ONE OF A KIND

Rating: 10/10 (30 October 2003)

I first saw ALIEN at it's very first showing in 1979, after standing in line for hours thinking "this flik better be worth all this trouble". Twenty four years later I feel justified in saying "yeah, it was worth it". This movie stands alone in it's ability reach down into my psyche and give me a taste of what it must have been like for early humans to have been on the menu of large animals with sharp teeth on a regular basis. To me this IS the scariest movie of all time for the simple reason that it is the only one that almost made me leave the theater from sheer terror ....and I've seen them all. There is a certain magic that happens when story, direction, cinematography, and music combine in such a way that produces a truly transcendent experience. ALIEN is one of those. I've wondered why ALIEN has had such a profound effect on me that other "scary" movies haven't and I think it has to do with how the story is grounded in reality the way most others aren't. The Nostromo crew are working stiffs like you and me, although their work place is outer space. I'm not sure but I think space freighters of the future will probably be dirty and broken down, with tchotchke's lying around. Not only does this make them real to me, it makes their situation all the more personal to me. The sci-fi genre is cool and all, but the core of ALIEN's powerful impact is that all of us have that atavistically primeval fear of something coming up from the basement, or down from the attic to GET us. Even worse is the fact that this COULD actually happen in the not too distant future given the unknown universe and it's possibly hostile inhabitants.
The one scene that has come to symbolize this movie for me is the cold, unemotional way the robot Ash conveys his admiration for the alien in the line: "I admire it's purity.....a survivor....unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality". The ingredients of the perfect movie monster. It's coming to get you, and you can't stop it because it would like nothing better than to get you......nothing personal, you understand. A horrifying thought if there ever was one. Very few movies have the lasting effect this one had on myself and many others and I'm glad to have the chance to throw in my two cents here.