Last night my wife and I watched ALIEN (1979) for the first time ever. The 70s classic suspense movie that took the world by storm! Coming in from a post-Star Wars world, this movie is a whole new tone of sci-fi and it RULES! I genuinely regret not having seeing this earlier! There is so much to love about this movie, and it does not disappoint. Even though I’ve known about all the pop culture references from this movie, I was still reacting to them as if I had forgotten they were even a thing. It is such a great movie.
Ridley Scott truly knows how to make you feel isolated and vulnerable, while also giving you some of the most suspenseful moments in a single movie. Alien is truly a masterpiece of art. And it was cast perfectly. The crew of 7 intercepts a foreign message, they explore the planet of origin to find an interesting hive of eggs, only to have one of their crew members infected. It shows that humans don’t mind their business and are the cause of their own downfall.
Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto play off each other extremely well. Scientists who’ve done research together on many space missions before, but this puts their professional relationships to the test.
I also loved how old and broken down the ship looked as we were exploring this huge vessel for transport of goods. I loved how hot and sweaty the ship looked. It’s seen action before. I loved how foreign the alien planet looked. How lonesome everything was. I loved how every decision made felt critical. I loved how everything becomes turmoil very quickly. I loved the way suspense was built throughout the entire movie. And it was satisfying. Everything that needed to be shown was, and things that didn’t need to be, weren’t. I loved those split second moments where the crew was picked off. If you blinked, you missed it, but you knew exactly what was happening the entire time. It ROCKS. ALIEN is such a phenomenal movie. Again, I genuinely regret NOT having seen this movie before. I’m so amped up about how great this movie was, I want to see it in a theater whenever it’s showing next!
I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars – You can see what I’m currently watching by following me on Letterboxd @ roberthawk
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