Year:
1979
Studio:
20th Century Fox
Feature:
4/5
DVD:
4/5
This is a review for the Alien
disks of the Alien Quadrilogy set. These are two disks, the first one
contains the movie and the second one contains extra material. The
movie is in both the original 1979 theatrical release and a 2003
director's cut which consists of about a half dozen new scenes of
varying length added to the movie.
Alien is one of
the first (maybe the first) space thriller. It's the tale of the
Nostromo, an huge spaceborne ore processing plant making it's way back
to Earth. With a crew of seven, the Nostromo is a dark, dingy,
cavernous maze of a ship. Actually the living quarters have white walls
and approach the clean look of 2001, but most of the ship is dimly lit
with hissing noises and flashing lights and quite scary.
The crew consists of Dallas (Tom Skerritt), the captain; Ripley
(Sigourney Weaver), copilot and second officer; Lambert (Veronica
Cartwright), navigator; Kane (John Hurt), of whom I'm not sure what he
does; Ash (Ian Holm), science officer; and the maintenance duo of Brett
(Harry Dean Stanton) and Parker (Yaphet Kotto).
The crew is woken up from hypersleep to investigate a planetoid.
There's an alien signal coming from the planetoid. Once there they
investigate and Kane is attacked by an Alien organism that attaches
itself to his face. Luckily it comes off after a day or so. But then
during dinner an Alien baby erupts from Kane's chest and kills him.
Now the crew starts hunting after the alien, who quickly grows in size
to a big monster that starts killing the crew. The captain is an early
casualty leaving Ripley in charge of the hysterical survivors. With
time running out the remaining crew decide to self destruct the
Nostromo and get away on the escape module. Of course the Alien has
other plans.
This is the first time I've watched the movie closely and I'm impressed
with the whole look of the movie. The camera work and editing and the
feel is dark and moody. Director Ridley Scott takes his time setting up
the movie and the whole world, the Alien not making an entrance until
about the end of the first hour. Alien is a classic and launched the
career of Sigourney Weaver.
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The commentary
has lots of people though for the most part they were recorded
separately. I think there's the original commentary by director Ridley
Scott. There's Weaver and Scott; writer Dan O'Bannon; executive
producer Ronald Shusett; editor Terry Rawlings; John Hurt; and the trio
of Skerritt, Cartwright, and Stanton. Scott does most of the talking.
Cartwright has a lot of observations. Other people talk much less. I
thought the commentary was too scattered to be really enjoyable, though
it had its interesting moments.
Extras DVD
Contents
Pre-Production
Star Beast: Developing the Story [18:00]
First Draft Screenplay [Text]
The Visualists: Direction and Design [16:45]
Ridleygrams: Original Thumbnails and Notes [Drawings]
Storyboard Archive [Drawings]
The Art of Alien: Conceptual Art Portfolio [Drawings]
Truckers in Space: Casting [15:00]
Sigourney Weaver's Screen Test (Optional Commentary) [4:30]
Cast Portrait Gallery [Photos]
Production
Fear of the Unknown: Shepperton Studios, 1978 [24:00]
Production Gallery [Photos]
Continuity Polaroids [Photos]
The Darkest Reaches: Nostromo and Alien Planet [17:30]
The Sets of Alien [Photos]
The Eighth Passenger: Creature Design [31:30]
The Chestbuster: Multi-Angle Sequence [5:30]
H.R. Giger's Workshop [Photos]
Post-Production
Future Tense: Editing and Music [16:30]
Deleted Scenes [15:30]
Outward Bound: Visual Effects [18:55]
Visual Effects Gallery [Photos]
A Nightmare Fulfilled: Reaction to the Film [19:20]
Poster Explorations [Photos]
Special Shoot: Promotional Photo Archive [Photos]
Premiere [Photos]
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