ALIEN (1979) Directed by Ridley Scott
The movie begins with the space vehicle ‘Nostromo’ returning from somewhere in Deep Space. The ‘Nostromo’ is carrying a cargo of some kind or another and it is heading for Earth.
The crew are just lazing around stoned out of their brains when one of them suggests landing on a Strange Planet and kidnapping an Alien, just for a laugh.
Three of them go off looking for one, and they are just about to give up when luckily John Hurt captures an Alien by swallowing it whole.
The story could have taken a wrong turn towards schmaltz at this point but Scott is skilled at handling this kind of scene and makes no mistake.
The unfortunate beast (the Alien) immediately falls into a coma due to all the alcohol in John Hurt’s digestive system.
When the crew return to the ‘Nostromo’ for lunch, the Alien decides to go along with them in a coma. They all sit down at the table. Pretty soon, someone, I’m not sure who, passes John Hurt some coleslaw or something and he eats it. This wakes the Alien from his coma.
The Alien is not so much bothered by the coleslaw but it is afraid of custard (most Aliens are allergic to custard). So it takes the shortest route out of John Hurt and runs away to hide.
After dessert, which is fruit salad or cheese and biscuits, the crew go to look for the Alien, all except for John Hurt who is a bit wasted.
This scene serves the dual purpose of liberating a trapped Alien from dire circumstances and stopping the movie from becoming too obsessed with food like The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover and Delicatessen, five turkeys if ever I saw one.
A series of peculiar and unlucky coincidences now ensues. First of all, Harry Dean Stanton unfortunately dies of a heart attack (happily we’ve got the Alien as a witness). Then Tom Skerritt trips and bangs his head and dies when the Alien is just trying to be friendly.
Later on, Yaphet Kotto is killed in the clearest case of self-defence you could imagine. And to cap it all, that other girl dies as well. I’m not sure how but it was an accident.
Ian Holm had died previously, all except for his head, and this scene raised a few critical eyebrows, but it was pretty mild stuff compared with Alfredo Garcia’s head in ‘Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia’.
Next thing you know, the ‘Nostromo’ is about to blow up so Sigourney Weaver, the Alien and the cat (Jonesey) escape in a smaller spaceship, which has facilities noticeably inferior to those available on the ‘Nostromo’.
The Alien is lying in a corner, just hanging out, when Sigourney Weaver tries to push it out of the smaller spaceship into Outer Space.
Despite putting up a plucky fight, the Alien is despatched into space (by Sigourney Weaver). Sigourney Weaver and the cat then smoke some more weed before drifting off into a metaphorical oblivion towards Earth.
This is a tragi-comedy in the same spirit as ‘The Duchess Of Malfi’ and 'The Comedy Of Errors. A credible plot, lots of accidents and convincing food make ‘Alien’ definitely worth a look.
Four Stars (****)
