The year is 1979. While I'm busy being born, some people are busy being eaten...in space. The circle of life must go on I guess. Let the interstellar feast of human flesh begin.This movie is Ridley Scott's first attempt at science fiction. He would only attempt it twice, with the second one being 1982's infamous "Blade Runner". Judging by the stinkers he directed after these two movies (before recovering with "Thelma and Louise"), it might be a blessing he didn't delve into science fiction any further. He proves one of life's deeper truths (am I really typing this now?? I didn't know I was so wise... I just made myself laugh with my own comment about myself). Almost all of us homo sapiens truly shine for very brief moments which are far and few between, while most of the rest of what we do is simply "OK", if not utter crap. A lot of the time we simply occupy space and use up oxygen. Perhaps I shouldn't be so hard on Lucas after all, he IS just a man like Scott...Nah!! Jar Jar Binks has traumatized my soul irrevocably, in a child-abuse type of way. I HATE YOU George Lucas!!! But I digress. I guess I could finish this review right here, I've already called the movie I'm reviewing a classic, but I'm definitely NOT a man of few words. You, my imaginary (for now) public, deserve to know more about this film.
Visually, this movie is still very effective even by today's standards, although it has aged a bit by now (and not in a way like, say, wine ages). When it comes to showing you the larger things in life like, uhm, space, it doesn't do too bad, but I do have a few gripes with it on a few points. The main spaceship appearing in the movie, the "Nostromo", and the "ore" refinery it's towing, are both introduced in a slow, sideways, swooping take at the beginning of the movie to make them seem humongous (a cinematic technique that had become the norm for introducing supposedly immense spaceships through Kubrick and Lucas by that point and would later be made fun of by Mel Brooks in "Space Balls"). However, they just don't have enough detail for me to convince me of their size. Common ways of making things look bigger than they truly were (you would be surprised how small these models some times were compared to the vast sizes they were trying to portray on screen) were putting a lot of detail in the sculpting of the model, using enough miles of optic fibers to light up a small town on the inside of the models, so the tips of the fibers would pretend to be the little lit up windows of the ship and finally, super-imposing recordings of the actors moving about on the sets that were supposed to be the decks and rooms of the ship on areas of the model with larger windows, so you could see the tiny people move inside the window and go "oh, cool". In my opinion, the "Nostromo" just doesn't have enough detail in its sculpting, it doesn't have nearly enough of those small lit up windows and when you see the tiny people through a deck window, it looks kind of fake. It is still exceptionally good by any standards, but it had been done better multiple times before (look at the mother ship in "Close Encounters", it has enough lights on it to blind you, you need sunglasses just to glance at the damn thing even on a TV screen...Yeah, Spielberg took things too far quite often).
The movie, in my v
iew, holds up much better when it's presenting the smaller things in life (well, smaller compared to a mile long "ore" refinery the "Nostromo" is towing anyway), like the many claustrophobic rooms and corridors of the inside of the spaceship, small parts of an alien planet perpetually covered in fog and stormy weather and parts of a craft they find there (It's so hard trying not to spoil a movie when talking about movies this old, because you need to tiptoe around scenes that are classics, but I will still try not to spoil it anyway, just in case some people haven't watched this movie and want to do so. Oh, the sacrifices I make for you). The inside of the "Nostromo" is amazingly done with an affinity for attention to detail. The lighting is often unnaturally dim or even dark, but this IS supposed to be a horror movie in space, so we will excuse the artistic licenses taken by Scott to make things dark so he can scare us shitless. Thank you, sir. The alien vessel they encounter on a planet far, far away looks very alien-y and they have managed to make it look frighteningly beautiful and quite vast, considering it's just a set with matte paintings in the background. Kudos to you sir, again. You managed to make me scream like a little girl being touched inappropriately in this scene, too. I guess the planet they are on looks good too, but its so constantly covered in fog and rain that you can't see much of it. That probably makes it more convincing than seeing it in normal daylight (which would probably show the many imperfections of the set) and certainly adds to the poop-your-pants atmosphere or perpetual fear that something horrible is about to happen around every corner. The one thing I have to note as showing a lack of foresight are the spaceship's screens. They are obvious, chunky, conventional curved-like-a-ball CRT screens and the geeky things they are showing (random numbers and astronomical maps etc.) are obviously playing from overused VHS tapes. Those damn future corporations must be so stingy that they still use CRT screens showing fake information off of VHS tapes to make the crew believe they are doing something important. Cheap bastards. And whenever something is calculated from a computer in the "Nostromo", the computer makes a sound that goes like "chunkuh-chunkuh-boing-boing". What is this? Future space travel or a saturday morning cartoon??
