Alien
Nostromo is Italian for "boatswain", the person with highest authority on a ship. In the case of Alien, it's the name of the cast's commercial towing spaceship. But this is ironic because the real authority is not any one person on the Nostromo. It's the company that owns it; they ultimately pulls the strings to get what they want, no matter the cost.
Alien is one of the first famous depictions of a realistic and gritty sci-fi world that strays from the utopian setting most sci-fi of the time gravitated too. Popular sci-fi of the time like Star Trek or Doctor Who were celebrations of the universe's beauty. A universe easily traversed by the post-scarcity communist crew of the Enterprise, or the more wizard than alien "Timelord" known as the Doctor. But despite being in space, the image we see and the greater implied universe in Alien is practically breathing with a working-class realism that is just as reminiscent of our present as it is futuristic. The sets of the USCSS Nostromo were made with real aircraft parts, and were fitted with the old and bulky tube televisions of the time. This makes the Nostromo feel utilitarian and just as lived in as its characters, with its specified language of corporate-looking symbols and its damp and heaving pipes. The whole ship looks like a combination of unrelated factory parts, rather than a bespoke and specified feat of engineering. It's this mastery of set design that helps build the world of Alien, and immerse the viewer.
But Alien's set design doesn't stop with the futuristic capitalist space aesthetic. The film's artistic direction completely changes for the alien and it's planet. The planetoid LV-426 is a dark, windy, and barren place. It's odd rock formations and blinding fog is only occupied by one other thing of notability, the Derelict. Designed by H.R. Giger, the Derelict is a biomechanical mass of psychosexual discomfort and eeriness, with phallic structures and vaginal openings abundant. Giger's famous biomechanical style of horror was deployed in Alien to give the film a timeless and truly unique look, and it works. But moving on from set design, Giger's work is still very important.
The alien (named in the sequel as the Xenomorph) is a vaguely humanoid, jet-black, slimy, grotesque thing. It's phallic head and feminine features melt with its monstrous aspects, like its two mouths, eight-foot tall figure, lengthy tail, and multiple horns (for lack of a better word) on its back. This creates a horrifying but familiar sight. The alien's nature is simple: hunt, nest, and kill. If you're lucky, it will kill you immediately with its piston-like second mouth as it plunges inside your cranium. If you're unlucky, it will (as seen in the Director's cut) keep you alive and leave you in its nest to painfully metamorphosise into an egg. "It's structural perfection is matched only by its hostility".
Between the Nostromo's crew is a very realistic and believable work dynamic. Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Jon Hurt, Yaphet Koto, Tom Skerritt, and Harry Dean Stanton play their roles in a way that demonstrates their mastery of acting. The captain has the final say, and the more desk job-oriented members getting paid more than the engineers. Just about everyone smokes, isn't ecstatic about their job, and works to live, not the other way round. It's this gritty and relatable depiction of working people that, despite the sci-fi setting, allow viewers to really understand and empathise with them. This allows their torture to hurt us more. And on top of this, each character has a distinct personality that mixes (or clashes) together to create believable motives and story beats that are far from contrived.
The film is beautifully shot by Ridley Scott and Derek Vanlint. The lighting is usually harsh but scarce. The cinematography embodies the feelings and mood present in the scene and, watching it in modern times, the grain of the film adds a lot of character in grittiness. The composition of the mise-en-scène and the actors is always beautiful to see on an aesthetic level, and on an informal level, it symbolises some pretty important beats of the story.
There is a lot more I could talk. The screenplay, studio interference, the score, the sound design and foley. But frankly, if you haven't decided to watch it after all this, then I don't know what to say. This film is a benchmark in horror, science-fiction, and the history of film. It has inspired countless of film makers to pursue their passion, and its effect on popular culture is profound. Alien is preserved in the library of congress for good reason. I wholeheartedly recommend this film.
@_dusklo lol