It is stunning.
It is a key moment in cinema and not just Alien. It
will forever be stunning in the history of this world.
... How many ages hence
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
In states unborn and accents yet unknown!
(Julius Ceasar) William
Shakespeare
Congratulations Sir Ridley.
 |
| knighted for services rendered to Hollywood |
Prior to Alien space
travel was depicted as expedition by cruise ships (2001: A Space Odyssey 1968, Star
Wars
1977). The
Nostromo is a haulage vehicle crewed by a blue collar workforce. All
militaristic and nationalistic glamour of flyboys (Star Trek: The Motion
Picture 1979) is gone. The future is as
bright as the stars for the (Leyland) corporation. It is as dark as the void
for the working poor. These are the slaves who built Pharaoh’s pyramids; the
peasants who tilled the land for the owners; the miners in Virginia3; the fishermen in Somalia4; the ‘truckers in space’.
the miners in Virginia
The Nostromo aesthetic and the character profile
of the crew were so resonant it has become the paradigm for movies set in space
(Event Horizon 1997, Pitch Black 2000, Pandorum 2009). John Carpenter’s The Thing 1982 takes place in the
polar desert of Antarctica; that is to say outer space on terra firma.
It is referred to as a remake of The
Thing from Another World 1951 but the film is a more faithful adaptation of the novella Who Goes There? 5. That
notwithstanding Carpenter’s film uses Alien’s
template so much so it could be referred to as Alien2.
The characters in The
Thing have no backstory. There is no subplot. The monster is awe inspiring and had
hitherto not been seen in cinema. The crew is unarmed and
have to improvise weaponry. The monster is parasitic. If the only influence Alien had
on cinema was The
Thing then this alone would make it a classic. I urge the
reader to watch both movies back-to-back.
Alien belongs
to Ridley Scott but he is no auteur. A head of state has his kitchen cabinet.
The manager of a football club has his coaching staff. Alien had
HR Giger.
 |
| Alien breeder |
Alien had
Dan O’Bannon6. Before he wrote the
former he wrote Dark
Star 1974 directed
by John Carpenter. He has since wrote (and directed) The Return of the Living Dead 1985 and Total Recall 1990. He died in 2009.
R.I.P.
Alien had
a cast everyone remembers. The Nostromo’s seven-man crew included two women neither
of who wore short skirts or flicked their hair. They were plausible and
credible. To emphasise the point of how good the cast was – all of them are
still working today. Horror as a genre does not create movie stars. The
exception to this is Halloween 1978. The other exception
is Alien.
If Hollywood had created Romeo and Juliet they would have made a sequel and a prequel. 20th
Century Fox made Alien and
they made more than enough sequels to obliterate all goodwill. Thus it is time
for the prequel. In 2010 Universal insisted their (then) forthcoming The Thing 2011 was
a prequel to John Carpenter’s masterpiece. I denounced it as a remake.
Every
year I put on a new label. One year it’s beer. Then the next year we call it ‘light
beer’. And then the next year it’s ‘cold’, ‘filtered’ or ‘dry’. You know what?
We can’t make enough of that shit.
The
Larry Sanders Show (218)
Sir
Ridley Scott is at the end of his career because he’s at the end of his
lifespan. Prometheus 2012 is a flail at
legacy. His 35 year career boasts box office success (Black Hawk Down 2001, Gladiator 2000) and fanboy
favouritism (Blade Runner 1981). That does not
constitute a great filmmaker or a great career. Despite Thelma & Louise 1991 he’s no Spike Lee,
Oliver Stone, Martin Scorcese, or even David Fincher. The fact is Scott’s
turkeys account for more than his triumphs. He’s a punch drunk boxer; a mid-table
football team. He’s a commercial filmmaker.
Despite Scott’s protestations Prometheus is
a prequel to Alien –
otherwise it wouldn’t get made. 20th Century Fox and Ridley Scott
can fool their fanbase as much as they like. The fact is this time around there
is no Dan O’Bannon and there is no HR Giger. The white noise of marketing,
trailers, clips and advertising have revealed the new film to be no more than a
camouflaged cash grab. To those of us not submissive to Blade Runner it
will be another 3D light and magic show.
Last year Universal showed that their remake
of The Thing
could not destroy the legacy of John Carpenter’s opus. This year Rupert
Murdoch, 20th Century Fox and Sir Ridley Scott will not be able to
destroy the legacy of HR Giger and Dan O’Bannon.
 |
| Dan O'Bannon (1946-2009) |
Read more Thrill Fiction: The Woman in Black
1 Russia’s War Blood in the Snow Youtube
2 ‘haunted house
in space’ Slate
3 The Battle of
Blair Mountain Wikipedia
4 European Union
air strikes on Somalia AFP
6 Dan O’Bannon
IMDb
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