My Favourite Movie

Rating: 10/10 (30 May 2009)

Alien well and truly is a landmark piece of cinema. In the late 70's, film goers had been shown aliens as friendly visitors from outer space, in films such as Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Nothing could prepare audiences for Alien. What is it that makes Alien scary? It's a combination of expert directing and set designing skills along side the spine-tingling atmosphere that Ridley Scott creates. The scenes on the alien planet are disturbing in a sense, the derelict has a dark and brooding atmosphere which plays to the audiences fear of the unknown.
The most memorable scene in the film by far is the chestburster scene. This scene had squeamish audience members puke in the aisles and some people never return to the movie because of that scene. The chestburster played to the universal fear of birth, something that deeply disturbed some viewers. After the chestburster, there is actually very little blood in the film. Ridley Scott uses the technique pioneered by John Carpenter in Halloween which is to show as little as possible and leave it to the viewer's imagination.
The alien is only on screen for a few moments in the film, but it makes one hell of an impression. The alien is well and truly alien, it could never be mistaken for a human and at no point during the film does the audience identify with the alien.
After years of debating on whether my favourite movie was either Alien or Jaws, I finally came to the realisation that it was Alien. This is without a doubt a film that will be remembered for a long time and not easily forgotten. I don't expect you to consider it you favourite movie, we all have different tastes. But at least appreciate this movie for what it is; a cinematic tour-de-force.
10/10 - Classic