{"id":851,"date":"2009-06-30T21:35:15","date_gmt":"2009-06-30T11:35:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=851"},"modified":"2014-05-12T16:59:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T06:59:46","slug":"alien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=851","title":{"rendered":"Alien [1982]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lets talk about Alien<\/em>, the greatest of all sci-fi horror films and one of the my favourite films of any genre.<\/p>\n

\"Alien:

Alien: Great film or greatest film?<\/p><\/div>\n

It amazes me that watching Alien<\/em> in 2009, on its 30th anniversary, on my laptop, its still capable of scaring the hell out of me.\u00a0 I don’t think you ever really ‘enjoy’ watching it but it certainly is affecting.<\/p>\n

Set aboard the spaceship Nostromo<\/em>, the crew are awakened from a cryogenic sleep by the ship’s computer Mother when it (she?) receive a distress call from a nearby planet.\u00a0 The crew explore the planet’s surface and find a derelict ship and inside, a giant cavern which is filled with enourmous eggs.\u00a0 One of the hapless crew members decides it might be a good idea to stick his head in to see whats going on inside and things get progressively worse from there.<\/p>\n

The fantastic Giger-influenced architecture and alien designs are part of the distinct visual trademarks associated with the film that have passed down through the series and influenced scores of imitators.\u00a0 This unique look was achieved through the use of scaled miniatures, fibre-glass sets and surprisingly simple visual tricks such as using children in space suits to make certain environments look bigger.\u00a0 All this on a paltry $11 million dollar budget.<\/p>\n

Alien<\/em> has uncommon patience in telling its story.\u00a0 It expertly builds tension over the course of its generous two hour running time.\u00a0 Which certainly isn’t to say that the film is ‘slow’.\u00a0 It simply resists the urge to rely too much on jump-scares and instead takes the time to follow the development of the alien as it grows from birth, changes form and gradually becomes a greater threat to the crew as it matures into an unholy killing machine.\u00a0 Some of the film’s most effectively freakish and disturbing scenes are from prolonged shots of the crew member Kane who is alive but has his entire face consumed by this guy:<\/p>\n

\"Facehuggers:<\/p>\n

I love the detail in Alien<\/em>.\u00a0 The cast are excellent and convincing in their roles because they look and play their parts to perfection.\u00a0 As a group of contract workers in space they are mostly in their forties and none of them are made-up to look particularly glamorous.\u00a0 They are disinterested in the distress call and are more concerned over whether they will get paid overtime for the disruption to their schedule.\u00a0 No one fires off snappy one-liners and instead they have every day conversations punctuated with coffee and cigarettes.\u00a0 The same film made today would add ten layers of muscle and sex appeal and everyone would probably be about fifteen years younger.<\/p>\n

Alien<\/em> is the film that made Signourney Weaver into what I believe to be the only ever bankable female action star.\u00a0 And yet for a film that is almost entirely permeated with a sexual subtext, it never feels like its pandering to win over a female audience.\u00a0 I’ve heard it said that the Ridley Scott wanted to make a film about the male fear of pregnancy and childbirth.\u00a0 Once you read about it, its impossible to ‘un-see’ it throughout the film.<\/p>\n

\""hay<\/a><\/p>\n

There is a lot going on in this world created by writers Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett.\u00a0 Like any horror film worth its salt, there is a lot of subtext and commentary about the age in which the film was made.\u00a0 Corporate greed, the plight of the working class, hostile attitudes to women in positions of authority\u00a0 are all themes that are explored in Alien<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There is so much to appreciate about this classic film.\u00a0 Fortunately, its been given excellent treatment in its DVD releases which are complimented by some excellent documentaries about its creation.\u00a0 The only thing I’m holding out for, given its recent anniversary, is the possibility of a Blu-Ray transfer.\u00a0 Make it happen, Fox Studios!<\/p>\n

\"Alien:

Alien: a film with sexual overtones<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In space, no one can hear you scream<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1800,5],"tags":[301,302,303],"class_list":["post-851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-classics","category-films","tag-alien","tag-ridley-scott","tag-sigourney-weaver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=851"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14715,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851\/revisions\/14715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}