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Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at 10:58 AM
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In 1979, Ridley Scott, produced the movie Alien, a science-fiction account of a series of unfortunate events following a spaceship’s crews’ unexpected and unplanned encounter with a creature whose intentions are anything but pacific. While creature features have long been a mainstay of sci-fi fare, Alien was a clear and distinct departure from other movies in the depictions of creatures that were shoddily constructed or whose intentions were easily apprehended or friendly, giving audience members some respite as the various onslaughts and havoc wreaked unfolded.
The Alien monster was, and is, a hideous creature, whose visage could only be conjured by the twisted and tortuously fertile imagination of the artist H.R. Giger. Giger’s deft airbrush renderings and line drawings were scarcely familiar to the world when Alien was released. Keith Emerson had already been acquainted with him, and used his epochal art in ELP’s release of Brain Salad Surgery. Since then, Giger’s oeuvre has been seen in other albums released by Debra Harry and Korn, whose dark musical offerings are a perfect accompaniment to the strangly decadent renderings. Jerry Goldsmith, a composer of film scores who was solidly ensconced within the pantheon of great soundtrack composers was taken on to score Alien. Unlike John Williams, whose ubiquitously appealing work on Jaws, Close Encounters of the third Kind and Star Wars, had placed him at the top rung of film composers, Goldsmith had yet to distinguish himself to the public ear. Further adding to Alien's crazy quilt construction was a cast composed of actors whose names were likewise unfamiliar but to the most canny of film-goers: Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Iam Holm, Tom Skerritt, Yaphet Koto and a cat, Jones.
For those who have not seen the movie or know anything about the movie, to say this movie is a classic is like calling the Mona Lisa a great work of art: the words do not convey enough the importance and impact of the movie, and critics and theatergoers alike will nearly all agree with me. Without going into detail, for I do not want to spoil your fun should you desire to see the movie one day, I will say a few things about the movie to give weight to my assertions. To begin, Alien is a very unpleasant movie. From the beginning, Alien is a movie that is a vast departure from most sci-fi fare that preceded it: no gee-whiz laser pistols and funky space suits; no princesses and cuddly, furry creatures; no over the top musical exclamation points. From the inception Alien’s depiction of space is anything but the starry-mysterious void of Kubrick or the still familiar rendering of Lucas: it is harsh, cold place. In trailers, the phrase, “In space, no one can hear you scream”, was a gelid-breathed reminder to viewers that beyond the reaches of our terrestrial home, there is a place that may indeed be hostile to the presence of humans. Previous incarnations of the void had scarcely painted a darker picture, but Ridley Scott did so, and with broad, black strokes he made sure that the tiny gaps that were left were few and under his complete control.
Alien is a complex movie that explores themes and nuances of theme that could well fill a good-sized book. That is not the intention of this essay, but I will take a moment to describe a couple. At the core of Alien is the journey of the chief protagonist and hero, Ripley, who is played by Sigourney Weaver. In the vast cavernous spaces of the intergalactic freighter, Nostromo, Ripley is one of two females on the crew. The tensions of the job and the various inconveniences associated with it are referred to ostensibly, but the occult issues of sex and feminist self-determination are revealed with all the patience of a spider spinning a thread. The imagery of Alien is dank, and Scott and Giger appear to have made it so to lure the viewer away from the clunky mechanical world of the ship to a softer, more biologically vulnerable underbelly. Alien delights in its depiction of visceral elements, both visually and metaphorically. Likewise, sexual innuendo is abundantly displayed, from the massive phallus shaped head of the creature to fellatio-like scenarios involving the creature's introduction and various unpleasant encounters with among shipmates. The hero of the movie, Ripley, who is played by Weaver, exemplifies feminist self-determination. Partly through luck, but in large part through sheer grit and street smart sensibility, Ripley handles the job where the others failed. It has been said that Alien is a rape movie, a description that I subscribe to and consider of chief importance in the development and characterization of Ripley. Until I had seen Alien, I was accustomed to seeing females in such movies as screamers or damsels, rarely the gritty “broad” of Ridley.
In 1986, the Alien project was continued, with James Cameron at the con with his Aliens, starring Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, and Bill Paxton. Also staring in the movie is a young Carl Reiser, who appears in a role that may surprise viewers who are more acquainted with his more genial roles. Aliens doesn’t have the claustrophobic atmosphere of its predecessor, for in this movie, the dispatch of the monster has been left in the hands of a Colonial Marine force who goes after the creature with deadly naiive gusto. In the midst of the chaos and recalling all too well the monster’s prowess and appetite is Ripley, who in spite of her entreaties to approach it with cautious deference is brushed aside as a helpless bystander.