But the 'pièce de résistance' (Yeah, I'm so refined) of this movie is the Alien itself that wants to munch on everyone's brains. Originally this alien started as very likable to me. You see, I was raised with two grannies close by, both of which wore dentures they would occasionally take out of their mouth to make me laugh and they would sometimes also drool, especially while sleeping (uh, my sweet grannies). Anyone that has seen this movie can see the parallel I'm drawing quite easily (or I'm just nuts and I just compared my grannies to a killer alien from outer space with acid for blood). However, you will very quickly realize that this alien is not an "E.T." version of your beloved senile granny. It drools and takes out its teeth so it can bite your head off, preferably in dim, enclosed spaces with spooky sounds being heard in the background and multiple people screaming at the inhumanity of it all. I'm suddenly very, very afraid of my grannies now, especially as they sleep drooling at night, with their dentures almost falling out of their mouths...In all seriousness, this movie has the same premise as a 50s rubber-suit monster B-movie. The alien IS technically a guy in a mostly rubber suit (although they did use everything from Rolls Royce parts to a cast of a real human skull to make it look more realistic) (Not kidding about the Rolls Royce parts, seriously). However, the way that the lighting, sound, atmosphere, endless amounts of fake sweat and drool are combined, along with the way the alien is shot, result in producing one of the most menacing beings ever shown on film in one of the most successful science fiction horror movies, while avoiding the rubber hilarity of those older B-movies.
The soundtrack
of the movie is very minimal, but very effective. Apparently, Jerry Goldsmith (one of the giants of cinema music) wrote a more lush score, but Scott decided not to use it quite that much. In any case, the final result works in a giving-you-nightmares kind of way. The acting is of note in this movie, too. It appears to be very realistic and the dialogues have a very natural flow. It would seem that the actors were given some freedom to improvise and roll with it. These are not the clean-cut people of "Star Trek", they are real human beings, scum just like the rest of us, smoking, swearing, flirting and the likes. The film is also notable for introducing the female heroine, paving the path for many (often lesser) future female heroines and kick-starting Sigourney Weaver's career in cinema kick-ass-ery. It's also notable that it makes a reference to the clutches of gigantic corporations and how they can pull the strings to influence every action and decision of their employees, even putting their lives at risk if necessary for the benefit of corporate greed. This common theme in early science fiction perhaps somewhat stems from the tight control of the studio executives over the production of these often very expensive movies, which would often involve them making artistic changes and decisions (for the benefit of a smaller budget), creating animosity between the creative people and the more executive, bureaucratic branch of movie making.
