Originally underrated and overlooked as a feminist landmark film

Rating: 10/10 (23 June 2003)

I saw this film originally in Seattle when it first opened. As a sci-fi buff, paticularly in my youth in the 50's, I was impressed by it's quality, it's gothic aura, it's excellent acting by a top notch cast, and it's creation of the first truly female hero I had ever seen in a movie. There have been a lot of "heroines" in movies but this paved new ground. Maybe someone could come up with an example I missed but I've given it some thought and I draw a blank in trying to compare it to anything that came before. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, the Science Officer, was the only person on board the ship that kept her head when all hell was breaking loose.She had no romantic or family ties to any other character that caused her to rise up and take over for her husband like Pilar say, in Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Toll's." She was not merely equal to a man or inspitational like the Katherine Hepburn's Rose in the African Queen. She had no special gifts like Joan of Arc, Wonder Woman, or Sheena of the jungle. There were no sexy gimmicks, she never deffered to any of the male crew except by rank. In other words she was like John Wayne's, Clint Eastwood's, or Sylvester Stallone's characters in her ability to get things done and keep her head. Sigourney, by the way, is a hell of a lot better actor then any of those guys. This was a good movie in many ways but I've never heard it mentioned as a ground breaking vehicle for women's equality.