Review of Alien (1979) by Jeremy K — 19 Feb 2014

Ridley Scott's "Alien" is about the crew of the spaceship Nostromo and their encounter with an alien life form, as it slowly picks off each member of the crew. So when you get down to it, this movie is basically a slasher film set in outer space; it's not like this was an entirely new thing. As we've seen, the 1950s featured many movies with main characters under attack by aliens. But this is a case where the characters actually travel to the aliens, rather than the other way around. And for a movie that helped launch the directing career of Scott as well as the acting career of Sigourney Weaver, it's something you have to see.

Okay, there's a lot of story to get through before the alien attacks even start, so I'll try to keep it brief. Nostromo is a commercial towing spaceship on its way home to Earth; however, they are diverted to a different planetoid by the navigating computer to investigate an unknown transmission. Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt) and Navigator Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) discover an alien spacecraft while exploring. Kane comes across thousands of eggs before a creature bursts out of one and attaches itself to his face. Warrant Officer Ripley (Weaver) refuses to let him back inside due to quarantine protocol, but Science Officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets him in. The creature eventually detaches itself and is found dead, but when the crew is having one last dinner before re-entering hypersleep, an alien creature bursts from his chest and escapes into the ship.

Now for a movie like this to work, the characters have to be likeable enough so you can really give a crap when their lives are in danger. It works in "Halloween" but not so much in "Friday the 13th." It works in "A Nightmare on Elm Street" but not in the remake. It works in "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" but not in...any of the sequels, reboots, remakes...literally ANYTHING associated with the franchise since; seriously, what the hell happened with-whoa! I'm getting really sidetracked. As far as "Alien" goes, these characters are enjoyable. Weaver definitely shows the talent that would make her a star in later years, Harry Dean Stanton gets some fun dialogue as Engineer Brett, and Yaphet Kotto is also really good as Engineer Parker. 15 years after she played little sister Cathy in "The Birds," Veronica Cartwright is decent here as Lambert.

Now after the characters, the most important thing...is it scary? Well, there are some genuinely good, suspenseful moments. Much like "The Thing from Another World," there's a sequence where Dallas is crawling around in the airlock looking for the creature, while Lambert has a tracking signal on it. We watch as it gets closer and closer to Dallas, building up that suspense...then we see it attack Dallas, and that's actually a very startling moment.

The scene near the end where Ripley's setting the self-destruct sequence on the ship, only to encounter the alien in the escape pod, and then attempt to abort the sequence, only to have to evacuate anyway, is a really exciting few minutes, and Weaver really sells the emotion. The environment also gives the movie a scary atmosphere. They're in outer space, thousands of miles away from anyone, where nobody can help them. The ship also leaves for some dark, shadowy scenes and all kinds of places for the alien to hide in.

As for the alien itself, it has a really good design, even if people have described it as "phallic." It came from Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger, whose work has been used in many movies since. The effects in general look pretty impressive, although there are times when it looks dated. In the thrilling climax when Ripley is in the escape pod and forces the alien out the hatch, it doesn't look so much like a vacuum of space; it looks very silly.

As good as this movie gets in a number of areas, it's clumsy in others. When Ash is revealed to be a traitor, not to mention an android, designed by the company that hired them (it's well set up, btw), he attacks Ripley. This fight scene comes across as unintentionally hilarious, in my opinion. It's only slightly less awkward-looking than the fight between Alice and Mrs. Voorhees in "Friday the 13th," and much more funny-looking. Like I said, there's a lot of story to get through before the action really starts. It's kind of like "Jaws," just not done quite as well. Much of the landscape they explore early on doesn't play any part later in the film, and it was all interesting to look at. Unless you count the sequel, "Aliens," where the characters go back to the planetoid, but were they thinking that far ahead?

Regardless, "Alien" has enough thrills and chills that I can definitely recommend it. I'm not always a fan of Ridley Scott's movies-I actually think "Gladiator" is really overrated-but he does a really good job with one of his earliest films. The characters are memorable as well as likeable, the scenery is creepy and foreboding and it takes its time with its scares, saving them for the really effective moments. Other films have aged better, but this one definitely still holds up.