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| Figure 1: Movie Poster |
Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979) is a film that has been
categorised as a classic science fiction and horror. The film is about seven
astronauts, who were on board a huge but dimly lit spacecraft called Nostromo. They
were heading back to Earth with the mineral ores they have extracted from one
of the planets. While on their way back, their machine on board, Mother, began
to detect some distressed signal. The spacecraft detoured and headed towards
the planet.
Upon reaching the planet, they
found an enormous abandoned spaceship from a group of astronauts who were there
before them. A dead alien was also found in it. Kane who was exploring the
lower deck of the spacecraft discovered a huge incubator filled with several
large alien eggs. He approached an egg that was cracking open for further
inspection only to have been tricked by the alien.
A baby alien leapt out of the
shell and attached itself to Kane’s face, knocking him unconscious. His fellow
mates came to his rescue and brought him back to Nostromo. Ash permitted them
inside the spacecraft despite Ripley’s rejection. The crew’s attempt to remove
the alien from Kane’s face proved to be unsuccessful because of the alien’s
acidic blood. Later on, the alien detached itself and the crew panicked as they
tried to search for it. Ripley’s concern became true when Kane reproduced an
alien that ripped him from the inside. Charles Cassady Jr. wrapped up the plot
of the film beautifully when he said “The crew struggles to kill the
fast-moving, fast-growing, unwelcome visitor before it gets them.” (Cassady
Jr., 2005)
H.R Giger, a Swiss surrealist
artist, was the amazing creator and designer of Alien. His concept of this creature
was scary because of the constant change in form and the fear of the unknown that
he was able to successfully relate to the audience. In agreement with Eggert,
he highlighted this in his review “Made
with uncommonly crafted skill to unsettle the minds and bodies of its
audiences, Alien is a profoundly influential work and a lasting classic.” (Eggert,
2012). This effort of Giger and his team paid off when the film won an Academy
Award under the category for Best Visual Effects.
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| Figure 2: Alien design by H.R Giger [Still Image] |
Like most sci-fi films made
before this, the world depicted in Alien also used miniatures and extended sets. This was successfully projected on
screen. In comparison to Kubrik’s 2001:
Space Odyssey (1968), it was also able to achieve realism that made the
audience believed that this is an existing world in outer space. Ross sums up
this point accurately when he said “A truly
remarkable film that hasn’t aged a day, thanks to the horrific and inspired
Giger design work, miniatures-based special effects and the tone Ridley Scott
created.” (Ross, 2012)
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| Figure 3: Extended Set of Alien [Still Image] |
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| Figure 4: Behind the Scene of Alien [Still Image] |
Not only
was this film a great combination of sci-fi and horror, it also had several cultural
context behind it. One of it was, at the time when the film was made, the
sexually transmitted disease was an epidemic. The alien creature was the
parasite that penetrated on Kane, the host. Ripley gave out orders for Kane to
be isolated and quarantined fearing that he might have been infected was
ignored blatantly by Ash. When Kane reproduced an Alien that later killed the
rest of the crew was a representation of how fast an infection spread and
affected others. In an article written by Franco, he agrees to this point by saying, “Audiences would relate to the need for quarantine
and sterilization, noting how this sexually transmitted parasite goes on to
destroy the crew it resides with.” (Franco,
2011).
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| Figure 5: Kane reproducing [Still Image] |
The more prominent cultural context
was that a woman played the main protagonist role. It was one of the critical
moments in United States history as women organisations fought for Equal Rights
that was a law later enforced.
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| Figure 6: Ripley in Spacesuit with a weapon at hand [Still Image] |
In
conclusion, this claustrophobic film was able to keep the audiences at the edge
of their seats throughout the film. As Derek Malcolm puts it “It
is, in fact, an audience reaction picture par excellence.” (Malcolm, 2009)
List of Illustrations:
Figure 1 Aliens (1979) [Poster] at http://www.blankmaninc.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/alien-movie-poster-1979.jpg accessed on 22 October 2013
Figure 2 Alien [Still Image] at http://derekwinnert.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/alien___h_r__giger_pitch___by_adonihs-d2xjobm.jpg accessed on 22 October 2013
Figure 3 Extended Set of Alien [Still Image] at http://www.blastr.com/sites/blastr/files/styles/content_panes_media/public/e48fd41c-4ac8-03a4-46b2-19747f75c636_large_0.jpg?itok=FGwwY5-5 accessed on 22 October 2013
Figure 4 Behind the scene of Alien [Still Image] at https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0UZJHD7NMOVz5zThSXWkHsrmzqoPicAKxbtQ9ZjURyNmvlSaijiTaOBbyOMz3hDbM9rEdv6g-fHPEFk2iDyW0HQAMSpYZQUMN7G-fvgIiXGtj8VUdImAQlfJ0egM_K52_7wIG3uwSq0I/s1600/2aabd499-4bcd-8a51-ed9c-71cab00f2c47.jpg on 22 October 2013
Figure 5 Kane’s Scene [Still Image] at http://4.bp.blogspot.com/- http://www.horror-movies.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/alien-610x258.jpg on 22 October 2013
Figure 6 Ripley in Spacesuit with a weapon at hand [Still Image] at http://borgdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/alien-space-suit-ripley.jpg on 22 October 2013
List of Bibliography:
Cassady Jr., Charles
2005
Alien
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/alien
Accessed on 22 October 2013
Eggert, Brian
2012
Alien (1979)
http://www.deepfocusreview.com/reviews/alien.asp
Accessed on 22 October 2013
Franco, Hector
2011
Alien (1979)- Film Analysis
http://ryuhawk.hubpages.com/hub/Alien-1979-Analysis
Accessed on 22 October 2013
Malcolm, Derek
2009
Derek Malcolm’s Alien Review from 1979
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/13/derek-malcolm-alien-review
Accessed on 22 October 2013
Ross, Jim
2012
Alien (1979)- Movie Review
http://moviefarm.co.uk/2012/05/28/alien-1979-movie-review/
Accessed on 22 October 2013
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