Review of Alien (1979) by Bobbylikesmovie — 23 Mar 2017

So I saw Alien and Alien is a very solid science fiction movie. It is a wholly entertaining and quite the bewildering experience. Alien, taking place in a spaceship called Nostromo away from Earth in the future, is mainly about the survival of a crew from an intruding alien.

Ridley Scott, the director, takes in elements from the genres of suspense, thriller, and horror. I find this movie as something darkly satisfying probably because of the over-bearing loneliness that the movie holds.

There is something so serenely and creepily alluring that Scott manages to pull off. Certain aspects such as the cinematography, production design, and costume design make this movie dark and beautiful despite it’s adventurous tone.

Basically, Scott is a practical master at creating a feeling of desolation for the audience while managing the audience to be thoroughly entertained. Today, thrillers and horror movies rely on other entities (i.

E monsters) to create conflict and thrills. In Alien, it does rely on a certain monster to make the plot well-paced but there is a substantial amount of character conflict. Different characters have different ideologies and emotions.

Emotions, feelings, and rationales conflict with each other. The human drama in this movie about an alien makes this movie the more realistic. It makes sure that the movie is not confined by a singular conflict only caused by the alien.

I think that the human drama adds more depth to the movie and it is something that a lot of modern-day thrillers have a problem with. More on the characters, Ripley is a milestone of a protagonist. She is evidently the protagonist of this movie.

She has great characteristics (i.e bold, daring, brave) and she is not one-dimensional. Through Sigourney Weaver’s monumental acting, she is perfectly fleshed out and well bodied as a character. During the 70s and before, women were not playing prominent roles.

Certainly there were some movies that had a woman as a prominent role, but the notion was not popularized. This movie popularized the notion that women can play daring and brave roles. There may be more appreciation for what this movie did than what the movie is: and that is completely fine.

Movies that revolutionize the film industry deserve credit. All the other cast members also do admirable acting. In actuality, all the characters are fleshed out perfectly told. However what I think makes this movie such a classic is mainly Ridley Scott.

Ridley Scott manages to balance a very venturous and daring plot while making undertones that are grimly gory and chilling. Mainly, I believe that thrillers and science fiction movies during that time had to either be eerie and disturbing or fun and daring.

 Ridley Scott makes sure you feel that sense of loneliness and desolation that crew felt which thrillers and suspense movies (i.e The Conversation) had whilst maintaining a competent adventure which science fiction movies had (i.

E Star Wars). Scott balance both ideas effortlessly and flawlessly. He proves that horror/thriller movies can have a huge scope and have adventure and proves that adventurous movies can have a twinge of horror and creepiness.

He revolutionizes the genre of science-fiction, horror, and thrillers with this movie and he deserves credit for doing something largely monumental.  Now, the question is: is this the greatest movie of all time? Lately I think it has been getting praise and has gained some type of monumental status.

I do not think it is the greatest film of all time, but is an entertaining and visceral experience that manages to be revolutionary. The whole point of movies is to entertain people. And this movie entertains me a lot while being revolutionary and having a beautiful scope.