Innovative Sci-Fi Thriller Reintroduces Realism to the Genre

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2007)

While there is a general resemblance to the classic pulp sci fi film, "It! The Terror from Beyond Space", Alien is an expertly crafted and thoroughly original film. In my opinion, it is also vastly superior to all of its descendants, including James Cameron's action and special effects smorgasbord, Aliens.
As a teenager, I was so intrigued by the premise of this movie that I was one of the few people in the United States who went out and purchased Alan Dean Foster's book "Alien" and read it before the film was released. The book was actually very good, so I knew I was either in for a big treat or a total disappointment when I went to see Ridley Scott's Alien on opening night. Of course, there was no disappointment.
Scott assembled a great cast, none of whom (at the time) had a great deal of face recognition except, perhaps, Ian Holm. He placed his characters in stasis aboard a long distance freight ship ("the Nostromo") owned and operated by a mining company. The ship is grimy, a little broken down, and a bit cramped. The habitat module is one very small portion of this enormous commercial barge.
The film uses sound beautifully. Both the amazingly haunting and memorable postmodern soundtrack and excellent soundscape are flawless. The film opens with the ship's computer beginning to power on the ship's systems, and even though the scene consists of nothing but sound effects and mostly immobile hardware, it is permanently burned into my memory.
The crew is awakened, and unlike most sci fi films, almost immediately begins complaining about being brought out of stasis early and bickering about how much they should be paid for what appears to be an extra duty. Soon, we learn that a communication signal has been picked up on a planet nearby and the Nostromo's shuttle must descend to the planet and investigate.
All of this is established effortlessly by Scott's fantastic directing, cinematography and editing, but rather than spoiling any aspect of this brilliantly plotted and presented story, I will discontinue my plot summary here and move on to the critique.
Ridley Scott has directed two of the best science fiction films of all time - Bladerunner and Alien. These two films are completely different and also radically innovative for the sci fi genre. Alien reintroduces realism the the genre. The crew is not a bunch of heroic freedom fighters or righteous warriors. Instead, they are corporate staff members and a couple of administrators - a captain (Skerrit) and first officer (Weaver) who are the company management representatives, mechanics, a science officer/ship's surgeon, a navigator, and geologists (it's a mining company). The ship itself is not a sterile faster-than-light Maserati in space, but a gritty, messy, cramped, barge. And the alien is TRULY ALIEN. 'nuff said about him.
H.R. Giger's organic/cybernetic art enhances the other-worldliness of all of the scenes that take place off of the Nostromo, and of course, the design of the alien itself. An enormous contribution that should not be overlooked.
It doesn't really matter which version of this film you see. They are all terrific. The director's cut adds a couple of scenes which appeared in the book, but were left out of the original release. Personally, I don't think these scenes really add much to the film, but it is a matter of personal taste, since all of the versions I have seen are 10s.
Recommended for anybody who can tolerate sci-fi.