|
I was just a little girl when I saw ALIEN in
the comfort of our home. Anyone remember ON TV?
I suppose the novelty of our first night with
a subscription movie channel was the only reason
my parents let me watch one of my first R-rated
films. I wish I could say it traumatized me and
that I was never the same again. But the
truth is that I don't really remember anything
except that John Hurt must've had some really
bad food for dinner.
That was the only time I'd seen ALIEN until
reviewing this behemoth box set. I've often said
that DVD's are an obsessive compulsive's dream,
and this set proves it with all four ALIEN movies
in both their theatrical versions and special
editions and audio commentary for both versions
of all four films. If that weren't enough, each
film gets its own disc full of extras including
featurettes galore, deleted and extended scenes,
screen tests, multi-angle animatic, storyboards,
stills, original screenplays, director Q & A,
laserdisc archives, DVD-ROM content, etc, etc,
etc, uh, etc. There are a total of 9 discs, a
collection rivaled only by the LORD OF THE RINGS
box sets.
Of course, everyone knows that ALIEN THREE and
ALIEN RESURRECTION were not so great. I'd seen
RESURRECTION in the theater and couldn't even
bring myself to watch it again – a prime example
of how things can get royally screwed up even
with BUFFY genius Joss Whedon writing and direction
by CITY OF LOST CHILDREN's Jean-Pierre Jeunet
(click to see Teri's
review of that film).
The general consensus seems to be that ALIENS
is the best of the four, but call me an old lady.
It's just too loud for me – things blowing up
all the time and people screaming four-letter
words at each other for over two hours. I do
think that the decision to make it a combat film
and a complete 180-degree change from the original
was a smart move, though.
Now let's get to the good stuff – ALIEN. Dare
I say it but viewing this movie as an adult seemed
much scarier to me than when I was a kid. The
pacing is brilliantly slow. The stillness and
quiet gave me the creeps the way 2001 and SILENT
RUNNING did. Why don't we have quiet sci-fi movies
anymore? Sigh. Instead of bombarding us with
sensory overload, ALIEN keeps us on edge the
way good horror does – by not showing us too
much. When things do happen, the surrounding
quiet amplifies the terror. We only get to see
the alien in fits of flashing glimpses. We don't
even get a good look at the thing until the 93rd minute!
And what a cast. Sigourney Weaver, of course.
But what about Tom Skerrit, Harry Dean Stanton,
John Hurt, and Ian Holm? On the extras disc,
the cast reveals that the claustrophobic tension
that comes across on screen was the result of
some very real tension between actors who were
not well known or respected as they are now.
Speaking of those extras, the documentaries
on how ALIEN got made in the first place is a
drama all itself. The still very raw memories
of writer Dan O'Bannon, the strained relations
between Fox and designer HR Giger, the attempt
at every sequel to nix the character of Ripley.
And then, of course, there is everyone's different
take on the alien itself – its ambiguous sexuality,
themes of rape and impregnation.
Holy cow, I missed all of this as a kid! I guess
I wasn't a very sophisticated child. You might
say I was traumatized this time around. And that's
a good thing. You might not buy this set for
the other three films, but it's certainly worth
picking up just for the first one.
Aliens
Buy this Poster at AllPosters.com
|
