Alien 1979

Before watching Alien, I have to admit I was disappointed to find out that it came out in 1979. I sank down in my seat prepared to watch a low quality scientific film. The movie started playing and began with the first scene taking place on a spaceship. The lighting was dim and recognizable spacey “beep and boop” sound effects are heard within the ship. The camera goes around a white room with curved walls and lets the audience see the crew for the first time while they are sleeping in what looks like glass pods. Drama begins immediately after they emerge from their space beds. They find out their course has been disrupted because of an intercepted transmission of an unknown origin and that they are only half way to their destination. The title of the movie quickly comes back to mind and suspense starts to sink in.

The camera for the next scene is stationary in the sky while audiences are able to take in how big the spacecraft is as it slowly introduces itself on the screen moving forward on top of the screen towards space. The angle is astounding and it really makes you feel as if a giant spacecraft is flying over your head. As the ship nears a planet the camera’s perspective is further out in space and makes the spaceship look miniscule next to the planet. They disengage part of the ship and go towards the planet hitting some turbulence along the way. Immediately flashing lights and a shaky camera angle are used, and you realize that their bad luck is about to get worse.

Some of the men insist on exploring the planet even though Ripley, the dominate woman on the ship, is hesitant to put anybody in danger. The men don’t listen to Ripley, which becomes a reoccurring event, and we watch them open the doors and head out into an extremely windy and dangerous atmosphere. Of course, by them not listening, Cain is attacked by an alien. When he’s brought back on the ship, again, Ripley says it’s a bad idea to let him in, and they again, disobey. I quickly sensed the male dominance and thought it was ironic that the woman who was unheard was always correct and if they listened to her in the first place, the alien encounter would never have taken place. Mulhall agrees that there is a battle between femininity and masculinity. “The strength and orientation of Ripley’s instincts here are best understood as giving expression to her instinctive familiarity with her, subconscious inhabitation of, the conception of femininity in its relation to masculinity that underpins the alien’s monstrousness” (Mulhall). However, Mulhall believes that all the humans represent femininity and the alien represents masculinity. I disagree. I think that the ultimate battle is between Ripley and the men of the ship. As stated previously, the men of the ship never listened to her.

One of the most obvious instances was when Ripley and Brett were fighting on the lower floor. The pipes were blowing lots of smoke and were accompanied by very loud windy blowing. Brett and another man were teamed up and disagreeing with Ripley pretending that they couldn’t hear her over the noise. Ripley became fed up, and left the corridor. As soon as she left, one of the men turned off the pipes and it became silent on that floor. They could have easily turned them off to hear what Ripley said but decided her voice should go unheard. I think the Ripley represents the femininity and the men of the ship and the alien together represent masculinity. Though it may seem feminist I believe all the men ultimately kill each other. The men on the ship get themselves into the mess by not listening, thus killing each other, and the alien, who also represents a masculine figure, is the actual murderer and doesn’t care what the men, or anybody in that matter, have to say either. Though it was sad the entire crew is murdered, I loved that Ridley made Ripley the last survivor and thus the heroic figure. She overcomes the men and kills the alien who represented the superior masculine figure. Mulhall agrees, “Hence our sense that Ripley’s final, isolated confrontation with the alien is not accidental or merely a generic twist but more profoundly satisfying-something that she is fated” (Mulhall).

After seeing the movie, my initial disappointment was abolished. The loud sudden sound effects during suspenseful scenes made me jump, the close ups to people’s faces added suspense, camera angles and sound effects really made the spaceship seem high tech, and the actual aliens didn’t look like the fake low tech robots that I was expecting.

After Ripley saves the cat and kills the alien I still had a sense that she was still in danger. I remembered back to Cain and how the alien was inside of his stomach and questioned the cat. The eerie brass sounds start to play at the end that were always there when the alien was around. I found it interesting that Thompson had the same suspense when watching this last scene with Ripley. “Her brightly lit hand is posed rather oddly and prominently. It looks a bit like a face-hugger lying on her chest. At just the point where we might be likely to notice this resemblance, a dissonant trumpet note joint the soothing string music. Thus the narrative ends on a slightly portentous moment, hinting that Ripley might again be threatened by aliens” (Thompson).

Mulhall, Stephen. “Kane's Son, Cain's Daughter.” On Film. London: Routledge, 2002. 12-32.

Print.

Scott, Ridley, dir. Alien. 1979. Twentieth Century Fox, 2009.

Thompson, Kristin. "Alien." Storytelling in the New Hollywood. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1999.

283-306. Print