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Alien<\/strong> (1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th<\/sup> Century Fox\/Sci-Fi-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (sci-fi violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ridley Scott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan O\u2019Bannon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Derek Vanlint\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 25, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $78.9M (US)\/$184.7M (World)<\/p>\n Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n \u201cIn space no one can hear you scream.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0Unless you\u2019ve been stranded on a desolate planet for the last 45 years, you know this is the famous tagline for Alien<\/strong>, the iconic sci-fi-horror film from Ridley Scott (Blade Runner). It\u2019s one of the greatest taglines ever conceived. It effectively evokes a palpable sense of fear of the unknown by suggesting whatever\u2019s out there is frightening. It won\u2019t do you any good to scream because sound doesn\u2019t travel in a vacuum. It\u2019s the very stuff nightmares are made of.<\/p>\n \u00a0The tagline certainly got my attention. I wanted to see Alien<\/strong> badly when it came out in summer 1979, but the usual parental R-rated movie blockade prevented 11YO Movie Guy from getting anywhere near it. I had to settle for 30-second spots on network TV. I finally saw it in \u201985 when my brother and I rented it from the Video Den one evening. I loved our first VCR. It opened so many cinematic doors that were previously closed to me.<\/p>\n \u00a0There are several films that inspired Dan O\u2019Bannon\u2019s (The Return of the Living Dead) screenplay for Alien<\/strong>. The most obvious influences are It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) and Planet of the Vampires (1965). The plot centers on the seven-person crew of the commercial spacecraft Nostromo- Captain Dallas (Skerritt, Big Bad Mama), executive officer Kane (Hurt, The Elephant Man), warrant officer Ripley (Weaver, Ghostbusters), navigator Lambert (Cartwright, Invasion of the Body Snatchers), chief engineer Parker (Kotto, Live and Let Die), engineering technician Brett (Stanton, Repo Man) and science officer Ash (Holm, the LOTR trilogy).<\/p>\n \u00a0They\u2019re returning home to Earth when they\u2019re re-routed to a desolate planetoid from which a distress signal has been detected. Company rules say they have to investigate under penalty of forfeiture of payment for services rendered. When they arrive, Dallas, Kane and Lambert leave the ship to investigate. They discover a derelict alien ship. While exploring the interior, Kane comes across a chamber containing hundreds of large leathery eggs. He decides to take a closer look at them. When he does, one opens. An alien creature jumps out and attaches itself to his face.<\/p>\n \u00a0Long story short, an alien gets loose on the ship. Apparently, it did something more to Kane than nearly kill him. During a meal, he starts to convulse. Suddenly, a small alien creature bursts from his chest and runs off. Now it\u2019s hiding somewhere on the ship. The others go to look for it. It starts picking them off one by one.<\/p>\n \u00a0I like Alien<\/strong>; I didn\u2019t love it. It\u2019s good, not great. I know it\u2019s not the popular opinion, but I\u2019m not known for saying what most people want to hear. Don\u2019t get me wrong. I don\u2019t think Alien<\/strong> is a bad movie; I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s the masterpiece people say it is. It has some slow parts. Sometimes it\u2019s too dark to see what\u2019s happening. As with many of his films, Scott goes for style over substance. In my opinion, Alien<\/strong> is a B-movie with A+ production values.<\/p>\n \u00a0In the case of Alien<\/strong>, style goes a long way. Visually, it is absolutely stunning. The creature effects are especially impressive. Biomechanical artist H.R. Giger designed the alien creature which keeps changing shape and size throughout. You never know how it\u2019s going to look from one moment to the next. It\u2019s always going to be frightening. Carlo Rambaldi (E.T.) designed the head, an elongated skull with lots of sharp teeth. It\u2019s pure art. Giger also designed the derelict alien spacecraft. This guy has one hell of an imagination. Is it any wonder Alien<\/strong> won the Oscar for its visual effects that year?<\/p>\n \u00a0Alien<\/strong> also benefits from an incredible cast with a standout performance by Weaver as the true bad ass of the bunch. It was early in her career. She debuted in Annie Hall (tiny role) and appeared in the unnoteworthy Israeli drama Madman (not to be confused with the 1982 slasher). Alien<\/strong> is the film that made her a star and deservedly so. Not only that, it made her a feminist icon. It was rare in the 70s for a female to take the lead in an action-oriented film. Usually, it was a man that saved the day. Scott took his film in a bold direction with this move.<\/p>\n \u00a0What I find truly interesting about Alien<\/strong> is its refusal to resort to the modern conventions of the genre. There\u2019s none of the derring-do or heroics of Star Wars. The crew consists of ordinary working people who smoke, drink coffee, complain and haggle over getting their fair share of the profits. They don\u2019t have laser guns or light sabers. It\u2019s sci-fi grounded in realism.<\/p>\n \u00a0Alien<\/strong> is a more-than-functional horror movie that puts suspense ahead of cheap scares although to be fair, it does have a few neat \u201cBOO!\u201d scenes, some of them involving Ripley\u2019s cat Jones. Why she brought her cat along is anybody\u2019s guess. In space nobody can hear you meow either.<\/p>\n Alien (1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 20th Century Fox\/Sci-Fi-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 117 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (sci-fi violence and gore, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Ridley Scott\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Dan O\u2019Bannon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jerry Goldsmith\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Derek Vanlint\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: May 25, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $78.9M (US)\/$184.7M (World) Rating: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-horror","category-sci-fi-fantasy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Alien-PIC.jpg?fit=820%2C551&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6046,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967\/revisions\/6046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Alien-POSTER.jpg?resize=1000%2C1511&ssl=1\")
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