Alien
“Could Brett be alive?”
It’s rare, but occasionally a movie just hits me right away. It can be story, setting, set design, any of those things or any combo of those things. Alien got me with every single one of those right away. Everything feels so looked after, it's an impossibly real feeling movie for something so out there. The way the ship's interior looks, the characters, the Nostromo uniforms and suits for god sake. It feels almost like the little brother of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and boy do I love that movie. As the movie rolls on, I just kept feeling an almost childlike sense of enjoyment and curiosity. After settling down from the high of the movie, I recognized the fact that isn’t that what film and cinema are about? That isn’t lost on me, that’s a luxurious feeling and one that I’m at least slightly convinced has reinvigorated my passion for film. Alien is like a good workout followed by a shower, comfy clothes, and Indian food. Personal, I know, but luxurious and perfect nonetheless. More than anything, Alien represents something totally new and unique for me in my time watching movies more seriously. I love learning, I love feeling like I’ve just made a discovery (internally and externally), and I love when I get to feel like I’ve never seen anything like something. Alien does everything above.
The story is innovative on a different level. I had read a passage about Alien from producer and uncredited writer Walter Hill in a book in Arrow’s deluxe production of The Warriors, and that sealed this as a film I needed to see very soon. It lived up to the hype and then some, and then some. Alien has, by far, one of the most suspenseful and mentally antagonizing stories accompanied by the cinematics to match. For example, the scene of Dallas crouching through the vents with the fire. I felt like I was there with him in that crawl space carrying that fire. Or the chest burster, my god the chest burster is perfect. Not instant, not overly drawn out, just perfectly devastating. The way the cracks in the crew's teamwork starts showing is so well done, a much more realistic portrayal of frustration and fear mixed in a scarily potent cocktail. I’ve never found myself rooting for a character like I did Ripley and Jones, I would have been just devastated if the end of the movie was different. I think cinema owes a lot to Alien.
Frankly, there could have been some of the most god awful acting known to man in this movie and I’d still love it. Yet, the delectable cherry on top comes in the shape of folks like Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skeritt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, and the rest of the doomed space travelers. It’s a win-win conundrum in my opinion, it can be difficult to decipher where Ridley Scott and the writers end and the cast's performances begin. Alien almost reads to me as a football team with an elite coach. One that puts his team in the best possible positions to succeed, and all his players have to do is execute the game plan. Every element of Alien appears tuned to perfection in my amateur film fan eyes. Peacock also does it plenty of favors with the state the movie looks on the platform, in fact Peacock has so far done nothing but impress me with the quality of the picture they put out. If you haven’t seen Alien yet, please watch it on Peacock. I’ll need to get the 4k of the film soon, and if it ever shows on the big screen near me you’ll need to pry the ticket out of my sweaty Alien loving hands.
Also, I want the cat.