I have to mention at least one spoiler here, I just can't help myself. The one thing that is just plain dumb (apart from the many plot holes and unnaturally dark sets, which can be excused because they are all conspiring to create a film that will scare the life out of you), is the damn cat of death! First of all, who brings a darn cat into outer space?? Secondly, who the f... is dumb enough to go into the dimmest, most humid bowels of a spaceship to find the bloody aforementioned cat, ON THEIR OWN, when they have an alien with perfect-killing-machine-of-doom-who-will-eat-your-flesh-and-brains-and-will-destroy-you-and-everything-you-love abilities roaming around in the bloody ship!???! Well, OK, when they are playing spot-the-cat initially, they don't quite know just how dangerous things will get, but everyone should already know better with everything that's been going on in the movie up to that point. The cat parts (there's more than one of them) are the only ones in the movie that really fall into antiquated horror movie conventions. They are obvious set-ups to isolate someone and most likely get them horribly, horribly killed in order to make you go "eeeeeeeeeek" and throw your pop-corn in the air. That's quite silly for a movie this revolutionary. I'm done with my cat-hating rant. His name is Mr. Doomsy I think, or so I call him as I've blocked him from memory to avoid being aggravated by his existence in this film.
This movi
e pays homage to Kubrick's "2001" in many ways. There are scenes where the only thing you hear is breathing or a heartbeat, very reminiscent of Kubrick's surreal epic and very nerve-racking. There is one instance where classical music can be heard inside the "Nostromo". The film moves between two extremes, the vastness of space and the claustrophobia of the spaceship. Not to mention a computer which, though far less prominent than the almighty HAL, plays a big part in the story. It uses these Kubrick ideas to great effect and me likey. I also humbly believe it pays homage to the old B-movies with monsters that always included some nudity to draw in the crowds, when we find our heroine very scantily dressed (with a huge , almost unnecessary showing of butt crack), trying not to be eaten alive. Either that, or Scott is a pervert, craving for some Sigourney butt crack. You dirty old man.
This movie is like "2001" met "Star Wars" and they proceeded to have an orgy with "Jaws". It's the offspring of such an unholy communion. It's seriously scary, very entertaining (even though somewhat outdated) and deserves a place in every sci-fi fan's collection. Not to mention it paved the way for Cameron's "Aliens" which took it to a whole other level (before crashing down again through the two totally unnecessary sequels). There is a Director's Cut available, but unlike "Blade Runner", it has very little to offer, with Scott even admitting it was unnecessary and that the original cut was his complete vision as he intended it. Prepare to be joyfully eaten by an alien drooling granny with dentures below!
________________________________
Movie Info:
Media:
Visually, this movie is still very effective even by today's standards, although it has aged a bit by now (and not in a way like, say, wine ages). When it comes to showing you the larger things in life like, uhm, space, it doesn't do too bad, but I do have a few gripes with it on a few points. The main spaceship appearing in the movie, the "Nostromo", and the "ore" refinery it's towing, are both introduced in a slow, sideways, swooping take at the beginning of the movie to make them seem humongous (a cinematic technique that had become the norm for introducing supposedly immense spaceships through Kubrick and Lucas by that point and would later be made fun of by Mel Brooks in "Space Balls"). However, they just don't have enough detail for me to convince me of their size. Common ways of making things look bigger than they truly were (you would be surprised how small these models some times were compared to the vast sizes they were trying to portray on screen) were putting a lot of detail in the sculpting of the model, using enough miles of optic fibers to light up a small town on the inside of the models, so the tips of the fibers would pretend to be the little lit up windows of the ship and finally, super-imposing recordings of the actors moving about on the sets that were supposed to be the decks and rooms of the ship on areas of the model with larger windows, so you could see the tiny people move inside the window and go "oh, cool". In my opinion, the "Nostromo" just doesn't have enough detail in its sculpting, it doesn't have nearly enough of those small lit up windows and when you see the tiny people through a deck window, it looks kind of fake. It is still exceptionally good by any standards, but it had been done better multiple times before (look at the mother ship in "Close Encounters", it has enough lights on it to blind you, you need sunglasses just to glance at the damn thing even on a TV screen...Yeah, Spielberg took things too far quite often).The movie, in my v
