Science Fiction Film Review: Alien

I recently decided to watch a number of science fiction films and review them. This is the first post in the series.

Alien, 1979
Review: 3/10

The film, though initially beautiful and visually intriguing, fails to live up to its cult status. As the movie began I had a strong feeling of being transported into a foreign world consisting of cities built on platforms drifting through unknown parts of some unidentified solar system. However, as the “story line” develops, what initially seemed so strange and beautiful becomes something so very much familiar. Alien, in essence, is a story about a a group of scientists discovering and then having to combat an alien. The basic idea: the alien is really really scary.

Whilst watching there were a number of times during which I thought my negative reactions were perhaps too hasty. All of the initial encounters between the protagonists and the  alien are driven by a strong human curiosity, suggesting that there is something about our desire to know which drives us towards some sort of bestial darkness. The film is at times also haunted by a sense of futility as the scientists use their technology to escape the death that this alien embodies. None of these associations, however, were developed in any form during the film.

If one were to reduce this movie to a mathematical formula they would consist very much of the same set of patterns and numbers as virtually any other Hollywood screenplay today. Scenes of silence followed by sudden and scary noises. Brief visuals of women crying. People screaming etc. Alien is complete nonsense.

Why? Because it is a cultural product of capitalism. Its purpose is not to inspire its audience or speak to those of them who want to strive for something higher. 20th Century fox made the film to make money. And to do this they need to appeal to the broadest, least interesting and comparatively speaking dumbest part of the populace. Anything else wont sell.