Ian Holm (totally stunning performance) is medical/scientifical officer Ash
Veronica Cartwright is navigator/radio officer Lambert
Yaphet Kotto (totally impressive) is chief mechanician Parker
Harry Dean Stanton (an extremely brilliant and touching performance) is mechanician specialist Brett
Jones the Cat is playing himself - and he is performing very well too.

The work of the director, Ridley Scott, makes him one of the greatest movie makers ever. Every scene is perfect and flawless. If you saw "Blackhawk Down", think about the incredible quality of this movie and multiply it by factor ten - and you will get "Alien". What is it to say more? Nobody could do this movie better - not even James Cameron or Steven Spielberg.
All of above applies to the camera work - everything that should be shown is shown and more critically, everything that should be concealed (or half concealed) was concealed. There is not one miss.

The lights in "Alien" are in my modest opinion the greatest technical achievement in this field ever - no one managed to do more amazing tricks of the lights in any movie ever, before or since then. As stated above, "Nostromo" is an industrial plant AND a space ship - and for that reason (companies always cut costs) only what is absolutely necessary is fully illuminated and the rest is not. It gave the unique pattern of lights, half shadows, almost complete darkness and dark places which manage to create an atmosphere of pure terror, as I never saw before or since. It gets even better once the alarm lights start.

The sound is also a perfect achievement. As an industrial plant, "Nostromo" is never exactly silent - it hums, it sings this special industrial background noise, which gives an unique atmosphere. In some places (this is an old and very big ship) water is leaking, in others some unused chains are moved by air currents, etc. Once the alarm is sounded, the maestry with which this upsetting alarm sound is used is simply undescriptible.

The design of the creature was clearly inspired somewhere very very high - or deep deep below. A great number of horrors die when the creature is revealed, because most of monsters are simply ridiculous. Not this one!! When ultimately (and very briefly) we see the alien - it is nothing short of demoniac. In all of its forms. The same thing applies to the alien spaceship - it is so alien, that even though it is just an old wreck, it is simply terrifying. The alien radio signal is even better (or worse, if you prefer).

And last but not least there is the music - very discreet but just perfectly fitting every scene.

One more thing, about the deleted scenes - they are worth seeing, but I am finaly glad that they were not included in the movie. One of them, featuring Dallas and Ripley (and Brett, in a way) would actually put a black spot on this otherwise perfect movie. Still, good thing that they are included.

I usually do not write reviews that long and that histerically enthusiastic, but this movie is worth it. I saw it seven times at cinema (the first time I ran away in the middle - I was 13 and simply couldn't take it). This is a marvel, a wonder, a treasure. Get it and keep it.

Fans of Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction classic ‘Alien’ could surely not ask for a better DVD release than this. The ‘Star Wars’ films and Tim Burton’s ‘Planet of the Apes’ may surpass this release in sheer quantity of extras, but you really feel than time has been taken over making the contents of this DVD as interesting as possible.

I must confess to not finding this film scary in the slightest scary. As a result, I have been more interested in the first half, in which Scott deftly creates atmosphere and foreboding, and the intelligent script sets up the relationships between the characters with great subtlety. The film becomes a little more formulaic after the ‘chest busting’ scene, but there are still surprises, and I admire he way that Scott is content not to play all of his cards at once, never really revealing the alien completely. The film’s originality and brilliance are undoubtable.

The picture and sound on this DVD are uniformly excellent. The picture has been specially cleaned up, and the refined sound allows us to appreciate the dramatic contrasts that are created with the minutely detailed sound effects, particularly in the contrast between the noise of the planet, and the eerie silence of the ship.

Ridley Scott provides an interesting and informative commentary, in which he explains technical aspects of the film, as well as explaining how certain problems were solved within the budgetary constraints. He is full of anecdotes about the shooting of the film and about working with the excellent actors.

Other extras include some deleted scenes, most interesting of which is a scene in which Ripley visits the alien cocoon. It is easy to see why many of the scenes were left out of the finished film, as many are slightly superfluous, and in many cases, the characterisation which they were intended to bring is easily achieved in the completed film.

As well as some slightly repetitious trailers, there is some brilliant conceptual art work from H R Giger and others, and perhaps most surprising of all is the amazing set of storyboards drawn by Ridley Scott, which were good enough to convince the studio to double the film’s budget. There is also a set of production stills which effectively show the process of making the film.

Another rarely encountered feature is the option of isolated music track, which showcases the wonderful score by Jerry Goldsmith (although its similarity to his score for the same year’s ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ did put me off slightly), as well as the option for production sound track, which includes eventually unused music and pre mixed sound as the actors heard it, and it throws up a few previously unheard surprises.

Overall, this is a very good DVD of a very good film; perhaps my only wish is that there had been a ‘making of’ documentary. Ah well, you can’t have everything.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Alien 3 Is Now A Masterpiece !!!
Alien 3 (Blu-Ray) what more can you say this film has had some serious work done not only does it have an extra 30 mins perfectly incorperated into the film, but some of the... Read more

Published 21 days ago by Bowiee

5.0 out of 5 stars In space
The first and arguably the best. Where this wins in relation to its sequels is in the tension. Scott creates a tangible atmosphere of otherness that is completely believable,... Read more

Published 29 days ago by ratmonkey

5.0 out of 5 stars great film
great title at a great price. Only tging missing is a paper discrir from the insert. Arrived in good time.

Published 1 month ago by Martin L. Woodland

5.0 out of 5 stars HOSTILE ENTITY
The plot is slasher film simple. The crew of the Nostromo pick up a hostile being and it kills them one by one. Read more

Published 1 month ago by nelson viper

5.0 out of 5 stars Must watch, must scream!
The title exactly describes the role that this classic scifi movie has played in the arena of horror and dystopic vision of space-age. Read more

Published 5 months ago by RIJU GANGULY

5.0 out of 5 stars Creepier than I remembered.
`Alien' is a film that has stood the test of time remarkably well.

Following a crew on a large mining space ship, we see what happens to them when they pick up a... Read more

Published 13 months ago by Spider Monkey

5.0 out of 5 stars The only horror movie that actually scared me
The crew of the spaceship Nostromo is forced to investigate a crashed alien craft on an unknown planet. Something seems to have killed the alien pilot. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Ashtar Command

5.0 out of 5 stars In space no one can hear you scream
Alien is a flawless masterpiece by Sir Ridley Scott and a film I urge you to watch. It redefined the rules of science fiction and is a seminal film because it has Ripley (a woman)... Read more

Published 14 months ago by Mr. Craig Henderson

5.0 out of 5 stars And I usually hate sci-fi
Ridley Scott's alien is a masterpiece.The feeling of tension (where the silences are every bit as important as the dialogue)& isolation with desolate spacescapes giving the crew a... Read more

Published 16 months ago by Farry

5.0 out of 5 stars ALIEN RULES !!!!!
OK, i have to admit this movie scared the hell out of me and i'm 12. This definitive edition is awesome i love it !!!!, the special features are awesome. Read more

Published 17 months ago by Sam lewis

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