iew, holds up much better when it's presenting the smaller things in life (well, smaller compared to a mile long "ore" refinery the "Nostromo" is towing anyway), like the many claustrophobic rooms and corridors of the inside of the spaceship, small parts of an alien planet perpetually covered in fog and stormy weather and parts of a craft they find there (It's so hard trying not to spoil a movie when talking about movies this old, because you need to tiptoe around scenes that are classics, but I will still try not to spoil it anyway, just in case some people haven't watched this movie and want to do so. Oh, the sacrifices I make for you). The inside of the "Nostromo" is amazingly done with an affinity for attention to detail. The lighting is often unnaturally dim or even dark, but this IS supposed to be a horror movie in space, so we will excuse the artistic licenses taken by Scott to make things dark so he can scare us shitless. Thank you, sir. The alien vessel they encounter on a planet far, far away looks very alien-y and they have managed to make it look frighteningly beautiful and quite vast, considering it's just a set with matte paintings in the background. Kudos to you sir, again. You managed to make me scream like a little girl being touched inappropriately in this scene, too. I guess the planet they are on looks good too, but its so constantly covered in fog and rain that you can't see much of it. That probably makes it more convincing than seeing it in normal daylight (which would probably show the many imperfections of the set) and certainly adds to the poop-your-pants atmosphere or perpetual fear that something horrible is about to happen around every corner. The one thing I have to note as showing a lack of foresight are the spaceship's screens. They are obvious, chunky, conventional curved-like-a-ball CRT screens and the geeky things they are showing (random numbers and astronomical maps etc.) are obviously playing from overused VHS tapes. Those damn future corporations must be so stingy that they still use CRT screens showing fake information off of VHS tapes to make the crew believe they are doing something important. Cheap bastards. And whenever something is calculated from a computer in the "Nostromo", the computer makes a sound that goes like "chunkuh-chunkuh-boing-boing". What is this? Future space travel or a saturday morning cartoon??
But the 'pièce de résistance' (Yeah, I'm so refined) of this movie is the Alien itself that wants to munch on everyone's brains. Originally this alien started as very likable to me. You see, I was raised with two grannies close by, both of which wore dentures they would occasionally take out of their mouth to make me laugh and they would sometimes also drool, especially while sleeping (uh, my sweet grannies). Anyone that has seen this movie can see the parallel I'm drawing quite easily (or I'm just nuts and I just compared my grannies to a killer alien from outer space with acid for blood). However, you will very quickly realize that this alien is not an "E.T." version of your beloved senile granny. It drools and takes out its teeth so it can bite your head off, preferably in dim, enclosed spaces with spooky sounds being heard in the background and multiple people screaming at the inhumanity of it all. I'm suddenly very, very afraid of my grannies now, especially as they sleep drooling at night, with their dentures almost falling out of their mouths...In all seriousness, this movie has the same premise as a 50s rubber-suit monster B-movie. The alien IS technically a guy in a mostly rubber suit (although they did use everything from Rolls Royce parts to a cast of a real human skull to make it look more realistic) (Not kidding about the Rolls Royce parts, seriously). However, the way that the lighting, sound, atmosphere, endless amounts of fake sweat and drool are combined, along with the way the alien is shot, result in producing one of the most menacing beings ever shown on film in one of the most successful science fiction horror movies, while avoiding the rubber hilarity of those older B-movies.The soundtrack
of the movie is very minimal, but very effective. Apparently, Jerry Goldsmith (one of the giants of cinema music) wrote a more lush score, but Scott decided not to use it quite that much. In any case, the final result works in a giving-you-nightmares kind of way. The acting is of note in this movie, too. It appears to be very realistic and the dialogues have a very natural flow. It would seem that the actors were given some freedom to improvise and roll with it. These are not the clean-cut people of "Star Trek", they are real human beings, scum just like the rest of us, smoking, swearing, flirting and the likes. The film is also notable for introducing the female heroine, paving the path for many (often lesser) future female heroines and kick-starting Sigourney Weaver's career in cinema kick-ass-ery. It's also notable that it makes a reference to the clutches of gigantic corporations and how they can pull the strings to influence every action and decision of their employees, even putting their lives at risk if necessary for the benefit of corporate greed. This common theme in early science fiction perhaps somewhat stems from the tight control of the studio executives over the production of these often very expensive movies, which would often involve them making artistic changes and decisions (for the benefit of a smaller budget), creating animosity between the creative people and the more executive, bureaucratic branch of movie making.
