Ridley Scott's Alien (1979)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by mj_patrick, Jun 30, 2014.

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  1. Bill Hart

    Bill Hart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin
    I saw it the first time in its original theatrical release. Aside from the shocker scene, what struck me most at the time was the way space travel was portrayed--not shiny white spaceships with glittering control panels and immaculate interiors, but rusty walls and water dripping, chains hanging in the cargo bay. It was a work ship in the common sense of the word, with the clutter of human occupation. The setting made it all the more real. That cast was pretty stunning, too, including the great Harry Dean Stanton. A benchmark movie of the genre.
    The second movie ramped up the action, but the creepy, claustraphobic atmosphere of the first movie still wins me over. I did see the later installments, but really lost the thread by that time--the prison planet one, and another one which doesn't really stick in my mind at this point.
     
  2. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I suspect you can thank George Lucas for that - "Star Wars" consciously opted for a "lived-in" sci-fi setting that lacked the usual gleaming perfection seen in futuristic movies.

    Not saying "Alien" would've been shiny 'n' bright without that influence, but "Star Wars" did offer an unusual visual dynamic in that era...
     
  3. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    Also when they're in hypersleep at the beginning of Alien 3 and the facehugger obviously goes through the glass.
    But then again, as I said I know I was being too rational there. :)
     
  4. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    Of course Veronica Cartwright's other most famous role was in wonderful remake of Invasion of the Bodysnatchers. In both films she excels at screaming and plays a similar role - breaks down and can't cope with the seemingly hopeless situation.
     
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  5. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    I love the whole Alien universe but if you start to pick it apart some of it doesn't make any sense. The good thing about Alien was that it presented the situation on the alien spaceship as is, and didn't try to explain it. So it was one of those great mysteries of film as to what had happened.

    These new prequels are a problem as I think in an effort to explain it all they may actually create more problems than they solve. And they seem to have gone to a lot of trouble creating a universe that didn't need creating.
     
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  6. Quadboy

    Quadboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leeds,England
    It would be [or was] a great idea by Ridley to have a dead/chest bursted engineer on the ship.
    I wonder if his original thinking was that Queen Aliens can only be created by impregnating an engineer? and
    basic male Aliens come from other less intelligent beings?
    Initially the ship would have been devoid of eggs and were only laid after the queen burst out.
    She then sat dormant for years and only aroused later by the events of E2 and brought over to the colony base.
    Unfortunately the events of E3 would debunk this Queen/engineer theory as Ripley supposedly had a Queen inside her.................but i couldn't tell the difference form the monitor freeze frame/image.
     
  7. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    That's exactly what Ridley Scott said in some interviews.
    Also, one of the potential deaths for the Lambert character was to have her die from a heart attack as a result of fright upon coming face to face with the Alien.
     
  8. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    I'm afraid they didn't even know themselves where they were going with the first Prometheus movie.
    It's exactly like that series Lost. Try explaining one mystery by another bigger mystery and so on, and ultimately find yourself with an initial disappointing truth.
     
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  9. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    I hope the Prometheus movies team isn't gonna forget that the Space Jockey is found almost fossilized. Now unless some special rules apply to outer space it's supposed to take a lot of time I guess.

    According to the Xenopedia site, whatever happened on LV-426, all potential Aliens having emerged from the Space Jockey are believed to be dead by the time the Nostromo lands.
    I guess anyone can actually "give birth" to a Queen, not just engineers.
    In Aliens, Newt's father finds the derelict and gets his very own facehugger, they're brought back to the colony and somehow someone must have got impregnated with a Queen from that point.

    Xenopedia »


    There's a theory that the derelict on LV-426 is full of eggs because that actually was its shipment, and somehow one of the facehuggers managed to find its way to the Space Jockey.
     
  10. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Cartwright was always an accomplished screamer. I rewatched "The Birds" the other day - she had great "terror pipes" from a young age! :)
     
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  11. Quadboy

    Quadboy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Leeds,England
    The original atmosphere of that planet could possibly explain accelearated fossilisation of the space jockey.
    I should think the Aliens were impervious to the atmosphere.
    Thanks for the link
     
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  12. That's bexause Fox and other studios are interested more in continuing franchise building than the quality of the films. I didn't need any answers as to the derelict ship in Alien to be honest. There are some mysteries we never solve and, I. The case of film, they need to remain that way.
     
