From: mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at (Markus Stumptner)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies
Subject: Re: Natives Down the River (was re: ALIEN^3 Eggs on Sulaco)
Date: 17 Aug 92 18:55:18 GMT
Organization: DB and ES Subdivision, TU Vienna

From article <9223022.24729@mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU>, by jamesbs@mundil.cs.mu.OZ.AU (JJ Glamma):
> Paul REiser's Burke. This is a character with depth and subtlety that the
> characters in the third movie were crying out for. The problem with his

AH Hahahahahahahah oh oh.  That hurts.

> character on the second and subsequent viewing of this film is that you
> *know* he is the bad guy.

No, sorry, but that was clear from the moment he went on board the
Sulaco to "represent the Company's interests".

> But, what *is* Burke? He is not a representative of a monolithic corporation,
> like Ash, Bishop II, or that Japanese guy. He is a person, like you and me, who
> sees an opportunity to make a fast buck, possibly at the expense of some other
> people's lives (which doesn't matter, since he doesn't know them - he does care
> about Ripley) and takes it.
 
> What makes Burke infinitely more scary than some semi-mystical Company or a
> giant Japanese ideogram is that he is us. He is an ordinary person, who acts
> without realising the consequences of his actions. 

> A Company run by people
> like Burke, who do harm unwittingly, is more scary because it can and does
> happen.

Companies like that tend to happen.  Period.  This is not merely a
factor of single persons like Burke.  Power corrupts.  Aliens wimps
out by showing us, explicitly, in detail, a single man who is
responsible for allmost all that goes wrong in that film.  (Gorman is
the other, and he has the same depth of character as Burke, namely
none.)

What is scary is not that greedy people happen, but that the
involvement of ordinary people in large, impersonal organizations can
make them act impersonally as well.  Sea Wasp, I think, quoted
Neuromancer.  A very apt comparison, since the megacorps of
Neuromancer have no conscience whatsoever.  They are economic
organisms that fight, grow, and rule without considering moral issues.
Now that is scary.  If you want examples from today, look at the
bureaucracy in the former USSR.  Do you think all those people were
evil?  No.  They supported an empire of oppression and exploitation by
adhering to the rules it set up.

I've often wondered whether this switch shows the change form the
Carter to the Reagan era.  Aliens was filmed in 1986, in a time when
big companies were considered good for America.  So - here we see that
it's not the Company's quest for revenues, diversification and
economic power, it's just one employee.  Well, one bad egg, and he
gets killed anyway 'cause he's so evil. 

Compared to Ash, the agent of unknown power circles in the higher
echelons of the company, Burke is about as shocking as a fizzled out
softdrink.  Burke fulfills the same role, but we can see it coming,
and his means are so direct and laughable.  Where Ash brought
catastrophe by obeying DAllas' orders against Ripley's will, by
ignoring medical readouts, Burke uses the standard repertoire of 
 a villain in a silent movie; ready all the time to jump at the
opportunity to do bad.  In Alien, the situation had been set up by
people light years away, weeks ago, out of reach.  THAT is scary.

> Burke consistently sabotaged the humans' in the second film. He refused to warn
> the colonists of potential danger, he (and Ripley) cited the monetary value of
> the reactor as sufficient reason to send in the Marines with inadequate
> weaponry; he released the facehuggers to grap Newt and Ripley; and he locked
> the rest of them in the MedLab with the aliens.

And all the time he looked like a company representative, with his
suit and tie.  Gee, what depth.

> Aliens had great characterisations and great hardware.

Aliens hat great parody and a lot of hardware, some of which was very
good (of the hardware, that is).

-- 
Markus Stumptner                                mst@vexpert.dbai.tuwien.ac.at
University of Technology Vienna                 vexpert!mst@relay.eu.net
Paniglg. 16, A-1040 Vienna, Austria             ...mcsun!vexpert!mst
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.movies