Alien, 1979. My Journey into Science Fiction Part 25.

Hello, and welcome back to My Journey into Science Fiction Part 25. Alien, is a science-fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O’Bannon.  Alien was produced by Brandywine Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox, making the studio over one hundred and forty-six million worldwide from an eleven million dollar budget. Today, we have an official confirmation of a TV show in development for HULU, Audible creating a successful audio series and the possibility of a third film to complete Ridley Scott’s last trilogy. It is safe to say,  the Alien franchise looks as strong as ever. So, I guess it is time to go back and see where it all began.

It’s pretty hard to come up with something new and interesting while talking about a film that is much beloved by fans. However, I can be honest and give you a few reasons why this film still impresses me. I think this was the first film that gave me a real taste of the vastness of space. I remember watching it on videotape, and it felt cold, lonely and realistic. The silence in that opening sequence is beautiful, only disturbed by the awakening of a monitor and the crew of the Nostromo. Keep it simple stupid, is something I learnt on a training course many years ago, but I did not realise it would be a constant throughout my life. Personally, it has helped me make some good decisions and reminds me how I like my movies. I’m not saying Ridley Scott had an easy time making this film, but he makes it look effortless in many ways. The story is simple, as we have a corporation that wants a biological weapon at any cost and a crew that wants to make some money and survive. Not only do the team have to battle an alien lifeform, but they also fight for their own decisions within the group. Yes, it’s a horror set in space, but it is also a story about humanity and the frailties that come with it.

I love the silent moments in this film. During one scene, Brett Harry Dean Stanton, a technician aboard the Nostromo, is brutally killed by the Alien, but instead of showing the grizzly moment, you watch the reaction of the ship’s cat, Jones. Ridley Scott trusts the audience to understand what is going on at that moment, and he doesn’t explain everything, but lets the scene breathe, leaving the viewer to have a far more immersive experience with the film. It is a perfect moment and something I hope modern filmmakers bring back. Maybe this could have just been due to budget issues and could be a happy accident, but it works. The last thing that I love about this film is what I call The fairytale effect. It’s a good thing that Alien was the beginning, and other films came after it. However, I don’t think any of them will ever be as good as the original. They all have a somewhat different story, but it is just a reimagined version of the original. Maybe you didn’t enjoy Alien Covenant, but you sure will enjoy watching Alien again, which gives more meaning to the original film, and puts it in that sweet spot it truly deserves. When you do watch it again, it still looks pretty fantastic, and you suddenly remember, oh, this is the first time we see an engineer, or the beauty and frightfulness of an alien egg, and Ripley becoming the modern hero we all love. Speaking of Ripley, I also think this is the best version of her character. It isn’t muscle or fighting power that saves her, it is her intelligence, and that’s far more powerful.

After finishing Dark Star, Dan O’Bannon wanted to create a horror movie in space, with an alien that looked real. O’Bannon then wrote twenty-nine pages of a script called Memory, which featured the opening of Alien. However, it was working on the production of Jodorowsky’s Dune that introduced him to Hans Ruedi Giger. O’Bannon now had the vision of his alien, and was ready to try and sell the screenplay in Hollywood. Ronald Shusett came up with the idea of a crew member becoming impregnated. The chest-burster scene was used as a plot device to get the alien aboard the Nostromo, but is now part of popular culture. David Giler and Walter Hill, went through eight drafts of the script and finally created Ash the android, which they believed was one of the best characters in the movie. O’Bannon and Shusett later claimed that Hill and Giler wanted to remove them from the script and take it themselves. Despite the fact Hill and Giler wrote the final shooting script, O’Bannon was awarded sole credit for the screenplay with the Writers Guild of America.

I am currently watching The Beast Within, The Making of Alien, and the entire production was sprinkled with wonderful images, actors and revelations. I have repeated this many times in these conclusions, but it is always true. Sometimes you need everyone on the crew to be at the top of their game to create something truly remarkable, and Alien is one of those films. Ridley Scott certainly helped bring it together, but it is very much a team effort. I said earlier that the silent moments in this film might have been a happy accident. I’m currently reading about Alfred Hitchcock, and the making of Psycho, and Ridley Scott uses some of those techniques in his film. Most of you have probably watched the movie, and understand why it’s a classic. I am just glad that I went back to take a closer look at this great moment in cinema history.

So, where to next in My Journey into Science Fiction Part 26?  First up, I was going to visit the original Planet of the Apes, 1968. Jerry Goldsmith wrote the music for this film, amongst many other sci-fi favourites. My next choice was going to be my final one but something magical happened. Chris Foss was a visual artist on Alien, and also worked closely with Stanley Kubrick to create some early concept drawings for A.I Artificial Intelligence 2001 but I didn’t pick that either. So, the winner is Roger Christian, set decorator and production designer for Alien, plus the director of Battlefield Earth 2000. I do understand this is described as one of the worst films ever made, but I don’t remember hating it that much. I need to go back and see how the dust has settled on John Travolta’s passion project, and see what happened.

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