Praise for director Ridley Scott but also for monster designer Hans Ruedi Giger

Rating: 8/10 (18 April 2020)

In the wake of "Star Wars" (1977, George Lucas) Ridley Scott made a science fiction film (his second film) situated in the cosmos. The story however has much in common with "The thing from another world" (1951, Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks). Does it really matter if a group of people hunted by an alien life form is locked up in a spaceship ("Alien") or in an arctic outpost ("The thing from another world")?
One of the strongest points of "Alien" is the design of the monster. This design, a curious mixture of living creature and machine, was made by the Swiss artist Hans Ruedi Giger. Given this fantastic design it must have been a temptation for director Scott to show the monster as much as possible. Fortunately he managed to resist this temptation. Like Jacques Tourneur ("Cat people", 1942) Scott knew that suggestion can be as scary as explicit images.
In "Alien" relatively slow scenes are alternated with rapid action when this is least expected. To be specific I shall describe a couple of (famous) scenes. Unfortunately spoilers could not be entirely avoided in this descriptions.
Scene 1: In the beginning of the film we get acquinted with the crew of the spaceship "Nostromo". The director takes time to introduce each crew member. The science fiction degree of the film is somewhat lessened by the ordinary way the crew has breakfast together. All this increases the bond the viewer has with the characters.
Scene 2: The expedition to the abandoned planet
is very beautifully photograped. It takes a long time before the nest with alien aggs is discoverd and out of one of these aggs a creature jumps on a crew member (Kane played by John Hurt) and sticks on his face.
Scene 3: The crew does not know how to remove the creature from the face of Kane. One day the creature has gone. The crew searches the sick bay (suspense) but nothing happens (Hitchcock principle). They only find the dead corps of the creature. This seems to be the end of this storyline but see what happens in ...
Scene 4: Maybe the most (in)famous scene in the film. It turns out that Kane has been iimpregnated by the creature and he gives suddenly birth to the alien. There is a lot of blood iin this "birth scene" and because Scott had not told his actors about the details of the special effects not only the viewer but also the actors are (visibly) shocked.
Scene 5: Last but not least the attack on the crew member (Brett played by Harry Dean Stanton) who is looking for the cat of the spaceship. Brett s wandering through the spacecraft when he is surprised by the monster. The spacecraft is very big (it is a commercial vessel, a sort of space truck) and during the opening scene we have been watching how big it really is. Its interiors have an industrial outlook and during this scene there is water dripping from the ceiling. The scene thence gets a sort of Tarkovskian look and feel.
Up till now I have mentioned the design of the monster, the design of the interiors of the spacecraft and the alternation between slow- and action scenes as the gems of the movie. Also the cast is very good. They succeed in creating credible characters and not mere astronauts. Special mention for Sigourney Weaver who plays a rather male like role as officer Ripley. She is formal, detached, status sensitive and in the end the only one to survive.