Release:
1979 Written by: Dan O’Bannon and Ronald
Shusett (original screenplay) Walter Hill and David Giler (script
revision) Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring:
Tom Skerritt as Dallas Sigourney Weaver as Ripley Veronica Cartwright as Lambert Harry Dean Stanton as Brett John Hurt as Kane Ian Holm as Ash Yaphet Kotto as Parker
When Alien was released, I had not yet
succumbed to the power of the horror film. It was
not until later that a friend of mine suggested that I rent it. I did
so more out of respect for my friends taste than anything else because
I was not a big sci-fi fan either. I discovered why I considered him a
friend after viewing this masterpiece.
Alien starts us on a
quiet mining vessel, the Nostromo, traveling through open space on a
heading towards Earth. The command and control computer system, Mother,
receives an S.O.S. signal from a nearby planet,
reroutes the Nostromo, and begins the process to awaken the crew from
hypersleep to investigate.
Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Kane
(John Hurt), and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) proceed to the planet
surface and begin their investigation. It looks as if a vessel has
crash landed with no survivors. While searching the vessel they
discover a room filled with pods that, upon further study, have living
beings inside like an egg. When one of these “eggs”
begins to open, Kane looks inside and is attacked.
Dallas and Lambert rush back to the ship with Kane in arms but Ripley
(Sigourney Weaver) will not let them in without a
regulatory quarantine for at least 24 hours. After much bickering back
and forth, Ash (Ian Holm), the ships doctor, bypasses protocol and
opens the hatch to let them in.
Once in the infirmary,
Kane’s helmet is removed the crew discovers a claw
shaped critter is attached to his face. When someone tries to
remove it the critter’s tightens up around Kane’s
neck. But there was no need to worry because after a little while the
critter dies and falls off anyway, leaving Kane none too worse for wear.
While the
crew is eating their last meal before going back into hibernation for
the return to Earth, Kane starts to have convulsions
that end with an alien creature bursting out of his chest and scurrying
off while the rest of the crew just stand around in disbelief.
The remainder of Alien starts with an attempt to capture the alien, and
ends with an attempt to just escape the Nostromo alive.
When I first began watching Alien
I had a suspicion that I was not watching your average ordinary sci-fi
movie. As a matter of fact, I have had many an argument with others
debating the possibility that Alien is not a sci-fi movie at
all but rather a full fledge horror film that just happens to
be set in outer space. How can I make that blatant a presumption you
might ask? Because Ridley Scott could take this very same screenplay
and with a few changes base it any place and any time and it would
still work.
I became a huge Ridley Scott fan
after watching Alien, and remain one to this day.
An effective tone was set from the beginning and Scott gave the film
almost a documentary feel that succeeds in bringing the audience closer
to the action than they had intended.
All of the credit cannot go to Scott alone
though. Jerry Goldsmith’s score, Michael Seymour’s
design, and H.R. Giger’s artistry all combine to create a
film that will go into the annals of movie history as a classic to be
learned from. Remember guys, this was made before CGI;
all this work was done with costumes, models, and filming techniques.
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Dallas and Lambert rush back to the ship with Kane in arms but Ripley
(Sigourney Weaver) will not let them in without a
regulatory quarantine for at least 24 hours. After much bickering back
and forth, Ash (Ian Holm), the ships doctor, bypasses protocol and
opens the hatch to let them in. 
While the
crew is eating their last meal before going back into hibernation for
the return to Earth, Kane starts to have convulsions
that end with an alien creature bursting out of his chest and scurrying
off while the rest of the crew just stand around in disbelief.
The remainder of Alien starts with an attempt to capture the alien, and
ends with an attempt to just escape the Nostromo alive.
Blink
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Digg
Furl
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Simpy
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