Last Friday, in a shameless attempt to prematurely generate interest in next summer’s bound to be disastrous “Alien vs. Predator,” 20th Century Fox brought Ridley Scott’s “Alien” back to theaters, along with a couple of scenes cut prior to the film’s original release back in 1979.
While this new, digitally remastered director’s cut may amount to little more than a marketing gimmick for the studio, the re-release offers audiences, especially those too young to have viewed Scott’s sci-fi/horror masterpiece in all its big screen glory, the kind of exhilarating movie-going experience seldom found in today’s crowded multiplexes.
The genius of “Alien” lies in its inspired simplicity. In the near future, a commercial space ship with a crew of five men and two women, encounters an unknown species that apparently lives only to kill. Having mistakenly allowed one of these creatures on board, the crew fights to survive as the relentless alien picks them off one by one.
What year is it? Why does the alien want to kill the crew? How can humans travel through space? The answers are there, but they don’t really matter. Stubbornly refusing to coddle the audience with narrative excess and unnecessary exposition, Scott presents “Alien” as a bare bones story of discovery and survival, a film as persistent and unwavering in its quest to scare, as is its eponymous villain in its desire to kill.
That is not to say “Alien” is simply a mindless gore fest. In fact, while Scott exploits a dark tone to explore the gruesome subject matter, by current standards the filmmaker’s approach to graphic violence is impressively restrained. “Alien” is not so much about the violence the crew must suffer, as it is about the anticipation of that violence. Once the alien is on the ship, the film focuses not on the humans’ battle with the monster, but rather on their attempts to locate it within the craft’s dimly lit corridors, storage rooms and air ducts.
Although the film delivers its fair share of the genre’s obligatory shocks, Scott is smart enough to understand that while a sudden jolt may induce a momentary fright, true fear and terror are the products of methodical nurturing. From the opening frames, Scott’s lurking camera emphasizes the stillness and sterility of the spacecraft, immediately establishing an atmosphere of imminent danger and constant tension. As we float through the ship we become oriented to the space, sensing the eerie emptiness of our surroundings. These first few shots visualize the film’s now legendary tagline: “In space no one can hear you scream.”
Just as Spielberg saved the shark for the final act of “Jaws,” Scott resists the temptation to reveal the alien until at least halfway through the film, teasing the audience instead with glimpses of the creature in its earlier stages of development. The audience thus finds itself identifying with the crewmembers, trapped with a dangerous predator that can be fully seen only when it is too late.
A movie entitled “Alien” suggests a certain confidence and raises audience expectations for the title attraction. At the time of the film’s original release, H.R. Giger’s creature design for “Alien” represented a startling leap forward in the visualization of movie monsters. Dark, wet and slimy, the alien is not a lifeless special effect, but rather a fiercely malevolent living organism, complete with its own texture, biochemistry and physical development. The combination of Giger’s design and Scott’s innovative compositions remain as disturbing as ever, providing still more proof of the distracting superficiality of today’s computer-generated characters.
The alien itself is just one of many visually arresting pieces in the film. Scott, who began his career as a set designer, brings a fine eye for a detail and unabashed aesthetic audacity to the wide variety of sets. With Scott at the helm, the backdrop for “Alien” is a strange hybrid of organic and industrialized spaces, rather than simply the sleek futuristic environment that audiences have come to associate with the genre.
While “Alien” may display Scott’s signature visual flare, it also reveals the director’s underappreciated talent for characterization. Thanks to the franchise spawned by the film’s success, most people consider “Alien” a science fiction epic. In fact, with nine credited cast members and only a few locations (most of which are inside the ship), the film draws on the intimacy of a chamber drama.
Scott’s depiction of the story’s unlikely hero, Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), relishes the character’s psychological and emotional complexity. The role of Ripley transformed Sigourney Weaver into an international film star while Weaver’s finely-drawn performance elevated Ripley to the status of pop-cultural icon. Smart, vulnerable, sexy and – above all else – highly competent, Weaver’s Ripley is among the great movie heroes of all time.
There is so much left to praise, but the only way to fully appreciate “Alien” is to see it in theaters. So grab a friend to hold onto, find a local theater (it’s not playing at Destinta) and brace yourself for what remains one of the most entertaining and terrifying movies ever made.
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