before 1979 several movies had shown the idea of a monster in a house and someone trying to get away always with the audience asking the question, why don't you just run out the front door. In 1979 that same concept was presented in a whole new light with director Ridley Scott taking the house and putting it in space and making it impossible to run away from the monster in the house. Alien is a movie that earns the title of game changer. The film completely flipped the format of the science fiction on its ear and showed us that space is not a clean futuristic place all the time. Instead he showed us it can be dirty and grimy with people not fighting wars or going on adventures. Sometimes its just people at a job who get caught in a precarious situation.
We open on the ship the Nostromo flying through space coming back from a huge mission. They are going about routine life when they hear a distress call from the planet LV421 and go down to check it out. they find an abandoned ship and what appear to be eggs in the ship. a creature comes out of one and attaches itself too crew member Kane (John Hurt). The crew bring him back to the ship and attempt to remove the creature only to see that doing it would kill him. It becomes apparent that the creature is keeping him alive while feeding off him slowly. A bit later on the creature detaches itself and dies off. Everything seems fine until the crew sits down to dinner.
If you haven't seen Alien then i will stop the description of the film here because this is where it takes a turn from science fiction film to hardcore horror film. Very few films can flip genre halfway through and not make it feel awkward or clunky in transition. It is an interesting trick that Scott pulls off masterfully. I can only imagine being in one of the first shows of Alien in theaters and having that moment happens where you realize the movie you thought you were in is much different then the one you are in. I can only hope if you haven't seen this film then the twist hasn't been ruined for you.
The other thing that Scott does so well in this film is hiding the hero or in this case heroine from you and making you think its going to be someone else. Sigourney Weaver is an amazing actress who has managed to transcend the genre of science fiction and do other things but we will all remember her as Ellen Ripley for all time. The movie does this trick of making you think she is going to be the one to be saved when in actuality it is her who saves herself. She is an amazing character for women not only in science fiction but also in cinema all together.
Now to talk about the star of the film who it is named after. The Alien is nothing short of nightmarish. It is so simple in design and yet every time you see it you feel like its the first time. I am very interested to see if a movie can do what this did for a genre ever again.
Well we are closing out the day on the blog. Join us tomorrow when we take a look at a jolly time of the year and just how dam scary it can be.
For High Weirdness I'm Benjamin Kolton reminding you "Its Only a Movie." "It's Only a Moive."
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