ALIEN (1979) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Ridley Scott Writer: Dan O'Bannon (with story by Dan O'Bannon and Thilo Newman) Starring: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Bolaji Badejo, Helen Horton
Some horror films just get off on non-stop gore, cheap thrills, and, well, bad acting. "Alien" has none of these. It's an atmospheric, claustriophobic, slow-moving creep-fest, playing more like a cross between a Hitchcock film and an Angathie Christie novel than a 50s horror hokefest they show on "Mystery Science Theatre 3000."
"Alien" takes place almost entirely on a large mining ship returning to earth. It's a dark ship, filled with numerous crevices and ducts, and seems almost inhuman. There are seven people in hibernation for the journey home: Dallas (Tom Skerritt), the semi-reluctant leader; Ash (Ian Holm), the science officer who is always working for science first, people later; Lambert (Veronica Cartwright), a frail woman; Parker (Yaphett Kotto), a bitter technician; Brett (Harry Dean Stanton), who's quiet and reserved; Kane (John Hurt), another officer; and, of course, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), stuck in middle management.
The crew is woken from hibernation to do a little job on the way home, which requires them to journey down to the planet they're by, and do a little reserarch. The first forty minutes are very slow, allowing us to just witness what is going on and get to know the characters in a relaxing fashion. We see some of them journey down to the planet, and find a bunch of pods. When one of them, Kane, gets too close to an open pod, a little face hugger leaps out, and attaches itself to his face.
After awhile of not being able to get the hugger off, it dies, and Kane seems fine. Then at a frightening dinner, he begins coughing uncontrolably, and an alien pops out of his stomach, killing him, and escaping. The rest of the film is a slow-moving, scary execution in pure style as the alien hunts them down one by one, some twists come out, and then it ends in a non-anti-climactic finale.
What's so memorable about "Alien," why it has survived the test of time, and spurned out three sequels, is because of the way its constructed. Sure, it's slow moving, but that adds to the overall tension of the film. The alien is only seen in its fullness for a brief couple seconds, and even then it's in the dark. Ripley Scott has never been one for pure nihilistic spectacle. His "Blade Runner" is a thoughtful futuristic film noir, filled with tension instead of excitement. The same applies to "Alien." It's also not very gory, which actually works for the better of the film.
The film was very monumental as it showed that a horror film could be intelligent and even satirical. The stance it takes on the government is awesome, and utterly creepy. Sure, it's a technqiue which is done in all of the other sequels, but when Ripley discovers the truth, it's much more of a shock than it was in the others.
The film is also monumental in the way of women's liberation. Ellen Ripley, as played by Sigourney Weaver, is a very strong woman role model, one who is tough without becoming manly. Weaver's an excellent actress, one who can act seriously without becoming melodramatic. Her performances in the "Alien" films are an example that even women can head up a big action pic (even if she got second bill for this).
All the acting in this is very good. The best performances come from, of course, Weaver; but also Tom Skerritt, who seems to not like what he's doing on the ship; and the uber-god Ian Holm, who makes a perfect Ash. I suppose a little mention should go to John Hurt for being able to act like an alien is actually popping out of his chest (and would do again in Mel Brook's "Spaceballs"). All of them do a good job with the film.
But, as always, the film's strength is with the director. Each of the "Alien" films have a different feel. With Cameron, it was tense and emotionally exhausting. With Fincher, it was atmospheric. With Jeunet, it was, well, french and darkly comic and weird. Director Ridley Scott (who would go on to direct "Blade Runner" and "Thelma and Louise") goes for creepy and leisurely. There are only a few moments where there are big shocks, and there are no moments of adrenalin pushing excitement, which would be found in its first sequel, "Aliens." Not to say that "Alien" is without its tense moments. The film is really an exercise in mounting tension, starting out with none at all, then escalating to long periods of heavy breathing, as Ripley tries to escape while afraid that the Alien will pop out at any moment and take her life.
This is the strength of this film: the ability to make us cringe without getting too gory on us. In fact, there's relatively little blood in this film, and it sometimes seems that the only thing that's cut from this when it's on TV is the language, which is sometimes foul (it's a mining ship, folks). "Alien" is not just a visual tour de force, it's an all-around tour de force.
The only problem I have with this one is it is sometimes TOO leisurely. I like how it takes 45 minutes to even see the first alien pod, but I don't like sitting through it. Sure, the film is amazing to look at, and I like how it feels to just sit back and witness these people doing stuff that we don't always understand - sometimes not knowing is part of the overall brilliance - but for a second sitting, it seems even longer. The film really gets going when the alien has escaped from Kane's body, even if it is predictable. The direction holds it together, and makes the film seem overall amazing.
"Alien" is the rare horror/sci-fi film that can still shock after years of release. Even when most of the stuff from this has been recycled over and over again, and there have been three sequels, we can still go back and have a great time by watching this film, an amazing example of great and controlled filmmaking.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***1/2
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews