Alien
A seven manned spaceship, The Nostromo, returning to earth from deep space is awoken from cryo-sleep to investigate a distress call from a planet.
The team that heads down discovers a life form, with an alien bug attaching itself to one of the crew.
Upon return to the ship, the bug has evolved into a large alien, that starts to eliminate the crew one by one.
Direction
Directed by Ridley Scott, his second film after The Duelists. He would of course go on to be a hugely prolific director for the next 46 years (and counting).
The bookends of the film have some great non dialogue moments that both ease us in to, and calm us down from what we are witness to as an audience.
Cast/Characters
Tom Skerritt is top billed as Captain Dallas.
Sigourney Weaver, who would go on to lead the franchise for the next three films plays Ripley. She is billed second in the film (more on that in a moment).
John Hurt plays the role of Kane – who is the unlucky crew member who is first infected with the alien creature.
Ian Holm plays Ash, the science officer who has a secret he is hiding from the rest of the crew.
Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright and Yaphet Kotto play Brett, Lambert and Parker respectively.
Breakdown
I will start by admitting quite embarrassingly that this was my first time watching this film.
I was greatly impressed with all that was present; especially some of the vast sets, such as when the trio head to the alien spaceship in the first half of the movie.
The characters were all presented well, and considering the cast were all either well known at the time, or would go on to have incredible careers post this film.
The narrative structure was paced well, with well placed tension, not just moments within the film, but also between the characters themselves.
One such argument between two character is Ripley and Ash, following his allowing Kane to return to the ship with the alien attached to his face. This of course is revealed towards the end of the film to be his goal.
The film had a well written one by one they die trope, with *** spoiler but its been 46 years *** Kane to be the first to die when the alien bursts out of his chest.
I was quite surprised that Dallas met his maker so early in the film, especially as Tom Skerritt was billed first. I kept expecting him to have an eleventh hour survival. For most of the rest of the film it belongs to Weaver’s Ripley. It is no wonder she became the FIRST female action lead.
There are also some terrific third act reveals such as Ash being an android whose mission was to return the alien to earth, and that the six crew were ‘expendable’.
As a cat owner, I must commend Jonesey’s cat acting.
Overall
A great start to what becomes a long running franchise. I will also review the Predator movies intertwined with these films.
Weaver who was a relative newcomer here shines as Ripley, and it is no wonder she went on to become one of the most prolific ‘strong willed’ character actors of her generation (although a little typecast of late).
4/5
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