Alien 1979

Cast:
Tom Skerritt - Dallas
Sigourney Weaver - Ripley
Veronica Cartwright - Lambert
Harry Dean Stanton - Brett
John Hurt - Kane
Ian Holm – Ash

Alien (1979) is 20th Century Fox’s extremely suspenseful, space science-fiction horror film about a menacing, unstoppable, carnivorous, stowaway, hermaphroditic Demon beast. The grisly, claustrophobic, action-oriented film without a lot of dialogue contains some very suspenseful, tension-filled moments (deliberately drawn out with slow pacing), visceral thrills and shocks, and special effects and visual effects techniques.

It introduced both somber horror elements and gore to its traditional science-fiction tale. It was similar to the cycle of cheap and campy 1950s B-type ‘alien monster’ films but possessed superior production values, directorial talent and casting. This box-office hit, budgeted at about $11 million, brought in almost $80 million in revenues (in the US). At the film’s center was a resourceful, self-reliant, hard-assed, feminist action heroine (unknown stage actress Sigourney Weaver in her first major film role). However, audience expectations were for a male protagonist-hero (identifying with Tom Skerritt predominantly) - they were inevitably surprised by Weaver’s critical role.

The film is directed by Englishman Ridley Scott, who had a total of one feature and numerous commercials under his belt when he took control of proceedings. Since the success of “Alien”, Scott has had an uneven career with highlights like “Blade Runner”, “Thelma and Louise”, “Gladiator” and most recently “Black Hawk Down” and low points like “Legend”, “G.I. Jane” and the bore-fest “1492″. “Alien” represents the overtly stylistic and slick approach Scott brings to his films, traits that are useful in science fiction but can sometimes seem out of place in more realistic genres.

Here Scott retires the glitz and glamour of “Star Wars”, which had been released two years before “Alien”. Instead he portrays the spacecraft and crew as nothing more than a cargo ship and a rag tag bunch of intergalactic truckers. This works very well, as the viewer gets the distinct sense of the tedium and oppressive vastness of space travel. The way the crew are so nonchalant about visiting another planet makes the audience feel that yes, perhaps one day man will view space travel with a shrug.

The imaginative and fantastic settings (and the hostile, slime-dripping Alien creature itself) were conceived and created by Swiss surrealist designer and painter H. R. Giger and Heavy Metal French artist Moebius (Jean Giraud). Nominated for two Academy Awards, Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, it won a single Oscar for Best Visual Effects (awarded to H. R. Giger and four others). Because of the original film’s success, Scott was able to finance his next futuristic film, the equally popular Blade Runner (1982).

Alien, a darker and less pristine version of George Lucas’ immensely popular Star Wars (1977) from only two years earlier, and similar to Spielberg’s blockbuster Jaws (1975) about an unseen terror lurking underwater (although set in space), reinvented the sci-fi horror genre. Director Scott claimed that three films were influential in shaping Alien’s vision - the two sci-fi classics: Lucas’ Star Wars (1977) and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and Tobe Hooper’s brutal horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). Because of its success, it influenced all future films of its genre type, and countless inferior imitations, such as Species (1995) or Mimic (1997).

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