Alien (1979) - film review

Commercial space freighter Nostromo is on its way back to Earth with a cargo of precious mineral ore.  When the ship receives a distress call from a nearby planet, the crew - consisting of five men and two women – is revived from stasis and makes ready to investigate, in accordance with company procedure.  On the desolate world, the crew finds a derelict spaceship, the remains of an alien life form and a chamber containing several large eggs.  One of the eggs suddenly hatches and a creature leaps out, attaching itself to the head of one of the crew, Kane.  Rendered unconscious, Kane is taken back on board the ship and later appears to have recovered once the creature has detached itself.  But during a meal with his fellow crew members, Kane suddenly collapses and a vile thing bursts out of his chest.   For the crew of the Nostromo, the nightmare has only just begun...

No film genre dates more rapidly than science-fiction.  You only have take a fleeting glance at some of the sci-fi horrors (and that’s horrors in the pejorative sense of the term) of the 1950s to see the truth of this.  One sure fire way to gauge the quality of a sci-fi film is to watch it thirty years after its release and see whether it compares favourably with what is currently being made.  Few sci-fi films pass this test but one that most assuredly does is Ridley Scott’s spacebound horror masterpiece, Alien.  And there is a good chance is that in another thirty years’ time it will still look just and good.   The film catapulted Sigourney Weaver to stardom and she would feature in the three sequels, giving us one of cinema’s most convincing female action heroes.

Some would argue that Alien isn’t really a sci-fi film at all, but rather a horror film of the classic Old Dark House variety, a forerunner of today’s slasher movie - Friday the 13th In Space, if you will.  The sci-fi elements of the film are peripheral to the plot, which is basically about a bunch of nice people being lured to a grisly end by a psychopathic something lurking in the shadows.  What makes the film so special and so enduring is that the sci-fi backdrop is painted with deadly seriousness.  Nothing in this film feels implausible – which is why it is still so shocking.  It is the trenchant realism of the characters and their setting that elevates Alien above the mediocre and makes it one of the true classics of the sci-fi and horror genres.  In every department – particularly the design and acting - Alien still manages to impress.

It is incredible to think that this is only Ridley Scott’s second film as a director.  Having worked as a designer at the BBC in the 1960s, Scott spent much of his time in the 1970s turning out TV commercials before making his directorial debut with The Duellists (1977).  He would go on to direct some of Hollywood’s biggest successes in the following decades, including Blade Runner (1982), Thema & Louise (1991) and Gladiator (2000).  Alien shows Scott at his best and the director turns in one of the most gripping, suspenseful and visually innovative thrillers of all time.  

Unusually for a science-fiction film, Alien won immediate critical acclaim.  It was a major box office success, grossing over 100 million dollars worldwide (recouping its production cost almost by a factor of ten) and the groundbreaking visual effects won the film its one Oscar.   Like Star Wars before it, Alien was a merchandiser’s dream and an avalanche of books, games and toys swiftly capitalised on the film’s popularity.  There were three sequels: Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992) and Alien Resurrection (1997) – the latter directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the man who then went on to make the French classic Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001).  These were followed by two prequels Alien vs. Predator (2004) and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007), and there’s a good chance the franchise has yet to run its course.  Alien has been imitated and parodied endlessly ever since its initial release, which is a sign that it has earned a lasting place in science-fiction lore.  It almost deserves that acolade for its tagline alone: in space no one can hear you scream...

© James Travers 2009

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