Halloween in space

Rating: 10/10 (19 November 2006)

In many ways, the first "Alien" can be described as the sordid underbelly of "2001: A Space Odyssey." Instead of pristine white interiors and clean-cut young men in shorts we have the cramped interior of a grimy, smelly cargo ship with a surly and contentious crew. This is as far from the perfect world of "Star Trek" as you can get. The men are unshaven, and everyone smokes, drinks, and uses bad language. Tom Skerritt as the captain does little to inspire confidence, and the only person who knows what she's doing is Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), who ironically becomes the only survivor, launching Sigourney Weaver's career as a star and becoming the first female action hero in film history (unless one counts Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz.") It's interesting how the imagery of this film influenced later science fiction, particularly the series "Red Dwarf." In terms of plots, "Alien" follows the general outline of the classic slasher film "Halloween," with Ripley in the Jamie Lee Curtis role. The alien creature is still probably the most repulsive monster in movie history; unlike "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" or "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," this is a first encounter that is anything but joyous.