{"id":3123,"date":"2012-06-06T08:03:57","date_gmt":"2012-06-06T14:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3123"},"modified":"2012-06-06T08:04:20","modified_gmt":"2012-06-06T14:04:20","slug":"revisiting-alien","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=3123","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Alien"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In space, no one can hear you scream. But in 1979, audiences at Ridley Scott\u2019s groundbreaking, science-fiction-horror-hybrid \u201cAlien\u201d there were shrieks aplenty. While Scott\u2019s hotly anticipated \u201cAlien\u201d follow-up \u201cPrometheus\u201d has been described as everything from an \u201cAlien\u201d prequel to a companion piece, it in-arguably shares DNA with its landmark predecessor.<\/p>\n

The \u201cPrometheus\u201d premise: Archaeologists discover ancient cave paintings of, you guessed it, aliens, and a team of intrepid explorers (Noomi Rapace, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba and Michael Fassbender as a robot) blast off to discover the origins of life on Earth.<\/p>\n

Bad move.<\/p>\n

Before heading off to catch a screening, it wouldn\u2019t hurt to bone up on the acid-dripping, egg-laying, bloodthirsty forebears Scott first introduced to the big screen so many years ago.<\/p>\n

The consensus about the first \u201cAlien\u201d was that no one had ever seen anything like it, except those of us who had. With its more lived-in, \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey\u201d-like attention to futuristic detail and S&M and bondage–inspired alien design by Swiss surrealist H.R. Giger, \u201cAlien\u201d was unique and an instant classic, adding the words \u201cfacehugger\u201d and \u201cchestburster\u201d to the horror-movie lexicon.<\/p>\n

Scripted by Dan O\u2019Bannon (\u201cDark Star\u201d) and Ronald Shusett (\u201cAliens\u201d), \u201cAlien\u201d tells the simple tale of a terrifying and deadly alien creature (played by slender, 7-foot-2-inch London design student Bolaji Badejo in an elaborate, tight-fitting suit) on the loose inside the outer-space \u201ccommercial towing vehicle\u201d Nostromo. \u201cAlien\u201d was, like \u201cJaws\u201d (1975) and \u201cStar Wars\u201d (1977), another case of a B-movie concept getting the A-list treatment from a visionary young director. Indeed, the \u201cAlien\u201d screenplay was pitched to studios as \u201c\u2018Jaws\u2019 in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s ensemble cast was superb, including English actor John Hurt, whose big scene has become a cinematic touchstone, and Sigourney Weaver in her signature role as Lt. Ellen Ripley.<\/p>\n

Fans of horror and sci-fi recognized that \u201cAlien\u201d owed a conspicuous debt to the 1958 B-movie \u201cIt! The Terror From Beyond Space,\u201d which features veteran stuntman and Western actor Ray \u201cCrash\u201d Corrigan in a less impressive, but sufficiently frightening, rubber monster costume.<\/p>\n

But nothing compared to Giger\u2019s creature. With its death\u2019s head \u201cface,\u201d phallus–shaped skull and snapping, slavering jaws-within-jaws, the Giger-designed Alien was unlike anything the movie-going public had ever seen. Like the mummy, Frankenstein monster, King Kong and Godzilla, the \u201cAlien\u201d creature has long since been admitted into the pantheon of greatest movie monsters of all time.<\/p>\n

\u201cAliens,\u201d the 1986 follow-up to Scott\u2019s landmark, turned out to be one of those rare sequels that, if not better than the original, was great in its own way, thanks largely to a young director from the Roger Corman School of B-Movies named James Cameron (you remember him). Weaver returned as Ripley as she would twice more. 20th Century Fox and the \u201cAlien\u201d producers deserve credit for maintaining high standards for the \u201cAlien\u201d franchise, especially in regard to choosing directors.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlien 3\u201d (1992) may have been a misfire, but it was a fascinating misfire, dir-ected by a young up-and-comer named David Fincher- (\u201cThe Social Network,\u201d \u201cThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo\u201d).<\/p>\n

The same is true of Jean-Pierre Jeunet\u2019s \u201cAlien Resurrection\u201d (1997), which in spite of its flaws, features one of the most unforgettably nightmarish horror-movie chase sequences ever filmed.<\/p>\n

Scott (\u201cBlade Runner,\u201d \u201cKingdom of Heaven,\u201d \u201cGladiator,\u201d \u201cBlack Hawk Down\u201d), now revisiting one of his early triumphs, has made many films that have withstood and rewarded repeated viewings, a sure sign of his greatness as an artist (of course, he\u2019s never won an Academy Award for directing).<\/p>\n

Numerous \u201cAlien\u201d–inspired books, video games, comic books and \u201cAlien vs. Predator\u201d films later, we anticipate Scott\u2019s \u201cPrometheus\u201d and its origin story and hope Scott makes us scream all over again.
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