Alien (1979)

Ridley Scott

Alien is a science fiction horror film made in 1979 by Ridley Scott,

the film is about a group of scientists who find alien life which

later preys on them aboard the ship, many critics would agree it was

ahead of its time in many ways. H.R Giger’s work on the alien world

is genius, the environment in the film is built to get a reaction

from its viewer especially the male, and the film was able to do

this successfully.

“Alien is driven by feminist ideology and psychosexual theory.”

(Gordon, 2012), in the film the female character is shown no respect

she’s treated like an unimportant member of the team, but she later

goes on to survive at the end, although the film is driven by

feminist ideology the female character isn’t disrespected by the

makers of the film, she is portrayed as a normal female character.

Whether or not the film is driven by feminist ideologies is

debateable but there is no doubt the film has psychosexual

influences, the films villain is an alien who’s head is shaped like

a male sexual organ, while watching the film the male viewers aren’t

aware of this but are subconsciously are more freaked out by this

creature.

Figure 1. Film Poster

Most of the film is spent inside a spaceship called the Nostromo and

this is where the characters are in constant fear of being killed by

an alien, it’s poorly lit and very claustrophobic there is very

little space for activity on ship, some may even compare it to a

womb “When Ripley jettisons herself from the Nostromo airlock in the

movies harrowing fourth act, the accompanying sense of catharsis and

escape is akin to a new-borns emergence from the womb” (Gordon,

2012), the film is able to create fear and a lot of suspense due to

the fact that most things in the film are physically there, unlike

modern films which are saturated which CG effects, there is a

certain authenticity about characters being physically built in

comparison to 3D modelled characters, this factor brings the film

life.

Figure 2. Nostromo interior

The world in alien is fully realised and has a singular artistic

vision which holds up even to this very day because there is no

other film like it, the audio gives the viewer a better experience

as it sounds like you’re in the midst of everything as it’s going

on, “Alien introduced a new kind of science fiction horror. The

threat still comes from the unknown, but the environment and method

of attack were different this enriches film experience.” (Franco,

2010) Ridley Scott took aspects from the typical scary film and made

his own implementations on it; the film starts out as a horror film

and the science fiction aspects are introduced later as the film

goes on. The interior of the ship is very reflective of a

traditional science fiction film while the alien planet is so alien

that the audience can’t help to categorise it as anything other than

horror.

Giger suffered from night terror, which meant he’d fear and dread

the first few hours of sleep and painting was his therapy, those

paintings later went on to inspire his design on alien, apart from

his real life experience artist like Ernst Fuchs and Salvador Dali

inspired his work.

The film had an overall positive reaction from the public and the

critics “It is, in fact, an audience reaction picture par

excellence.” (Malcolm, 2009) The film gets the reaction its needs

from its audience because of the setting and cinematography used to

capture what the audience see, Alien is a film which is was

significant in the scif-fi genre and inspired many film to come.

Figure 3. Alien planet

Bibliography

Illustration

Figure 1: http://ryuhawk.hubpages.com/hub/Alien-1979-Analysis

Figure 2:

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/313130/in_praise_of_the_scifi_corrid

or.html

Figure 3: http://deadlymovies.wordpress.com/2011/12/22/prometheus-trailer-confirms-alien-prequel/

Quotes

Gordon, N. (2012) Alien is driven by feminist ideology and

psychosexual theory. In: sabotagetimes [online]

http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-film/alien-a-freudian-nightmare/

(Accessed on 27/10/2012)

Gordon, N. (2012) When Ripley jettisons herself from the Nostromo airlock in the movies harrowing fourth act, the accompanying sense

of catharsis and escape is akin to a new-borns emergence from the

womb In: sabotagetimes [online] http://www.sabotagetimes.com/tv-

film/alien-a-freudian-nightmare/ (Accessed on 26/10/2012)

Franco, H. (2010) Alien introduced a new kind of science fiction

horror. The threat still comes from the unknown, but the environment

and method of attack were different this enriches film experience

In: [online] http://ryuhawk.hubpages.com/hub/Alien-1979-Analysis

(Accessed on 26/10/2012)

Malcolm, D. (2009) it is, in fact, an audience reaction picture par

excellence. In: [online]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/13/derek-malcolm-alien-

review (Accessed on 26/10/2012)