Post by klep on Oct 26, 2020 7:44:05 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 10/26: Alien
HALLOWEEN WEEK!
"In space, no one can hear you scream."
With those words, a horror franchise was launched that has spanned four decades and over half a dozen films. Hot on the heels of Star Wars and spawned from the never-to-happen adaptation of Dune by Jodorowsky, Alien was one of those rare confluences of people at the top of their game. Ridley Scott was still a fresh young director and writer Dan O'Bannon was fresh off working from Dune and had a bunch of great ideas to work with. And of course we had H. R. Geiger's disturbingly sexual creature design creating a monster so terrifying that none of its imitators have come close to matching it.
Alien is a patient movie. It waits and waits, knowing that the waiting is driving you crazy. It takes a long time for the murders to begin, and even then it takes its time. There's a beautiful shot where Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) is looking for the cat by himself, and you know he's going to die. Any moment now. Any moment. What's that dripping from the ceiling? He's so dead. And then he stands under the water and lets in run over his face. Just enjoying it. And he isn't dead. And he isn't dead. And he isn't dead. And there's the cat! And he isn't dead! And OH SHIT.
The film is like that all the way through. Scott, O'Bannon, and co-writer Ronald Shusett understood the principle that the monster is scariest when you don't see it, and they stick to it throughout the film. It's not even until the final shots that you actually get to see the whole thing - we're only ever gives glimpses or flashes: a maw, a tail, a hand, that unmistakable head.
But the quality of the script and the skill with which it was shot wouldn't mean much if it wasn't for the cast. The crew of the Nostromo are all fine actors, embodying weary working stiffs who are in over their heads (with one notable exception). And of course there's Ripley herself, Sigourney Weaver.
At a time when the Final Girl trope was only just beginning to be established, Ripley was a 30-ish space trucker with just the right combination of luck, fear, grit, and smarts to survive the merciless picking off of her crewmates. In Aliens she would become an action heroine, but here at the franchise's beginning she's just a regular Jane; scared out of her wits, but determined not to let that damn beast get the best of her. Often imitated, never duplicated, she and the film as a whole remain the gold standard for sci-fi horror even after nearly four decades.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/2: Out of the Past
NOIRVEMBER!
Robert Mitchum discovers the truth of the old Faulkner quote 'The past is never dead. It isn't even past.' as he struggles to escape his own history. Come join our discussion next week of this classic noir from Jacques Tourneur! Out of the Past is available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/27: The Fall
Next week the Next Picture Show Podcast is running what was intended as a Patreon episode on Tarsem Singh's The Fall because it got too long and interesting not to make it freely available. Join us Wednesday for our discussion!
HALLOWEEN WEEK!
"In space, no one can hear you scream."
With those words, a horror franchise was launched that has spanned four decades and over half a dozen films. Hot on the heels of Star Wars and spawned from the never-to-happen adaptation of Dune by Jodorowsky, Alien was one of those rare confluences of people at the top of their game. Ridley Scott was still a fresh young director and writer Dan O'Bannon was fresh off working from Dune and had a bunch of great ideas to work with. And of course we had H. R. Geiger's disturbingly sexual creature design creating a monster so terrifying that none of its imitators have come close to matching it.
Alien is a patient movie. It waits and waits, knowing that the waiting is driving you crazy. It takes a long time for the murders to begin, and even then it takes its time. There's a beautiful shot where Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) is looking for the cat by himself, and you know he's going to die. Any moment now. Any moment. What's that dripping from the ceiling? He's so dead. And then he stands under the water and lets in run over his face. Just enjoying it. And he isn't dead. And he isn't dead. And he isn't dead. And there's the cat! And he isn't dead! And OH SHIT.
The film is like that all the way through. Scott, O'Bannon, and co-writer Ronald Shusett understood the principle that the monster is scariest when you don't see it, and they stick to it throughout the film. It's not even until the final shots that you actually get to see the whole thing - we're only ever gives glimpses or flashes: a maw, a tail, a hand, that unmistakable head.
But the quality of the script and the skill with which it was shot wouldn't mean much if it wasn't for the cast. The crew of the Nostromo are all fine actors, embodying weary working stiffs who are in over their heads (with one notable exception). And of course there's Ripley herself, Sigourney Weaver.
At a time when the Final Girl trope was only just beginning to be established, Ripley was a 30-ish space trucker with just the right combination of luck, fear, grit, and smarts to survive the merciless picking off of her crewmates. In Aliens she would become an action heroine, but here at the franchise's beginning she's just a regular Jane; scared out of her wits, but determined not to let that damn beast get the best of her. Often imitated, never duplicated, she and the film as a whole remain the gold standard for sci-fi horror even after nearly four decades.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/2: Out of the Past
NOIRVEMBER!
Robert Mitchum discovers the truth of the old Faulkner quote 'The past is never dead. It isn't even past.' as he struggles to escape his own history. Come join our discussion next week of this classic noir from Jacques Tourneur! Out of the Past is available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 10/27: The Fall
Next week the Next Picture Show Podcast is running what was intended as a Patreon episode on Tarsem Singh's The Fall because it got too long and interesting not to make it freely available. Join us Wednesday for our discussion!