Alien (The Director's Cut)
by Ridley Scott
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica CartwrightDirector: Ridley Scott
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: Derek Vanlint
Editor: David Crowther
Producer: David Giler
Producer: Gordon Carroll
Producer: Ivor Powell
Producer: Ronald Shusett
Writer: Ronald Shusett
Producer: Walter Hill
Writer: Dan O'Bannon
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Collector's Edition, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
Published: 2004-01-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Alien (The Director's Cut)
Movie Review: The Citizen Kane of Monster Movies
Summary: 5 Stars
Citizen Kane is a movie about a newspaper tycoon, Casablanca is about a love that was not meant to be and The Godfather is a gangster movie.
All brief descriptions of the three films listed above are entirely accurate and yet woefully inadequate.
Alien is a monster movie.
But what a monster movie.
The fact that it is also a science fiction movie could have doomed it right from the start because unfortunately too many people tend to dismiss Science fiction outright as childish or at the very least sophomoric. Of course one merely needs to look at the Sci-fi section of the local video or book stores to see that this dismissal is understandable among the non-initiated. In fact, as part of the extras found on this DVD there is part of an interview with Harry Dean Stanton, who portrays Brett where he recalls telling director Ridley Scott that he did not like science fiction. Ridley responds that he also disliked Sci-fi but he felt certain he could make something exceptional out of this sci-fi film. It would seem that this was a serious understatement as thirty years later comes the official news that Ridley Scott will be actively participating in the production of a prequel. Perhaps he could rescue the franchise from the reputation it has garnered as a result of the abominably thoughtless and amateurish Alien Vs Predator films both of which serve to prove my point about how sci-fi is perceived by the general public.
For those few unfamiliar with this masterpiece, a word that quite frankly is tossed around too frequently but is more than apt when applied to this film, ALIEN tells the story of seven space travelers (eight if you count Jones the pet cat) who are awoken from suspended animation by their ship's computer during their long journey back to earth. The computer has intercepted an alien transmission and by law the ships inhabitants are required to investigate. As you may have figured a deadly creature of some kind gets aboard the ship and you can probably guess that death and dread are the results.
What sets this film apart from similar films, even earth based monster movies is its total uniqueness. The seven crewmembers are not astronauts, researchers, military or dignitaries coming or going to and from some diplomatic mission. They are blue collar workers using their company's ship, The Nostromo, to haul a massive rig several times its size holding valuable ore and minerals back to Earth. They are space truckers essentially, though much more skilled than our contemporary equivalents. ALIEN takes place at a time when space travel has become completely routine and one gets the impression that it has become more of a chore for some of the crew members as evidenced by the nonchalant manner in which we first see them settle at their ship's operating stations with coffee mugs or cigarettes reassuringly in hand. It's a living and nothing more, a means to an end which comes in the form of a paycheck and a fat juicy bonus. None are younger than thirty yet there are varying degrees of maturity and temperaments generally of the kinds most of us encounter in our own places of work. The banter is of the usual type among people who have grown use to each other and whose individual jobs must be coordinated with the others. All the actors have respect for their roles and the audience and come off as genuine.
The Nostromo is old and the dust build up along with the occasional splotchy grime covering the walls makes it appear more like a place where people really live and work and less like a movie set. Topping off this atmosphere is dripping condensation from the cooling and heating system, sparsely lit corridors crowded with equipment casting ever-present shadows, air ducts, hoses, electronics, and small touches such as duct tape used as a patch for one of the ripped vinyl command chairs.
For all its uniqueness in design the Nostromo is readily familiar as a human built vessel and this stands in stark contrast to the "derelict" alien craft which, thanks to Swiss surrealists HR Giger, is believably alien and unlike anything seen in cinema before but whose design elements have since become familiar which is a testament to this film's influence. Whereas the Nostromo is made of metal, angular with straight lines and symmetrical, the derelict ship appears organic, somewhat round, curvy, not in any way symmetrical and has a general shape that is hard to distinguish and that for lack of a better word is, well, alien.
The titular ALIEN itself is a marvel to behold and like the derelict ship, its like had never been seen before but has now become oddly familiar and that goes for creatures that have nothing to do with the franchise and once again the thanks goes to HR Giger. I will refrain from going into detail as to how it gets on to the Nostromo except to give this forewarning of which you are probably already aware; there is a scene in this movie that I once heard someone suitably describe as the shower scene for my generation, a scene that I believe is still jarring to this day.
The pre-production of ALIEN was well underway before the any decision had been made as to what shape the creature would take. The producers had wanted something truly frightening and several designs were submitted none of which seemed to hit the right tone. Ironically the creation of the creature that finally appears in the film had absolutely nothing to do with the film. Ridley Scott had stumbled upon an art book called Necronomicon which was a collection of Giger's art and as he began flipping through it he stumbled upon a painting called Necronomicon IV. He knew instantly that this was to be the true star to his film.
