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| Fig.1 |
The film starts with the crew of the Nostromo waking and investigating a transmission on a strange planet, which leads to one of the crew inadvertently bringing the alien on board their ship, although you do not see the alien for what it truly is until later on in the film. "One of the great strengths of "Alien" is its pacing. It takes its time. It waits. It allows silences " (Ebert 2003)
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| Fig.2 |
The set design of the ship makes it far more believable than other sci-fi has, just by making it less "clean, pristine, white, machine" and more gritty and older, it gives the ship a sense of time.
And as the film progresses the set gets even grittier, seeming more and more like the alien itself. "The ship is essentially a giant oil-refinery, but Scott wanted it to look like a gothic cathedral floating in space." (Zouch Editors 2010)
The acting feels natural, with the crew members idly chatting with each other, something which can really draw you into the film.
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| Fig.3 |
The design of the alien is rather phallic but contains effects of both sexes genitalia, which gives the film an underlying commentary on fears of reproduction. "Giger’s work abounds with sexual symbolism: human body parts are concealed in the composition and emerge to the unsuspecting eye almost like innuendos." (Zouch Editors 2010)
Alien is another of those films that age well and inspire many others, as well as containing certain scenes that are parodied by many.
Bibliography:
Images:
Figure 1, Poster (1979) [poster] At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alien_movie_poster.jpg (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Figure 2, Film still (1979) [film still] At: http://dailygrindhouse.com/thewire/movie-day-alien-1979/ (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Figure 3, Film still (1979) [film still] At: https://machinemean.org/2016/10/10/fright-fest-alien-1979/ (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Quotes:
Roger Ebert (2003) At: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-alien-1979 (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Zouch Editors (2010) At: http://zouchmagazine.com/building-better-worlds-the-production-design-of-alien/# (Accessed on 22 October 2017)
Hi Dante,
ReplyDeleteOK, so a flurry of film reviews all at once :)
I'll leave a couple of comments on this one, that stand for the others too (I have read them all!)
You have started to consider the main themes in the movies, so well done there. I would just say that you maybe need to expand a little, when you talk about what the film has influenced; so here in this review, you say, 'Alien is another of those films that age well and inspire many others, as well as containing certain scenes that are parodied by many.' Some examples would have been good? Likewise, in 'Metropolis', maybe you could have linked the Machine-Man design with that of C-3PO...
Just a quick note on the bibliography; this should be arranged alphabetically, by author's surname. So, in this case,
Ebert, R.
Zouch Editors