Saturday, February 19, 2011
Alien
I personally did not enjoy this movie. I feel that I may have missed the point. To me, it just seemed like a bunch of gory alien horror. The only significant theme I can recall is the dangers of space age technology and the horror of encountering things outside of our world. Weaver's character seems to be the only rationally-thinking person on the entire spaceship who is more concerned about the well-being of the entire crew than the discovery of another species in outer space. She serves as the voice of reason among a cast of whimsical characters who tend to make rash decisions. Had her fellow crew members listened to her about leaving the alien creature outside of the craft despite the fact that one of them would die because of it, the majority of them would have been saved. = believe this serves to show the way humans are often very impulsive in the face of panic. e cannot seem to differentiate between the costs and benefits of our actions when there is so much at stake. It seems as though the horror and wonder of being outside of one's element.
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I don't think Alien is supposed to be filled with big themes and cultural metaphors necessarily. Could we dig and find one? Sure. But more than anything I think this movie is about entertainment. Outer space and the unknown were hugely popular topics during this time. Alien was able to scare and thrill its viewers through its suspense and use of a giant, man-eating alien. While I was definitely entertained by the movie, I wasn't moved by it...because that isn't the point.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the film Alien does have a lot of alien gory and superfluous creepy images, the film is designed to bring to light physical human limitations but a superior mental capacity. The alien in the movie is a massive physical specimen with superhuman strength and weapons for a mouth and hands. In contrast, the humans are relatively weak with no ability to defend themselves in a physical confrontation. But what saves Weaver's character is her rational thinking, not her ability to kick ass. Making a main character a woman instead of a man is the key to this point, because the physical limitations but more advanced intellect of a woman with a PhD is even more pronounced than the marines who perish on the ship. Out of all the movies we have watched so far, this movie had the most positive female depiction. This can sometimes be overlooked however by the gore that defines this movie.
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