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In Space No One Can Hear You Scream The tension in Alien is like a screw turning. It starts with the title sequence, the letters that form almost without you seeing them, becoming complete before you realize they're there. The story begins with a cargo space ship, the Nostromo, essentially a cosmic eighteen-wheeler, waking up in space. It, along with its crew, has been in hibernation for some months as it makes its way along the last leg of its journey home to Earth. The viewer enters the ship...it is empty, still, quiet. This early sequence is casual, almost languid. Sudden spurts of light or sound interrupt the rhythm and a sense of foreboding settles on the viewer even as they watch an unsuspecting crew of everypersons come to weary life. They are meant to be awakened when they are approaching Earth but before long they realize their home planet is nowhere to be found. Why then, have they been brought out of their sleep? There is an alien signal being transmitted, perhaps an s.o.s., from a nearby planet. They are contractually obligated to find out what it is. And so begins their descent into the maelstrom. From these early moments on, the crew of the Nostromo find themselves drawn inexorably into a nightmare. The director, Ridley Scott, concentrates on mood and atmosphere to set up what will come next. Space sounds hollow, foreboding, cold. Both the ship the crew work and live on and the planet they land on are murky and filled with shadows. Clues are revealed slowly at first and their significance stays hidden. As these clues start coming more quickly tension mounts and people start dying. The ship and the planet of Alien are stunningly realized. The Nostromo looks so real you feel like you've been there before. It feels lived in, worked in. The dead planet the crew lands on is like a haunted house floating in space, representing every nightmare you've ever had. Throughout the film the art direction by Roger Christian and Leslie Dilley is spectacular, transformative. Everything works to a purpose, everything makes sense, everything casts a spell. The sensational cast fits well into this milieu. From Tom Skerritt's laconic captain to Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton's disgruntled ship mechanics the crew is filled with people the audience knows. You may like them or not but you recognize these people. Ian Holm, John Hurt, and Veronica Cartwright, in their respective roles all bring gritty life to their characterizations. So, when things start going terrifyingly wrong you feel these people's pain, their fear and the tension is that much worse for that. Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, the role that made her a movie star, is the center of the film. Ripley is smart, brave and resourceful. There is a streak of ambition in her but mainly she is a professional. It is a masterstroke that at the beginning Ripley is the hardest character to like. She's by the book almost to the point of coldness. She is aloof, even arrogant. In the end, the audience warms to her because in crisis, she behaves as you hope you would. But none of these people are super-heroes, including Ripley. They are us. They all have moments of courage, integrity, insightfulness but they also have moments of foolishness and weakness. Here, you have working people, not chiseled, Captain Kirk-Flash Gordon types. This break with what was science fiction movie convention for the time is only one of many. That Ripley, a woman, becomes the hero of the film upended audiences expectations. Had the movie been made in the Fifties (or for that matter the Eighties – or now) the Nostromo would have been a military vessel with pseudo-nationalistic goals. Instead, the Nostromo is a commercial rig. These people are just doing their jobs and trying to make a living. This brings the characters and the audience closer to one another. Scott's torment of the audience is deceptive. He takes the lessons of Hitchcock and applies them to science fiction/horror. His work is all sleight of hand—dazzling set pieces and moody camerawork. Scott depends on the viewer to do some work. Throughout the movie you never get a clear shot of the alien antagonist. The alien is always hidden, partially seen or a shadow on the wall. When one crew member is killed the camera is on the face of the ship's cat, Jones, watching the murder happen. The death of another crew member is followed on a tracking device as the helpless crew watches the screen. Another time a crew member is frozen by the shadow on the wall approaching. With these moments –and others—the audience is made complicit in their own terror, actively participating in their own undoing by bringing their imagination to bear. It is a technique first developed in Hollywood out of necessity then abandoned in favor of giving the audience "their money's worth." It is storytelling at its finest and Alien is one of the finest examples we have in the lexicon of American cinema. email this review to a friend
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Jan 31, 2008 2:26 AM
Have you checked out There Will Be Blood yet? If so, what did you think?
By the way yo, I read your column on your favorite male characters and loved it. Half the guys you picked I didn't know and the other half I never would have thought of. But like Seth Gecko? OF COURSE! If George Clooney could have played Bruce Wayne with a little more Seth in him he would have been lights out. My list would be very different but you know, taking the risk of not choosing people EVERYONE might pick would make it a lot more interesting...
Jan 31, 2008 2:32 AM
I have not seen There Will Be Blood but I want to badly......your a good writer man Im glad you joined us!
Jan 31, 2008 4:19 AM
Jan 31, 2008 7:25 PM