an incredible film

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2008)

I've lost track of how many times I've seen 'Alien.' Let's just say, a bunch. I never saw it in the theater, which I suppose is my one big regret in life. The first time I watched it was from a bootleg video print someone loaned me not long after the film came out. I remember standing in one spot in front of the TV, not moving for two hours until it was over. I didn't even realize I was standing the whole time. So yes, this is one of my all-time favorite movies, definitely in my personal top ten. Have the repeated viewings over the years diminished its appeal to me? Only slightly, if at all. I STILL see things in 'Alien' when I watch it now that I've never noticed before. This is Ridley Scott's masterwork and try as they might, none of the film's imitators have managed to duplicate its aura of silent menace and genuinely disturbing creepiness. While 'Alien' draws its inspiration from several earlier films and books, the way it merges them all together seems completely original. H.R. Giger's bizarre painting are of course a crucial component. The alien itself is wet, slimy, feral; it's as though the crew is trapped with an insane, rabid, murderous animal that they never get a good look at (and neither do we, until the very end.) Everything about it ties into our worst primal fears; of suffocating, of having something grow inside us, of being ripped apart, literally. All of this works beautifully in juxtaposition with the crew of the infected ship. They are not explorers, they are workers, as ordinary as any group you might find toiling at an industrial plant or oil refinery. They are tough in a weathered sort of way but not heroic in the typical sense. Through no fault of their own, the group never really understands what they're up against. To them, the common thought seems to be, "this thing can't be THAT hard to get rid of," a defensive kind of self-delusion to stave off the increasing sense of fear and desperation as their number dwindles one by one. The characters all come across as very human, each with strong and weak points, and it's almost a game the audience plays trying to figure out which one he or she would behave like in such circumstances. Would you be stoic, like Dallas? Angry, like Parker? Scared witless, like Lambert? Or would you have the wherewithal to hold up till the end and somehow kill the alien, like Ripley? One can't help but get sucked into 'Alien' that way; it gets inside you and stays with you, long after the final images have faded from the screen.