Alien (1979)
“I got you...you son of a b*tch.”
One of three Ridley Scott films on my all-time favourites list (for the record, the others are
Gladiator and
Thelma & Louise), what's left to say about this classic? I did an
Alien re-watch this past rainy Friday afternoon while I had some time to kill waiting for the workday to end, and I realized I enjoy this film more and more each time I see it...
I'll just post some random observations:
As
@Link and
@Luigi both said, the film continues to look fantastic. I'm always struck by how timeless the movie looks and feels upon each re-watch. Sure the futuristic setting should be given some credit, but the Nostromo is just so beautifully realized that the film looks like it could have been released this past weekend. And all of this with just practical effects!
This is easily one of the 'wettest' movies ever made in any genre. I can't recall a single scene without some kind of moisture, whether it be sweat pouring down the actors' faces, 'milk' spewing out of humanoid androids, or the constant presence of 'rain' in dank, dirty alien caves or spaceship hulls. All of this moisture makes sense of course, considering the film's 'birthing' theme. Madonna once famously sang about how "inside, we're all still wet" but of course she was talking sexual imagery. The themes of gestation and procreation are as strong as they are in
Alien due to the brilliant set design. I hope the new
Alien Romulus remembers this...
Speaking of the 'birthing' theme, who can forget everyone's favourite chest-bursting scene? Aside from working on a purely visceral level, the scene is particularly loaded due to the victim being male. Can you imagine a scene like this in today's political climate, with a man being the recipient of an unwelcome birthing act??
All in all an enduring, timeless horror classic. I'm hoping to get around to
Aliens at some point this month. I haven't watched Cameron's sequel nearly as many times as the original, which is an almost criminal omission on my part...