  13. Very true Lucas wanted to establish his own asthetic which was related to a "real world" feel which helped particularly with a space opera. Scott took that look to the next step though with Alien--he wanted a ship that looked as if it had been used for decades by a variety of crew members. As I recall, the water falling was originally supposed to suggest that the processing portion of the ship was so large that condensation caused rain clouds to form so it wasn't a suggestion of a leak although that worked, too.
     
  14. That doesn't make sense when they could easily be disturbed and put the Engineers at risk. I think my theory works better--which is that the entire crew of the ship were changed into eggs (although it would certainly explain the laser "barrier") that existed perhaps as part of a stasis device but, again, you would think that such an advance civilization would have better ways to contain them.

    It does crack me up though that people insist on creating a background world for things that weren't necessarily thing out o that degree in the original "Alien".
     
  15. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    You're welcome!
     
  16. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    Indeed.
    Ridley Scott is the one insisting on the bio weapon aspect of the Alien though.
     
  17. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    Can someone tell me about the shot after Lambert is killed, why it looks like her clothes are gone?
     
  18. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    I guess nobody has any official answer about this or how Lambert really dies actually, there's only speculation so far.

    From Xenopedia :

    "Even once filming was complete, Lambert's death was changed. Originally, Lambert was to crawl into a locker and simply die of fright. However, time constraints meant this footage was never shot, leaving the production to figure out a death for Lambert in editing. As such, the legs seen when the Alien's tail creeps up between Lambert's legs are not actually Veronica Cartwright's, but those of Brett actor Harry Dean Stanton. Through the use of graphic sound effects, Ridley Scott was able to imply Lambert's death without having any footage to actually show what was happening."

    Joan Lambert »


    There's a theory, which was even discussed by Ridley Scott as a plausible death for Lambert, that somehow she was "raped" by the Alien, but no real explanation as to why her clothes (or at least her boots) are off.
     
  19. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    Actually, that was the only guess I had, but I thought it was pretty outlandish. When it gets close to her and it's looking her over, I put that together with the bare feet and thought rape was the explanation. But thanks for that answer.
     
  20. barnaby

    barnaby Forum Resident


    You're welcome!
    That's what comes to mind when you see the movie really, with that shot of the tail creeping up between the legs.

    Check out the link, there are so many informations on all the movies, it's amazing.
     
  21. Whoopycat

    Whoopycat Forum Resident

    Location:
    Des Moines
    Some great memories have been posted from 1979. I was 9 years old. I didn't see it in the theater, but my parents did. I remember the creepy trailers (the short and long ones), and I will never forget waking up the next morning and asking my dad what the movie was like. He gave me a play by play of the whole thing and I'm pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. I was scared sh*tless and I didn't even see the film. A couple years later it was on Showtime (1981-82?) and even then I was too scared to watch it. Showtime would show like 60 second clips from the movie to promote it and that was all I could handle. I don't think I finally saw it until high school or college.

    It's difficult to overstate the impact that movie had back then, especially as the franchise morphed into more action mode with Aliens. I remember Cracked magazine having a funny guide on how to make it through Alien in the theater, in terms of when to cover your eyes. :yikes:

    In terms of upping the ante in horror movies, there's Psycho and then there's Alien, and after that I struggle to come up with another.
     
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  22. scotpagel

    scotpagel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mesa, Az
    I'm with you on this. The more they explain and pick apart like the Star wars prequels the mystery is gone and stuff starts to make no sense.

    When I was a kid the petrified engineer use to give me nightmares, because I imagined it not as an engineer but as some even worse creature than the alien itself because it was so huge.
     
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  23. Veronica Cartwright read for the role of Ripley and, as I recall, she didn't even know that they had cast her in the other part initially.

    I think she could have played it but it would have been a very different movie.
     
  24. Rocker

    Rocker Senior Member

    Location:
    Ontario, Canada
    Worst actors of all time. »

    ;)
     
  25. Jim B.

    Jim B. Senior Member

    Location:
    UK
    LOL...to be fair I suppose that is the way the parts were written and directed. She is very good at it though.
     
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