I have to mention at least one spoiler here, I just can't help myself. The one thing that is just plain dumb (apart from the many plot holes and unnaturally dark sets, which can be excused because they are all conspiring to create a film that will scare the life out of you), is the damn cat of death! First of all, who brings a darn cat into outer space?? Secondly, who the f... is dumb enough to go into the dimmest, most humid bowels of a spaceship to find the bloody aforementioned cat, ON THEIR OWN, when they have an alien with perfect-killing-machine-of-doom-who-will-eat-your-flesh-and-brains-and-will-destroy-you-and-everything-you-love abilities roaming around in the bloody ship!???! Well, OK, when they are playing spot-the-cat initially, they don't quite know just how dangerous things will get, but everyone should already know better with everything that's been going on in the movie up to that point. The cat parts (there's more than one of them) are the only ones in the movie that really fall into antiquated horror movie conventions. They are obvious set-ups to isolate someone and most likely get them horribly, horribly killed in order to make you go "eeeeeeeeeek" and throw your pop-corn in the air. That's quite silly for a movie this revolutionary. I'm done with my cat-hating rant. His name is Mr. Doomsy I think, or so I call him as I've blocked him from memory to avoid being aggravated by his existence in this film.This movi
e pays homage to Kubrick's "2001" in many ways. There are scenes where the only thing you hear is breathing or a heartbeat, very reminiscent of Kubrick's surreal epic and very nerve-racking. There is one instance where classical music can be heard inside the "Nostromo". The film moves between two extremes, the vastness of space and the claustrophobia of the spaceship. Not to mention a computer which, though far less prominent than the almighty HAL, plays a big part in the story. It uses these Kubrick ideas to great effect and me likey. I also humbly believe it pays homage to the old B-movies with monsters that always included some nudity to draw in the crowds, when we find our heroine very scantily dressed (with a huge , almost unnecessary showing of butt crack), trying not to be eaten alive. Either that, or Scott is a pervert, craving for some Sigourney butt crack. You dirty old man.
This movie is like "2001" met "Star Wars" and they proceeded to have an orgy with "Jaws". It's the offspring of such an unholy communion. It's seriously scary, very entertaining (even though somewhat outdated) and deserves a place in every sci-fi fan's collection. Not to mention it paved the way for Cameron's "Aliens" which took it to a whole other level (before crashing down again through the two totally unnecessary sequels). There is a Director's Cut available, but unlike "Blade Runner", it has very little to offer, with Scott even admitting it was unnecessary and that the original cut was his complete vision as he intended it. Prepare to be joyfully eaten by an alien drooling granny with dentures below!________________________________
Movie Info:
- Year: 1979
- Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Ian Holm and others
Media:
- Trailer (Youtube)
- Ridley Scott on "Alien" (Youtube)
- A sample of Jerry Goldsmith's Music for "Alien" (Youtube)
- Jerry Goldsmith Interview on "Alien" Score (Youtube)
Downloads:
File is 700MB AVI, single Megaupload link. Unrar with WINRAR, watch with VLC player.
Remember, if you like it...BUY IT!!! (Before the Weyland-Yutani corporation sends you to respond to a "distress signal" and you end up running for your life in an escape pod with half your butt hanging out)
File is 700MB AVI, single Megaupload link. Unrar with WINRAR, watch with VLC player.
Remember, if you like it...BUY IT!!! (Before the Weyland-Yutani corporation sends you to respond to a "distress signal" and you end up running for your life in an escape pod with half your butt hanging out)
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