note: Check out Pauline Kael's essay "Why Are Movies So Bad? Or, the Numbers"
Alien references
edit- Working from a script by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett (argued by some as the only decent script Scott directed) that was somewhat derived from such pulp sci-fi horror from the 1950s and 60s as "It! The Terror from Beyond Space" (1958), Scott delivered what has become a genre formula: half a dozen victims are picked off one at a time by a seemingly unstoppable killer/monster.
- In another way, Ridley Scott's 1979 movie is a great original.
- One of the great strengths of "Alien" is its pacing. It takes its time. It waits. It allows silences (the majestic opening shots are underscored by Jerry Goldsmith with scarcely audible, far-off metallic chatterings).
- "Alien" has been called the most influential of modern action pictures, and so it is, although "Halloween" also belongs on the list. Unfortunately, the films it influenced studied its thrills but not its thinking. We have now descended into a bog of Gotcha! movies in which various horrible beings spring on a series of victims, usually teenagers. The ultimate extension of the genre is the Geek Movie, illustrated by the remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," which essentially sets the audience the same test as an old-time carnival geek show: Now that you've paid your money, can you keep your eyes open while we disgust you? A few more ambitious and serious sci-fi films have also followed in the footsteps of "Alien," notably the well-made "Aliens" (1986) and "Dark City" (1998). But the original still vibrates with a dark and frightening intensity.
- Despite years of imitators, sequels (some great, some not so), and edited-for-television broadcasts, Alien has lost none of its power, and the big screen only intensifies its impact.
- Here is the original and magnificent best. They really don't make them like this any more.
- Almost every horror film since "Alien" has ripped it off in some way, but most of the imitations have focused on details -- a slimy killing-machine monster that is both vaginal and penile; the dripping, cavernous interiors of the Nostromo; those immensely influential H.R. Giger "biomechanical" designs -- and missed what you might call the overall Zeitgeist of the film.
- It's so often imitated that the glut of pale, sorry, fragile replicas have almost become a genre unto themselves: the Alien movie. But not a one of them comes anywhere near the chillingly quiet masterpiece of understatement and suggestion that is this movie. All hail Ridley Scott.
And what about Kane? No essay about stereotypical femininity in Alien is complete without some discussion of Kane, because he’s the unfortunate soul who carries the alien baby. Pregnancy, heretofore an exclusively female experience, is suddenly anybody’s possibility, and what an ugly, awful possibility it is. To bear fruit is to die, spectacularly. And your offspring, which is oddly cute in its infancy, will soon grow to destroy anything that seeks to thwart it. Reproductive viability seals one’s doom.
Even Ash, who’s an android and shouldn’t be prone to such things, exhibits stereotypically female behavior, which ultimately leads to his destruction. We learn late in the film that he has been operating under instructions from the ship’s computer, known as Mother. Whatever Mother says, Ash does. His subservience to Her is like that of an obedient daughter. Meanwhile, his attitude toward the Alien—preserve the species at all costs—can be seen as fanatically maternal. He loves the Alien, insofar as he is capable. He admires it and wants to see it thrive. He is single-mindedly devoted to it, like a doting mother. For all his acquiescence and concern, he ends up violently dismantled.
So what of Ripley? Doesn’t she ever do anything even remotely feminine? She does, twice. In the mad dash to escape the Nostromo before it self-destructs, Ripley goes in search of the ship’s cat, Jones, for no other reason but that she likes him and doesn’t want him to die. She finds and secures him in the nick of time, but we quickly learn that her compassionate efforts have allowed the Alien time to enter the escape pod. After the pod is jettisoned from the Nostromo, Ripley does another classically female thing: she becomes vulnerable. Thinking she has finally escaped, she undresses and prepares to sleep. Only then does she notice that the Alien has come along for the ride. Her concern for Jones and the letting down of her guard have put her in grave danger. Her survival depends on her ability to be cool and calculating despite her terror. In the end, Ripley saves herself by overcoming any vestige of femininity and devoting her entire being to killing her enemy. She may look like a woman on the outside, but inside she’s all man.
