THROWBACK | 'Alien' Retrospective
With new instalment 'Alien: Covenant' to be released in just a few weeks, now is the perfect time to look back over the quintessential science-fiction horror franchise.
In 1979, a medium-budget science-fiction horror film made by a mostly unknown crew, and starring a host of character and theatre actors was released in cinemas.
In the years prior, blockbuster hits 'Star Wars' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' had developed science-fiction into a genre that studios were willing to invest in.
20th Century Fox didn’t have huge plans for this film, but it was one of the only completed sci-fi scripts, and the production company hoped that it would make a tidy profit in the wake of the other film hits in its genre.
That film was, indeed, 'Alien'.
Of course, 'Alien' turned out to be a smash hit. It made back more than ten times its production budget, and helped to launch the careers of Director Ridley Scott and lead actor Sigourney Weaver - who would go on to reprise her starring role as Ripley in the three sequels we’ll be covering in this retrospective review series.
The film’s success is built upon a number of important decisions: the choice of Scott as Director over the options the studio favoured; the casting of the actors, including the now deceased but irrepressible John Hurt; and most important of all, the Alien itself.
The decision to employ H. R. Giger as the film's Designer allowed for a truly horrifying monster at its core. The creature Giger created has endured as an icon of the genre since its 1979 debut, and it’s hard to imagine how the film would work without it.
It is important to note exactly why the designs work so well. Much of it is inspired by human anatomy - in particular the sexual organs; this is due to the way the monster first reveals itself.
After leaping from an egg and attaching itself to Hurt’s Kane, the “facehugger” then implants the main Alien creature that later bursts out of Kane’s chest during dinner in one of the most iconic film scenes in history. Giger noted the sexual subtext in this narrative, and decided to play up this aspect, making an uncomfortable plot even more disconcerting.
Of course, the horror elements don’t enter the film until about a third of the way through, and avoid becoming the main focus until after the dinner scene about halfway through the film; this dedication to showing the characters in a normal situation allows the horror to be that much more shocking when it does finally emerge.
Speaking of shocking, the terror on the actors’ faces when the “chestburster” makes its appearance was authentic. The cast weren’t told what was coming, and supposedly, Yaphet Kotto (Parker) and Veronica Cartwright (Lambert), in particular, were not happy with their director.
While initial reactions to the film were decidedly mixed, popular opinion and critical opinion came around to the film’s careful pacing and design. It was named the American Film Institute’s seventh Best Science Fiction Film, and Empire Magazine’s 33rd Best Film of all time.
That said, one downside to watching 'Alien' nowadays is that some elements don’t work nearly as well on a small screen as they do in the cinema.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to watch it in a cinema, try to find a special screening before the May release of 'Alien: Covenant' - also directed by Ridley Scott.
You won’t regret the experience.
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