Ridley Scott’s Alien is not a horror film of monsters, but a film of monstrosities, and that is precisely how it has managed to stay so terrifying even thirty years after its release.
Scott begins the film with long sequences of shots in which the scenery is defined by that which is absent from it -- humanity. We are given shots that are close to the bulkhead to suggest the cramped size of the halls and long shots of the control module so that we see how empty it is. Even the film’s title segment is an exercise in minimalism as the title slowly reveals itself from the emptiness of space. Scott next takes us on a tour of the cargo ship Nostromo as it functions wholly without a human crew. According to Mulhall, this “subtly inflects our sense of the relative dependence of human beings and their technological tools. . . . the ship’s need for them in these unusual circumstances only emphasizes their superfluity in normal circumstances” (15). We are not even ten minutes into the film, and Scott has already introduced us to a world where humanity is unnecessary. This sets up the rest of the film in which the alien itself will kill the crew, not out of malice, but simply because they are interfering with its survival and it is kill or be killed.
This sets up an almost archetypal understanding of horror as defined in by Stanley Cavell, that horror is “the perception of the precariousness of human identity, to the perception that it may be lost or invaded, that we may be, or may become, something other than we are, or take ourselves for; that our origins as human beings need accounting for, and are unaccountable” (Mulhall 17-18). It does not frighten us when Jones the cat jumps out from the locker when the music has led us to believe that it is the alien spawn; it frightens us when the science officer, the only one who truly knows about alien life, tells us that the alien cannot be killed, that it is a perfect organism.
When the humans begin actively hunting the alien, the cinematography changes as well. We go from fairly normal shots of locations to shots that have been specifically set up to look symmetrical. The most striking to me was when Ripley was standing in front of the airlock, waiting to close it behind the alien and jettison it. The camera starts out looking through the open door and pulls back very quickly to show Ripley standing by the door. We move from lightness to darkness, and we still remain symmetrical in frame.
Aliens, James Cameron’s sequel to Alien, is often the first film in the series in which people point out the vaginal/phallic imagery present in the aliens. The facehuggers look vaginal in shape, and the giant protusion on the back of the alien’s head is massively phallic. But this imagery is already present in Alien. Over and over again in the film, Scott shows the crew in long shots from down a hall, which could easily be interpreted as a birth canal metaphor. The alien kills the crew to survive, and to survive, he must exit the series of tunnels and hallways in the Nostromo to be free.
Here it is easy to see the phallus the alien has for a head (via: www.dreadcentral.com)
This sexual imagery is most present in Kane’s attack from the facehugger. After the attack on the planet, Kane “is impregnated with an alien foetus which his body then brings to term and labours to bring forth into the world; he undergoes a nightmare vision of sexual intercourse, pregnancy and birth” (Mulhall 20). Jerry Goldsmith’s score only adds to the feeling that what we are watching is a nightmare of the real. Often, the score consists of metallic screeches and wet, organic squishes. When Dallas is hunting the alien through the ventilation shafts, there are three heartbeats present: a human heartbeat, the electronic heartbeat of Lambert's tracking gun, and an iambic rhythm in the score (Winters 17). [Note: this was corrected from the initial post. I had misread the scene being analyzed as the scene in which Kane has a chestburster. -Nick]. The last clear shot of Dallas we see is him crouching in the air vent before the vent’s aperture closes on him, as if to cut him off from the rest of the crew. The sequence continues, and the only constant sound we are given is the beeping of the proximity sensor that Lambert holds to track the alien. Even when the shot is not on Lambert or the device, the beeping continues, steadily building our sense of dread, because the audience knows that once a character goes off into a secluded part of the ship on their own, they will be dead before the end of the sequence.
The entire film is constructed so that what we see and hear is not the most violent imagery, but the imagery that will make us the most tense. Dallas, Lambert, and Brett all die off-camera, and all we are left with are suggestions of their death. Lambert’s swinging, bloody foot, the totally bloodless flamethrower that Dallas left at the third junction, and the screams of Brett that suddenly cut off, for reasons that are perhaps best left to our imaginations.
The sexuality of the alien has penetrated popular culture (via: http://alienlovespredator.com)
Your comments on the symmetry were really interesting to me. That seems like something incredibly hard to pick up on in a film and I am impressed you were able to see that. However, it does make me wonder why they would put that into the film, and what exactly the symmetry is supposed to symbolize or show to the audience. As with the last film, your attention to the sound was great. The music, especially with the heartbeat, seems very important to the tone the movie was giving off at each scene. The beeping of the monitor as the alien chased Dallas added to the tension of the scene enormously. The one thing I do disagree with you on, respectfully of course, is whether the terror of the film has stood the test of time. The concepts, yes, but during the actual movie the fear of anxiety I felt seemed to be the exact opposite of what you were feeling. I was more frightened when Jones jumped out of the locker or when anything unsuspected happened than I was at the overall movie. To be honest, I found it highly comical when the robot was attacking with no head and choking the crew member with a magazine. The references to technology taking over, while they may have been extremely scary at the time, seemed outdated to me. Overall though, I liked how your analysis hit a few different topics and I think you hit on the most important parts of the movie.
ReplyDeleteI think the entire layout of your blog was really good. You start off with how the movie begins with a lack of humanity, and state how it is a reaccurring theme throughout. I like how you move through the important scenes in the movie, touching on their symbolism and mode of filming in the same paragraph. It is all meshed very well, and really helps point out the significant meanings in the movie. Also, it is great that you refer to Aliens, it really gives your blog credit and the point you make even stronger.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to critique your blog, I think it's very well written and credible. However, a more conclusive ending may be a good addition or maybe even an opinion section.