With the upcoming release of Alien: Romulus, I wanted to go back and share my thoughts on the Alien franchise as a whole, going through every film leading up to Romulus.

My experience with Alien (1979) was both funny and one to remember. The first time I watched it was a weekend night back in the 80s. My parents were passed out in their bedroom. I was seven years old and was experiencing the joy of Star Wars. I loved Star Wars, it was arguably my favorite movie at the time, with nothing coming even close to it. Then came this commercial about this space film that was set on a spaceship that resembled the Millennium Falcon, or an Imperial Destroyer. Me -a naive kid- thought this new movie was the fourth of the Star Wars saga: “A continuation to Return of the Jedi!” – I innocently believed. Boy was I in for a ride. This movie freaked me out so much, I had to sleep with the lights on and FM radio playing dance music for about two months. Eventually as I grew older, I had the opportunity to rewatch Alien, this time from a more adequately mature perspective that allowed me to appreciate its greatness as an art form.

Alien works in so many levels that it is not challenging at all to properly contextualize why it is so great. The first reason I always name is the atmosphere. Right from the start the film’s mood feels unsettling. It takes less than a couple of minutes for the viewer to realize that something is not right. Not even a single line of dialogue is spoken. Instead, Ridley Scott slowly pans the camera throughout a series of hallways, rooms and corridors of a ship that is perfectly designed to convey a sentiment of hostility that will only be matched by the creature the ship’s crew will eventually encounter. The Nostromo is dark, almost silent, and barely features any comfortable amenities. This atmosphere is consistent through the film, which helps in building the tension within the crew of seven who simply want to do their job and get out of the ship as soon as possible. Then you have the crew.

The second reason why Alien is such a memorable film is the realism driven by each character. Contrary to other films in which a member would be given a specific trait (mostly a physical element associated to them), each character relies on their own persona to stand out and imprint an image of their personality on your brain -an image that will always be there-. Take for instance Friday the 13th. I mention Friday the 13th because at its core, they are both the same: slasher films. However in Friday the 13th, it’s almost impossible to name any of the characters, because they are devoid of any personality. They are just there to be killed and that’s it, with the exception of Tommy Jarvis. It should be noted that this is the case for all Friday the 13th films. In Alien however, each character feels like a real person because of how well constructed they are:

  • Dallas is the ship’s captain: he is a guy who wants to do his job. He does not stand out, nor he believes he’s the best pilot in the galaxy. He knows he is the equivalent of a space truck driver.
  • Kane is the second officer in command: he is similar to Dallas, only that he is more of a risk taker. You can see this by how inclined he is to investigate the findings around the Space Jockey’s spaceship.
  • Lambert, the ship’s navigator: a smart crew member who is shown to be an expert in her field, yet someone who is very emotional on matters out of her expertise. You can see this on every scene that features this palpable tension. Lambert is not a good decision maker, but an emotional decision maker.
  • Mechanics Parker and Brett: the former Lambert’s male equivalent emotional persona. He’s the outspoken and gets easily emotionally involved, in contrast to Brett’s quietness. They both only care about money, but they also care about taking care of the Nostromo, because they understand the ship is what provides them with money.
  • Ash, the science officer: completely passionate about anything related to science. An expert in his area -like Lambert- but unemotional, which is only due to the eventual reveal.
  • …and finally Ripley: the ranking officer after Dallas and Kane. A strong straight-forward thinker, she represents the voice that always makes the right decision. Even if sometimes her voice is ignored, you know that she made the right call.

As you can see, not a single character has a weapon, or an item to distinguish themselves from each other. The only thing they have is themselves.

And then the third and final reason why Alien works, is of course the film’s execution led by Scott’s direction: the camera angles, the lighting on the set, the music, the editing. Everything is done so impeccably, there is not a single flaw throughout the entire film (at least not one worth mentioning).

So there you have it. Alien (1979) in a nutshell. 10 out of 10.

HR