Perfection

Rating: 10/10 (5 November 2008)

Maybe a 10 is given a bit too much for recently released movies, but this of course is from 1979. For a science fiction horror this is surely a big feat. I give it a 10 since I cannot discover any flaw in it and I also realize to sum up all the good things in it would almost make this and endless story. Even Ridley Scott himself admitted in his 2003 director's cut he changed little since he thought the movie was 'pretty good'. He had always been rather proud of it, he said. Rightly so. What are the elements of a great movie? Story, actors, cinematography (including spec fx), music. They were all perfect. The cast of course, well, no comment necessary. Excellent acting, and also the way they interacted with each other. Ripley really had the chance in this script to show her leading abilities (with irritation of crew members towards her, jealousy?), and earn her credits for being the only survivor of the Nostromo. Also her slowly built up distrust of the scientist is done well. Actually you have to see the movie again, to focus on his behavior's, then you see he is anticipating everything that happens, without much emotion. Story is excellent and simple. It also leaves a lot unanswered, like why the UFO landed there, but with still keeping it credible. Did the UFO find the Aliens on that planet, or did it carry the eggs all the way and crashed there? Well we do not know, since they could also not know it. Excellent foreshadowing when they walk up to the lonely fossilized alien looking at the stars: 'bones are bent outward, like he exploded from the inside. I wonder what happened to the other crew members....' Well, soon we know. The good thing is, you are so involved in the movie and effects, that at least I did not register all this stuff and was surprised as what happened to John Hurt later. Effects are amazing, even today. The view to the stars from the window of the ship while Ripley and the scientist wait for the rest of the crew to come back from the planet, for instance. Beautiful. Or the Nostromo, shot from below. Copied in Independency Day! Ridley Scott really made the setting do something in the story, which is how it should be (as also told in 'How to write a great novel' books by the way). The claustrophobic tunnels, the Art Deco copper designs, the chains, the water dripping, the beautiful alien ship, the smoke all around to hinder visibility (maybe the monster is there!), the sounds of the ship (esp. when it is turned on to automatically explode), the hyper sleep bed,they were all copied in the sequels, for a reason. Last but not least, the alien design. Just how great can it be? A black dragon without real eyes (nor emotion), and a mouth in a mouth. Just brilliant. Not possible to top. It also helps to believe the scientist's admiration for it's purity. After all, it is in it's ugliness also beautiful. Then, the music, great too! Mystical, sometimes creepy, totally fitting and making the atmosphere. For instance the flute sounds when they land on the prime ordeal planet. It all works in this movie.Incedible! And then just how it is shot. So many scenes that are memorable, too many to mention. For instance the slowly standing up of the monster from behind really makes the enormity convincing. Or Ripley in the end alone in the shuttle, with the almost stoned look on her face when she discovers the Alien is still there. That is excellent pulling back, I would say. In stead of being hysterical, she is almost serene, like really living a nightmare. If you can, watch it once with the director comment on, then you see it all, every artistic choice that was made, and had the right effect.
It would not be complete without my idea on Aliens of course. I think, for other reasons, it is right that it also got an 8.5 as this one. Maybe the most important reason for this is, that after a 10 out of 10 movie like Alien, Aliens still was for other reasons equally good. Probably with the Godfather, this is the only one. Aliens was not shot as beautifully as this one, but it has the amazing spectacular special effects, and lots of stuff we had not seen before with of course, the alien queen in it and the girl, that, unlike in most movies, was not annoying but really added to the horror of it. And it had the moving and super spectacular scene in the (almost) end, where Ripley and the girl are on top of the world in fire, with no ship to pick them up, and she tells her to close her eyes. And it had even more slowly built up tension, which is an extraordinary feat, since normally with sequels this does not work (like in Halloween) since we have seen it all in previous movies.
But Alien is my favorite, although I would give Aliens a 9.9 or so.