Unlike Alien, the music of Aliens was composed by James Horner, another composer whose work had yet to touch upon the public nerve. Like Goldsmith, much of Horner’s oeuvre was unfamiliar to audiences, but was employed with dramatic fashion in Aliens. Goldsmith’s compositional style was important in the development of Alien’s soundtrack, whose theme of the movie is eeringly familiar to alert soundtrack listeners. Throughout Goldsmith’s soundtrack, the eeriness of the score is pervasive and fluid. Goldsmith’s scores can be difficult to pin down at times, for unlike John Williams his signature is not clearly apparent. This speaks well to the composer’s craftsmanship. Horner is an altogether different animal, and his score is full of rampant, percussive energy. While Goldsmith’s score is more evocative emotionally with recognizable tonality and continuity, Horner introduced a score that depicts Cameron’s toy-soldier story in clunky, mechanical tones. Horner was not a hapy composer under the employ of Cameron, but his work was highly effective in creating the roller coaster romp of a movie that Aliens is.
Aliens, like Alien, is a pro-feminist movie, and Ripley is portrayed in her former mein, but this time her character is allowed to show a very rarely seen matronly quality. In the original movie, Ripley’s affections were allowed to soften when her attentions were allowed to fall onto the ship’s mascot, a cat named Jones. In Aliens, Ripley meets and befirends a little girl, Newt, the last survivor of a colony that has been decimated by scores of monsters who continue to wreak their havoc on the helpless and hapless marines. Further exploration of the female psyche is provided by Ripley’s interaction with the Alien queen, which is laying eggs at a furious pace. In a familiar scene, Ripley is allowed to glimpse at Her Regalness, who has purloined the winsome Newt and affronted Ripley’s honor as a woman and surrogate mother.
Aliens is not the claustrophobic spook-house film of Alien, but a purely action film that is highly charged with adrenaline and testosterone. Although the progesterone-fueled inspiration of Ripley’s character is important, its assertion is equal to the androgenic hormone, quite unlike the original film where progesterone is ascendant. Alien does have its surprising and unsettling moments, but is less cerebral than Alien and was very happily received by the public and critics who saw the movie as a fitting and decisivly wrought continuation of the saga.
Alien3 continues the story of Ripley with the hero crash-landing on a refinery/prison planet ominouly named Fiorina 'Fury' 161. Saved by the colony’s doctor (played by Shakeperean Charles Dance), Ripley learns of her whereabouts abd the strange millinerian philosophy espoused by the inmates, whose suppression of sexual tension is inflamed by her presence. In order to make herself less conspicuous, Ripley’s hair is shorn, a gesture that potends the character’s androgynous transformation quite effectively.
It soon becomes clear that Ripley’s escape from the creature was unsuccessful, and after several allies and acquaintances have been destroyed and learning that escape is the only viable option, Ripley makes plans to do so. The vehicle that will be so used is the very one that Ripley arrived in, the Sulaco, and it is there that she learns that she is pregnant. In perhaps the most diabolically ironic and horrific twist yet, Ripley learns that her baby is not human, a design that had been set in motion long ago by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, her employer. Although Ripley persuades a trusted inmate (Charles Dutton) to dispatch her, he agrees to do so only upon the destruction of the creature, a plan that has deadly and fateful consequences.
The movie proceeds in fairly predictable fashion with inmates being devoured by the creature whose resemblance has been transformed from the phallus-shaped ghoul of previous films to a puma-like animal. Perhaps this transmutation is reflective of Ripley’s own transformation, from a woman whose feminine sexuality was experienced only in rape or pseudo-motherhood, to the bald-headed, devoid of sexual expression. Further ambiguity is depicted in the depiction of the men Ripley encounters, who have not only been imprisoned, but effectively emasculated. This is a recurring theme that started with the first Alien, where the male characters were allowed to display masculine traits that were repressed as other priorities and adventures presented themselves. As captain of the Nostromo, Skerritt’s character was perhaps the most macho of the Alien saga, representing the pinacle of testosterone that only trickled down to the crew (in order of homonal expression: Yaphett Koto, Harry Dean Stanton and John Hurt).
The story of Alien3 is not as well constructed as its predescessors, which is no wonder as research shows that the screenplay was realised in 5 or 6 incarnations before the final draft was accepted by the director, David Fincher. Alien3 was Fincher’s debut, moviewise, and was a significant entry for a director known chiefly for his music videos which starred Madonna, Michael Jackson, Steve Winwood anong others. In fact, Alien3 does have a distinctly ‘80’s feeling to it, with pseudosexual innuendo reminiscent of Madonna’s videos.
Realisation of the creature was left in the hands of Stan Winston, who had been employed in the previous film and who had distinguished himself to his peers in previous work in Terminator, The Thing and the rock group Styx’s Mr. Roboto. The soundtrack was composed by Eliot Goldenthal, a New Yorker who studied under Aaron Copland and John Corigliano at the Manhattan School of Music. Goldenthal’s name is not one of the immediate public recognition that accompanies Goldsmith or even Horner, but is appreciated by his contempories who favorably review his “cerebral” and experimental repertoire. In fact, Goldenthal’s music is a dense blend of renaissance, avant garde and atonal elements that recreates the surreal, hodgepodge character of the movie, with plenty of crawling, undualting elements that get right under the listener’s skin. This is a great compliment to Giger’s biomechanoid vision which had been blurred by Fincher, who seemed to be more interested in leaving his own, singular mark.
