Alien

Let’s go back another few years to 1978. I just had the unique privilege of watching Alien and Aliens back to back. And while I’ve got classic sci-fi on the brain and a parasitic space octopus on the face, I’ll try to tackle at least one of these bad boys.

The original Alien was part of director Ridley Scott’s experiment back in the 70s/80s of trying his hand at several disparate genres. Blade Runner was his sci-fi film noir, Legend his fairy tale, and Alien his sci-fi horror flick. It is a film best appreciated when the horror genre is understood. If you want swashbuckling tales of a galaxy far, far away, or a high-octane, shoot-em-up man vs. monster flick – this ain’t yo movie. It is a slow, creeping, quiet horror film set in the eerie solitude of outer space.

A team of galactic truck drivers, for lack of a more accurate description, are towing a load of mined space ore back to their company’s home base. The film opens as they are waking from their hibernation, which should mean they’re nearly home. However, while they were sleeping, their fiancé had fallen head over heels for their goofy, lovable kid brother played by Bill Pullman. Also, their ship had stopped way before its destination because of a supposed distress signal. Contractual obligation forces them to land on the planet of the signal’s origin, and the problems commence.

On this dark blue, windy planet, not a single life form is to be found – except for an amalgamation of large green eggs incubating in a suspicious cave. One of the unlucky – and all too curious – crewmembers finds himself with a green squid wrapped around his face. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) tries to obey protocol and keep the potential contamination out of the ship, but the suspicious science officer (Bilbo Baggins) overrides her orders.

Everyone is befuddled by this alien face-hugger. It bleeds acid through several levels of the ship when they try to cut it loose. And then, for no apparent reason, it disappears and the poor man seems suddenly quite alright – and boy is he hungry! Of course, we soon find out that the face-hugger alien impregnated another, creepier alien inside the man’s stomach, and we get one of the most famous scenes of outer space indigestion ever made.

So now this new little guy is running amuck on the ship, and starts slowly picking off one crewmember after another. It becomes a cat-and-mouse tale of elimination; only the cat is an elaborate, hammer-headed alien puppet created by Carlo Rambaldi, and the mice are scared humans of various ethnicities and genders...and the occasional robot.

Does anyone survive this maddening mayhem? Does the alien get his just desserts in the end? And whatever happens to Ripley’s adorable cat? I’ll not spoil these things for you, dear reader.

Warnings
In space, no one can hear you swear. Unless, of course, you’re being filmed. Consider yourself warned.

Redeeming Value
This isn’t a message movie. It isn’t a coming-of-age tale or a story about the triumph of the human spirit. That said, though, I would argue that there’s plenty of cinematic value to this little thriller.

I think you have to view Alien as an art film to really enjoy it. It is not an action film. And it really is more horror than science-fiction. Space is simply the eerie backdrop to an unsettling story about the thing slinking in the darkness. It moves at a slow pace, and thus requires some patience. You see, back in the 1970's, audiences could watch long scenes that unfolded and developed, without needing a parade of bite-sized, epilepsy-inducing sketches. So, unless you can watch it through that patient, 70's filter, you may find yourself bored with it.

It is a well-crafted film. The puppetry is impressive, and the climax is effectively intense. I was a little disappointed on this last viewing by not being as scared as I wanted to be – but it’s probably due to a callused familiarity with countless creatures and scare moments in countless films that owe their inspiration to movies like Alien. This is one of the frustrations about my generation: we’re so used to spaceships and creepy creatures that when we watch the groundbreaking films that paved the way for all the movies we’ve been surrounded with growing up, we’re not impressed. But I still appreciate Alien, and if you’re looking for a face-hugging, chest-bursting good time, you should check it out too.