Influential.

Rating: 10/10 (5 August 2016)

"Alien" is Ridley Scott's first great feature film, and could probably be his magnum opus if not for "Blade Runner", which is the other masterwork of his. Honestly, I cannot be sure if he belongs to the pantheon of great filmmakers or not. He spearheaded near-perfect pictures in his earlier days, but his later works like "The Counselor" and "Exodus: Gods and kings" are near forgettable. "Body of Lies" and "Robin Hood" are not very well received either, and Oscar winning "Gladiator" is overrated.
Undoubtedly "Alien" is so influential. It spawned three sequels and one indirect prequel thus far, for which they were helmed by three different film directors except "Prometheus", which is also directed by Ridley. Its influence stretched even further when it got expanded into video games and even comics. Thus this inevitably made Ridley to be one of the most respected filmmaker in Hollywood of his times. His success is more to be evident in "Blade Runner".
"Alien" is the story of a group of ordinary workers who went missing in the stars. The spacecraft 'Nostromo' is on its way back to Earth when it receives a transmission from a nearby planetoid. Obeying the protocol set by the company, the crew agree to land the ship to inspect on the source. They go out to locate the signal, but to only later realize that they bring back something with them to the ship that would decimate the whole crew.
Although Ridley is so-called the leader of the project, it was scriptwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett the ones initiated it. Everything we see in the story, is theirs. "Alien" got inspirations from classic sci-fi movies like "The Thing from Another World" and "Forbidden Planet", despite it being an 'original' story. The product is like when different ideas from different sources assimilated and converted into an ultimate masterpiece. Ridley skillfully visualized the ideas, but "Alien" will never happen without the duo.
From the horrors to the romanticism of its opening, the film is so grasped of perfection. One of the keys to the film's critical success is its pacing. It seemed to be like a kind of slow-burn horror, which slowly but exceptionally captured the details of the movie; like its filmmaking and narrative thrust that all together built-up in favour of for coherence.
It was a smart move for Ridley to not shoot the monster fully on camera, and this helped to preserve the authentic look of the character (Xenomorph). If more physical parts of the monster be brought upon to audiences, then flaws of the design of it can be left not concealed. On the other hand, the sets of the spaceship and planetoid were all well-designed. Ridley's direction furthermore helped to leverage its aesthetic appeal.
The superb collaboration of Ridley, its writers, the composer of musical score, designers and crews had made "Alien" to be the atmospheric, masterful timeless sci-fi horror. "Alien" could easily be a mediocre B movie, but Ridley's brilliant direction turned it into one of the greatest films instead. Who would have had expected that a script not so intricate can be converted into a piece that will stay relevant for decades to come? The feat here is rarely being felt and I doubt that it will happen again. I am so sure that as long as cinema is culturally still important to us, "Alien" will never be forgotten.
(Cinematicmadness.blogspot.com)