Film Review: Alien

Alien is a science fiction-horror film made in 1979 and directed by Ridley Scott. The film follows the story of a crew on a commercial spaceship that is heading back to Earth, only to come across other lifeforms. The crew lands on the new alien planet and discover a nest of alien eggs, shown in figure 1, one of which gets on board, hatches and causes the ultimate destruction of all the crew accept one, Ellen Ripley who is the main character and sole survivor. 
Figure 1. Alien Egg
Ellen Ripley is portrayed by Sigourney Weaver and her role in the film is a part of why the film is so memorable and celebrated even today. She is a female character who is not shown as the damsel in distress or as sex appeal and she dominates the screen by taking control of the dangerous situation and the threats to herself and crew members and she survives.Ripley has a responsibility and takes her work and job seriously "she also appears to have no romantic interest whatsoever. Instead, she furrows her brow and tackles tasks with a steely determination." (Brooks, 2009) One aspect of her character is that she shows a great deal of empathy as she strives to save the others and not just herself. Looking at her character design she is shown to not be wearing any make-up, covered in sweat, injured and tired which is shown in figure 1. The fact that Ellen Ripley is portrayed in this way is so iconic as she is shown in a position of authority, where her looks are not the reason for her respect or success. "We the audience refers to her by the androgynous title “Ripley,” and her obviously feminine first name—Ellen—is rarely mentioned." (Lambert, 2012) this suggests that the director didn't want to create a stereotypical, damsel in distress and so they distance the character from her feminism by using her more masculine sounding last name, this also gives her more of a authoritative sounding title.
Figure 2. Ellen Ripley
Ultimately Alien is quite modern and forward thinking in the way that the characters are portrayed and the fact that Ripley is still seen as a feminist icon within the film industry even today goes to show that some of the success of the film can be attributed to casting and character types.

Bibliography:
Brooks, X (2009) The first action heroine.
Lambert,M (2012) Alien and gender roles.
Found at: https://acvoice.com/2012/11/12/alien-and-gender-roles/
(Used on 26/10/16)
Illustrations:
Figure 1: Alien Egg
Scott, R. 1979. 'Alien' Film Still
Found at: http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/jc52.2010/GrevenAliens/index.html
(Used on 26/10/16)
Figure 2: Ellen Ripley
Scott, R. 1979. 'Alien'  Film Still Found at: http://www.writeups.org/alien-sigourney-weaver-ellen-ripley/
(Used on 26/10/16)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog