ALIEN - Ridley Scott's Gothic Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (16 May 2019)

It is quite a few years since I first sat down to watch 'Alien', my anticipations being that it would be like any other Sci-Fi film of the period. To say that this film changed my life may be a slight overstatement but it certainly changed the way I view Film and Cinema! The opening titles (accompanied by Jerry Goldsmith's thoroughly creepy score) give the tone of what is to come. The crew of a commercial star freighter are awakened by their onboard computer as it has picked up a 'signal' from a small planetoid in a nearby system. Obliged by Company Rules to investigate, they set down and find a completely non-human ship crashed and (apparently) derelict. One of the crew descends into the bowels of the ship - to be confronted by a chamber full of ovoid shapes...unwisely he decides to take a closer look...and things spiral out of control from that point....What makes this Film SO great is that it is almost shot in a semi-documentary style - the shaky camera footage on the helmet cams, the dark foreboding atmosphere and the quite slow pace - all are deliberately and slowly drawing the audience in. Alien sometimes comes close to being a 'Science Fiction Art-Film' - and so it is - in a way. The designs are extraordinary - with Swiss Artist H.R. Giger designing the absolutely frightening ALIEN of the title. Scott's visuals are astounding and introduced him to Hollywood as a real talent. The pace picks up through the second half of the film - the effects were all done 'in camera' - no CGI here - just old fashioned film making. Scott ensures you never quite see the creature, which adds to the menace and sense that you are trapped in there with it. The sequence in the air shafts is superb - a gripping piece of cinema, as is Alien's most celebrated scene - the 'birth' of the monster.
We tend to forget now that, back in 1979, it was not the norm to have a 'female hero' - Scott deliberately went and made 'Ripley' a female to set against audience expectations - thus when Captain Dallas falls, the audience were now wondering what to expect. Everything about this production is first rate and Ridley Scott has never really been better (unless you compare with Blade Runner). Sigourney Weaver - a then unknown - shows that strong female leads are the future.
It is difficult to underestimate the impact of this Film on Science Fiction in general - this really WAS the first time that a Sci-Fi Film was shot, designed and delivered in a totally realistic way - which is why audiences believed it and were scared to hell. This Film so impressed me that I started to watch other Genres, older cinema - it gave me the 'gateway' into the history of Film. It will forever be may most treasured cinematic experience...If you have never seen this - prepare to shocked, scared and blown away with some of the most stunning visuals in this Genre.