What makes Alien great? Some points on that
Ridley Scott’s latest installment from the Alien franchise, called Alien Covenant solidified itself on the top of North American box office last weekend. Alien: Covenant managed to earn $36,160,621 pushing Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 to the second place and earning pretty solid reviews from the film critics.
While Alien Covenant is much better than its predecessor Prometheus, let’s take a moment and reflect on the legacy of the movie that started the whole franchise. Alien. ScreenPrism did a fantastic video analyses of Ridley Scott classic and in the process, reminded us on why we love the movie so much.
Well for one, Alien popularized the hybrid „space-horror“ and since then influenced countless other films, and draw inspirations both from horror and SF. ScreenPrism also emphasized on the distinctive circular camera movement, the ship design, lightning, alien creature, but also the psycho-sexual overtones of the creature’s picking of its male victims..
Last but not least is the mentioning of the main hero, Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver) and how she rose from „one of the guys/crew members“status to being the strong female characters that the movies of the time were lacking.
ScreenPrism argues that that transition is made smoothly and that the precise appeal of Ripley is that she’s not damsel in destress. She’s strong but also vulnerable. Even her appearance is contradictory at times. We can see her in her femininity in her underwear, but on the other hand her hairstyle, makeup and uniform blends her to the rest of the crew.
You can find the rest of the video analyses of Alien in ScreenPrism’s video called Alien Explained: The Bold, Enduring Space Horror.
Enjoy.