In 1997, the Alien series continued with the reprise of Ripley in Alien Resurrection. French filmmaker, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who is better know for his movie, Delicatessan, was taken on for the project, which although a box-office flop fared extremely well with home viewers. The movie is set 200 years after Ripley’s last appearance, with the character being cloned and her DNA given a certain “diddling”. By now, Ripley has acquired "new" abilities and a strange empathy for the creature, a quality that will give her a ecided advantage when she encounters the Alien Queen later on. Meanwhile, Ripley befriends the singular Call (Winona Rider), a few mercenaries and various members of the crew. As the ensuing chaos erupts, Ripley, Call and the others plan to destroy the ship, sacrifing their lives in doing so, to destroy the creature once and for all.
Although the film was originally intended to be directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting), the project was eventually assumed by Jeunet, who took Pitof (special effects supervisor) and Daruis Khondji, with whom he had collaborated in City of the Lost Chhldren. Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis, who had worked with Stan Winston were hired for special effects, their firm Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI) employed by Jeunet to create a creature that was more emotionally expresssive and genitally endowed (post production removed the offending articles, alas).
Alien Resurrection employed heavy use of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) and puppetry, which gives the film a less than genuine feel in comparison to previous films. While characters are realized to some extent and some model making was employed, the film has an overall comic book appearance that give the viewer the rarely enjoyed convenience of disengaging himself from the screen safely. This is really a sad thing, for Alien and Aliens are relentless movies that never let up except in short moments, leaving viewers breathless and scared to death. Although the movie received mixed reviews, it fared very well overall, and was described as the 43rd highest grossing film in 1997.
The soundtrack of Alien Resurrection was composed by John Frizzel, another New York composer whose composition was influenced by sexual and romantic elements that were encouraged by Jeunet. Frizzel’s music is sweeping and conventional at times, but the composer does employ unexpected elements including a gong and rub rod to create soundscapes that befit the movie well. Frizzel, like Goldenthal, is not a publicly recognizable composer, thus giving his music a decided edge that leans towards Goldenthal and away from (the accessible) Horner and Goldsmith.
By the time the story had reached this point, the strange, sad, horrifying story of Ripley had reached its peak. Other Alien movies followed, including the banal Alien vs.Predator and the obscene Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, both of which received negative reviews by critics and fans alike. By this time, Sigourney Weaver had removed herself from the series, viewing the project’s continuation with distate. Puppets and miniatures were used more heavily giving the films an increasingly unattractive comic book look. Lance Henriksen, who had been cast in previous films, employed a European crew, marking a significant departure from the first film whose wink at American capitalism and foolishness were acknowledged by Cameron who, having witnessed plenty of arrogance and carnage in Vietnam, recognized Scott’s tacit rebuke. Harald Kloser (The Tunnel) and Brian Tyler (Bug, Constantine) were taken on to compose music for these sequels which did little to encourage Alien fans’ expectations and hopes.
The legacy of the Alien films is an important one for both film aficionados and scholars of man’s ever evolving relationship to himself, his fellow man and to the cosmos. As the idealized unsexed human, Ripley’s personification of man’s evolution is a troubling enigma. Earlier Alien movies present her character as a foil to masculinity, which is variously described as prone to bumbling foolishness, careless decisions and hapless mistakes. In the first Alien movie, this wont was borne out of a desire to assist a shipmate in distress. By the time the real source of Alien’s entry was revealed, the blame fell squarely and amorphously upon the heads of “The Company” and an android. By the end of the second movie, the Company had a name and its representatives were identified and humanized. Yet this indictment of capitalism and decadent war between the sexes was submerged in later movies that were more interested in more prurient depictions of sexuality and blurred the lines between characters' intentions and desires.
For enjoyers of soundtracks, the Alien movies employed composers whose names and signature forms continue to prickle and satisfy our ears. Jerry Goldsmith, perhaps the best known composer in the series, is a true master, producing a work that will long be appreciated by musicians and fans alike, who still long to listen to melody and form. Goldsmith's evocative and haunting score is both lyrical and otherworldly: quite unlike Williams' and Holsts' somewhat schmalzy homages to space. Horner, whose music is equally impressive as Goldsmith’s, is cut of a different cloth. While Horner’s scores have great emotional appeal at times (Glory) his scores have a viscerally appealing and muscular signature that Goldsmith’s richly textured scores sometimes lack. Listen to Horner’s score for the movies 48 Hours or Gorky Park: these are terrific compositions and exemplify the percussive and mechanically lyrical quality that made his work on Aliens so appealing. As Alien continued, more composers were asked to contribute their talents, yet by episode 3, much of the musicality that enriched the previous films was diluted in onomatopoeiac confusion.
The Alien movie saga is a vastly appealing series that can be discussed for a lifetime, covering very many points of view and reference. From the Freudian-Jungian perspective to discussion centered on the aesthetic integrity of the films, these documents took an unflinching view at the human experience in space and warned us that our presence may not be welcomed. Today, as Americans and allies tromp on the soils of peoples who ill regard their presence, it would do well to have some familiarity with the perils of doing so. Alien is, then, a cautionary tale that speaks not only today, but for the ages. |
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