Ellen Ripley does become a feminist heroine in later Alien films—especially Aliens, the second film of the series, which deals extensively with issues of motherhood. In that one she does indeed have it all; she’s both a powerful ass-kicker and a tender mother figure. In the original film, though, only the strongest (which is to say, the least stereotypically feminine) survive. The Ellen Ripley of Alien is only a distillation of her whole self.
More explicit source of inspiration for OUTLAND could be found in Ridley Scott's ALIEN, which was made only two years before. Similarities between two films go way beyond musical soundtracks (both written by Jerry Goldsmith) or opening titles; the plot setting and the atmosphere in the film is almost identical and good case can be made about OUTLAND and ALIEN sharing the same universe. OUTLAND, same as many great science fiction films of late 1970s and early 1980s, takes rather dystopian view of mankind's future. If mankind's future lies in conquest of space, such endeavour is going to be motivated by simple greed more than any noble idea. And such endeavour is going to depend on blue collar workers more prone to succumb to human weaknesses - both physical and psychological - than their present- day counterparts. And even the establishment, symbolised in invisible but all-powerful entities of multinational corporations, is going to go "native" in such harsh, unforgiving environment and turn human life into expendable commodity.
Polish word for Alien
editI read a claim on the Alien page that the polish word for Alien comes from the movie's title. Read it here. I can't find any reference on this. Can someone verify if this statement is true or not? - Zepheus <ツィフィアス> 05:42, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
- The paragraph doesn't make much sense (especially the bit about "zaziemiec"). The established Polish word for "alien" (in terms of extraterrestrian) was and is kosmita. --Thorsten1 06:33, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
Awesome. Thanks for looking into it. I'm going to go ahead and delete that section. You were both very helpful. - Zepheus <ツィフィアス> 07:05, 7 September 2006 (UTC) Follow-up: Does it mention anything interesting about naming of the film on the ? - Zepheus <ツィフィアス> 18:49, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
- No, but the polish title itself can be interesting since, Obcy (Alien) in Polish is a very popular word for a stranger as in the popular advice for children "Nie rozmawiaj z obcymi" (do not talk to strangers), the full name of the Polish cinema version of the Alien movie is "Obcy - ósmy pasażer Nostromo" which means "Alien - eight passenger (of the) Nostromo" for marketing reasons. Also in Polish as in many other languages the word Alien Obcy is not gender free word as it suggests a male figure/creature, the descrition of a female figure/creature would be Obca, and a neutral e.g a small child would be Obce [or more precise Coś obce (Something alien) but it sounds just as strange in Polish as in English and is not a good movie title. Mieciu K 22:53, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
Double awesome. Thanks for the great information. I will definitely put this to use, although I'm not sure how. - Zepheus <ツィフィアス> 23:07, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
- Someone could write a book about strange Polish titles. How about Szklana pułapka (glass trap) for Die Hard. Esp. worked funny with Die Hard 2. Anyway, it's quite complicated with the Alien. Filmweb - a Polish film portal gives the date of its Polish premiere as 2003. I don't know if they mean cinema or DVD. Generally it's possible that it was never shown in Polish cinemas earlier. Its world premiere was in 1979. It always took time for films to get to our cinemas. And we had the 1980s then - martial law, police hour etc. Not a good time for movies. I remember watching it subbed on video in early 1990s, and probably it was then when the film was seen by some substantial number of Poles. Hardly anyone had a video player here in the 1980s. However, some films such as ET, Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Star Wars were shown here somewhere in the mid-1980s. So the question is if we would use the word obcy in this context then or only kosmita. There was also a story by Stanisław Lem titled "Obcy" published in Tygodnik Powszechny in 1946. However, I don't know what the story was about, and it might be not as popular as the film. I think that the word kosmita was used more often once, and today it's rather replaced by obcy, but it would need a scholarly work to prove that there was indeed a change like that in the language, and that it was started by the film. BTW Obcy is also a plural form (aliens) which refers to a group where at least one man is present, so in this case it's gender free, while obce as plural refer only to women or children. So if someone hasn't seen the film and heard the title only, they wouldn't know if that means one male alien, or a group of aliens of male or male/female gender, or indeed strangers, not aliens.--SylwiaS | talk 08:49, 8 September 2006 (UTC)