Ridley Scott's Alien (1979)

IIRC 'Blade Runner' is set in 2019 and 'Alien' is set about 2079 or 2120 or so.

Those egg heads better hurry up with the flying cars that 'Blade Runner' promised would be available. Only five years to go...

--Geoff

 

Glad to see Sigourney Weaver has made up with her old frenemy...

 

Have the Blu-ray , not watched
it yet

 

Are you scared????

You should play it tonight...on Halloween...in the dark...by yourself...

 

This is in my top ten favorite movies ever list. It came out the year I was born. Absolute masterpiece. I was lucky enough to see an original 35mm print about 15 years ago. The thing that sets it apart for me is that is so REAL, you know? There is no suspension of disbelief. The Alien looks like something that could actually exist. You get to see its entire lifecycle, and it makes logical sense. There are many antecedents for the xenomorph in nature (bees, spiders, ants), it's not some supernatural or magical evil. The spaceship looks like an oil refinery in the midwest. The characters are a bunch of schlubby, blue collar truckers who are completely ill-equipped to handle their situation. And they work for an ultra-massive corporation that would allow them to be killed in the most horrible way so the company could secure a profitable biological weapon. You couldn't think of a better plot. Antagonist that you can never fully see until the end? TERRIFYING. Protagonists stuck in a haunted house in space with no effective weapons and nowhere to run? BRILLIANT.

When I saw Prometheus, I couldn't believe it was made by the same guy. It was a big disappointment for me.

 

That is a fantastic picture.

 

Great horror film! I can do without the rest. Especially that so-called "pre-quel" and its upcoming sequel. Bleh.

 

I was one of them.

 

I forgot to add that I also admire Alien because the lead character is a woman. A totally badass woman. Ellen Ripley is one of the greatest fictional characters ever, and Sigourney Weaver just kills it.

I love Night Of The Living Dead for the same reason. The lead character, and frankly, the only character with their s**t together is an African American guy. Nobody ever says a word about his race, and it has nothing to do with the plot. He's just the lead character. And this in 1968! I wish more movies and TV shows would follow the example set by both of these groundbreaking films. I get really tired of seeing women and minorities being relegated to supporting character status, or roles where their non-white or non-manness is played up.

 

I saw it in the theater during its initial run. I was extremenly stoned and liked it a lot. I watch it now and still get scared. I can't imagine how I would have felt during my original viewing if I hadn't have been stoned. I probably would have pi**ed myself.

 

You had obviously changed your pants.

 

The alien looks too friendly. I wouldn't be scared of that.

 

Agree 100% with this post...

And at the risk of unintentionally clashing against the strong, heroic, pro-feminist (and rightfully so) slant of Ripley's character, I'd sleep with her in a second.

I think Sigourney is absolutely gorgeous in this film ...

 

Geez. Even as a kid, I just knew that those flying cars were too good to be true...

 

Yup, anything more than 2D and you pretty much have to take human control out of the equation. Flying cars will only ever be a reality when their operation is totally under computer control.

 

I really agree with your assessment !

And you said pretty much what I would have so it saves me trying to write something at least as good ...

 

I love Alien, it's one of my favourite movies, it s still scares the hell out of me, my only complain is the sound. I remember when I bought the first DVD release (was it in 1999?) I thought the 5.1 track was not good, it sounds flat, dull and lacks bass, but now having the BD set since 2010 I think the same about th lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Maybe the sound wasn't well recorded back in 1979, maybe the multitracks original tapes from 1979 well not well preserved, or even lost and Fox made a fake 5.1 track from the original Dolby Stereo mix, though a 6 track mix was made for the 70mm prints.

 

I saw Alien at the Cinedome 70 theater in Ogden Utah
http://archive.sltrib.com/images/2010/1019/cinedome_101910~1.jpg

I was bored and knew it was a SciFi film but otherwise had no idea what I was getting into. I picked a seat about a third of the way back from the screen. A couple of minutes before the movie started, a gaggle of teen girls came in and took seats all around me. I don't know which was worse, the movie or the girls screaming and then giggling.

This was a matinee screening and stepping outside into the sunshine after the movie is as memorable as the movie itself.

My preacher called it a movie from Satan himself.

 

Watched this one last nigh on Blu-Ray because of reading this thread. Loved it again and I was as tense watching it as I had been the first time, so many years ago. Sublime blend of Sci-Fi and Horror.

 

I did the same last night, and so happened to me, scared, nervous and tense as hell after all those years.

 

At the risk of sounding completely nerdy and/or pedantic.....
A common misconception among viewers (myself included, when I was younger) is that the entire structure you see travelling through space is the Nostromo. But in fact, the Nostromo itself is just the small craft at the front, while the massive city-like structure behind it is the cargo being towed: an ore processing refinery. (The on-screen text even identifies the ship as a "commercial towing vehicle" and specifies that it is carrying 20,000,000 tons of raw ore back to Earth). The actual Nostromo itself is the ship that detaches from the refinery and lands on LV-426.

(I only call the Nostromo a "small craft" in comparison to its cargo... the ship is about 800 feet long, but its cargo is 1.5 miles in length!)

 

One of the best ad campaigns for a film ever. They kept everything a secret.
People went to the film expecting a sci-fi film with a little bit of scary.
Boy were they surprised.

It told you NOTHING.

The TV ad:


Despite the fact that chicken eggs were used for this and the poster.
Yes folks, that's a chicken egg.

Btw, have you noticed how many tv shows and movie ads use that same kind of warning sound now?

 

And what they showed in the theaters.


One of the best trailers ever. Really impeccable production on this one.

 

And one of the greatest tag lines ever.

This is a beautifully produced film, and its structure is really unusual (and effective). The casual off-handedness of the first part allows you time to identify with the characters as recognizable people, and you're that much more invested in what happens to them after things get rolling. A lot of directors try that character building to varying effect, but here it works perfectly.

The only shot that doesn't work (and never really did) was the one where they put Ash's head on the table and do a cut from the dummy head to Ian Holm's head from the same vantage point. The fix to this is so simple I still can't fathom why they didn't do it. Cut from a reverse shot of the dummy head to a front shot of Ian Holm and it would be seamless. If I had video editing software I'd do it myself and post an example.

 

Great movie, and remember, in a forum no one can hear you scream.