Film review 5: Alien (1979)

Alien 1979

Following from the last few films we watched for the space oddities project is probably the best one I have seen yet being the original 1979 Alien film by Ridley Scot. This was the sci-Fi horror film that influenced every sci-fi or horror film that came after it to this day which includes blade runner that came was made after this film by the before mentioned Ridley Scot. Probably the most remembered parts of the film is the Alien itself due to its nightmarish design and even more disturbing concept that was assisted in no small part then by H.R Geiger’s designs for the Alien. For this review I will mainly talk about the set design and about the Alien itself.

The crew of the Nostromo intercept a distress signal while in deep space that leads them to come into contact with a face huger that attaches itself to one of the crew members face. This leads to an infant form of the Xenomorph bursting out of his chest and later grown significantly bigger while it proceeds to pick off the members of the crew. However, it is shown that the Alien isn’t the only threat to the crew as the science officer Ash was shown to be an android tasked with capturing the Xenomorph and bringing it back to Earth at the expense of the crew. This all ends with the main character Ripley escaping as the only survivor in a small ship. I may have made the film sound short in the way I summed it up but this is a long film, most of it is spent building up suspension for when the Alien is first refilled and when it shows up to kill off the crew.

For the most part the film takes place on the ship called the Nostromo which is a ship primarily used for mining which you can tell from the design of the ship as it resembles oil rigs which are very purpose built. Being a space ship you would expect that the technology used on it would be advanced which it is in places such as the doors and the sleeping pods but in other places it isn’t mainly in terms of the computers that looked like old command line interface computers that helps with rustic look pf the film but not in terms of advanced technology. Something that really stuck out about the environment was how tight the spaces where as mentioned in Kim Newmans review from the empire where they said “Alien set a new blue print for sci-fi horror: the claustrophobia" (Kim Newman 2000). The ship mainly consisted of tight corridors with any larger spaces being cluttered. In a sense the characters are already trapped as they are in deep space, still far from earth but the environments only add to the feeling of being trapped with no where to escape from the Alien. The design of the ship only enhances the horror aspect of the film with the tight spaces and the vents as this means the Alien could appear from anywhere at anytime which both the crew and the audience know full well. This partly why the large parts of suspension in the film work so well as you never really know where the Alien is or what it looks like.

Next let’s talk about the Alien it self as this film would not be as scary or recognizable without it. The look of the Lien comes courtesy from H.R Geiger that had already been making similar looking creatures up to this point. But, the Alien in terms of how it acts and looks feels like this is an Alien which also helps with horror aspect of the film. Even more so was the editing used to put the film together as it was edited in a way that you never really see what the entire Xenomorph looks like which was pointed out in Roger Ebert’s review where he said “We never know quite what it looks like or what it can do” (Roger Ebert 2003). Whenever it appears on screen it is only in the form of close ups of the face, tail or some of its body. Even when you do see most of the Alien it is only while in the presence of fast blinking strobe light which means that after the scene the audience still isn’t sure of what it looks like. There wasn’t even a scene for when the juvenile Xenomorph was transformed to the larger adult only the shed skin was shown and the rest left to the audience’s imagination. This means its actual appearance for the most part is left to the audience’s imagination which is even more terrifying as people are scared of the unknown. In addition to the editing, despite CGI being invented by this point none of it was used for the Alien in any of its forms. All of it was practical where the juvenile stage was moved via wire and the larger form was an actor in a suit.

In conclusion, I liked this film as Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian put it “This sci-fi horror masterpiece still feels lethally contemporary” (Peter Bradshaw 2019). Despite coming out in 1979 it still holds up with modern films in terms of its horror, story and concept. It is still feels scary while other films that came before it such as King Kong or even the original Nightmare on elms street doesn’t. I like the think this was mainly because of the claustrophobic spaces in the environment and the genius way of editing it together. Not to mention the massive amount of suspension and of course the concept of the Alien itself. Sure the idea of being murdered in your dream is scary but the execution just isn’t the same when compared to how the Alien is portrayed. As a seemingly unstoppable force that can strike from anywhere at anytime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Bradshaw, P. (2019). Alien review – Ridley Scott's masterpiece is lethally contemporary. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/mar/01/alien-review-ridley-scott-lethally-contemporary-masterpiece [Accessed 6 Nov. 2019].

Ebert, R. (2003). Alien movie review & film summary (1979) | Roger Ebert. [online] Rogerebert.com. Available at: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-alien-1979 [Accessed 6 Nov. 2019].

Newman, K. (2000). Alien. [online] Empire. Available at: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/alien-review/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2019].

20th century fox (n.d.). A poster for the movie Alien released in 1979. [image] Available at: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/ [Accessed 6 Nov. 2019].