If you've ever had the opportunity to thumb through Necronomicon or Necronomicon II you already know that HR Giger is a very unique artist. All art is in one way or another an expression of the artist's psyche or different aspects of that psyche and practically all of Giger's work is an exhibition of Giger's id. These are not fanciful images compromised to any degree so as to conform with the supposed aesthetic tastes of the general public but rather a snapshot of the primordial essence of Giger's desires, fears, loss, and heady uncertainty in regards to his place in the universe. Once you see the alien and juxtapose it with the rest of Giger's work you will believe that there is no way that the alien could not have been this creature. Mr. Scott shrouds the beast in shadows and while there appears to be arms, legs, and a long tail there are also unexplained appendages on its back and while watching ALIEN one never really gets an idea as to the creature's true appearance until the very end.
Traditionally in the written form of horror much effort is expended by the author in describing a monster's eyes in the most menacing and fearsome ways imaginable because eyes are after all the windows to one's soul, movies also try to present them in such a manner but usually the effort falls short or even comes off as comical. The Xenomorph has no eyes, which is all the better to keep one from being distracted from the slaver pouring copiously over the sharp and apparently stainless steel teeth found in the creature's mouth, this is in addition to the second set of teeth found at the end of its thick, protruding, tubular tongue.
ALIEN provides much material for those film goers who enjoy reading a little more into the films they watch and aside from the creature's obviously phallic tongue, metaphors abound in this film including the very shape of the Xenomorph's head which is also phallic. Kane (John Hurt) finds the alien eggs found by descending into the egg silo, a cavernous womb like chamber in the alien craft which can be read as descent into hell or a trip to the primordial evolutionary past. Before that however the beginning of the film shows us humans awakening from a state of suspended animation from pods (eggs?) in a room (silo?) that contrasts the alien egg silo with a sterile technological whiteness and this after spending a period suspended animation similar to the human gestation period. The Nostromo's computer which runs everything including life support is nicknamed Mother which in a way serves to compliment the derelict ship with its vaguely suggestive female form complete with a triple orifice entry located between two leg-like protuberances at the rear of the ship. The metaphors do not end there and all in all they combine to make ALIEN effectively both Freudian and Jungian. You might enjoy this film even more if you can gleam your own metaphorical insights from it but if not, you can still enjoy it as these elements are not thrown at the viewer with a heavy hand and do nothing to distract one from the suspense.
In this day and age of dizzying jump cuts, loud jarring musical soundtracks and the use of CGI to the point where all is revealed and which robs key scenes of all sense of mystery, ALIEN may initially seem a little quaint to younger viewers who may not have known anything different. But if you decide to exercise a little patience you will be able to enjoy ALIEN due to its greatest strength: Its slow initial pacing that masterfully speeds up in barely perceptible intervals until just before the climax where the audience is assaulted by the blaring insistence of alarms, the heady dizziness of strobe, and emergency lights as well as the intermittent blast of steam and smoke enveloping and revealing the scenery making it difficult for the audience to get it's bearings as they vicariously experiencing all this through Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver's Character). The difference between this scene and the way a contemporary director might shoot it is that it contrasts the relative, but steadily decreasing calm that came before most especially serving as a kind of panic stricken exclamation point to the scene that immediately preceded it.
And unbelievably this is not even the end of the film.
Summary of Alien (The Director's Cut)
The terror begins when the crew of a spaceship investigates a transmission from a desolate planet, and discovers a life form that is perfectly evolved to annihilate mankind. One by one, each crew member is slain until only Ripley is left, leading to an explosive conclusion that sets the stage for its stunning sequel, "Aliens."A landmark of science fiction and horror, Alien arrived in 1979 between Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back as a stylishly malevolent alternative to George Lucas's space fantasy. Partially inspired by 1958's It! The Terror from Beyond Space, this instant classic set a tone of its own, offering richly detailed sets, ominous atmosphere, relentless suspense, and a flawless ensemble cast as the crew of the space freighter Nostromo, who fall prey to a vicious creature (designed by Swiss artist H.R. Giger) that had gestated inside one of the ill-fated crew members. In a star-making role, Sigourney Weaver excels as sole survivor Ripley, becoming the screen's most popular heroine in a lucrative movie franchise. To measure the film's success, one need only recall the many images that have been burned into our collective psyche, including the "facehugger," the "chestburster," and Ripley's climactic encounter with the full-grown monster. Impeccably directed by Ridley Scott, Alien is one of the cinema's most unforgettable nightmares. --Jeff Shannon
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