10 Things You Learn Re-Watching Alien
Ridley Scott's iconic classic deepens with time.
Alien is held in high esteem as one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made for damn good reason: the direction, screenplay, performances, production design and musical score are all first-rate, combining to create an intoxicatingly dread-ridden experience that has of course spawned a mammoth franchise of varying quality.
It is a film with a plethora of layers for fans to peel back on multiple viewings, and even four decades later, people are still uncovering new things they didn't pick up on the first, second or third time. Scott's more pared-down approach to the narrative forces viewers to dig in deep and keep their eyes and ears peeled for those small morsels that enhance the film's overall feeling.
With the much-anticipated Alien: Covenant due for release in May, a refresher course in the franchise's mythology is definitely called for.
At the risk of raising expectations unrealistically high for the new movie, it's time to get re-acquainted with the masterpiece that made Ridley Scott's career.
And if you're one of those strange people who's only ever seen it once, you need to re-watch Alien as soon as humanly possible.
10. The Pacing Is Slow But Perfect
If you haven't seen Alien in a while, something that might surprise you is just how sedate the pacing is, especially in the movie's first half.
The film opens with slow pans and long takes through the Nostromo's eerie, empty hallways, and the first line of dialogue doesn't occur for almost seven minutes, when the crew are finally roused from hyper-sleep.
Ridley Scott masters the artful, suspenseful slow-burn, yet in today's cinematic climate it's tough to imagine many high-concept studio sci-fi films having a pace more akin to Kubrick's 2001 than, say, the thrill-a-minute mayhem of James Cameron's sequel Aliens.
That's not to say that this approach would've suited all of the Alien sequels (certainly not Aliens), but it'd be refreshing to see the upcoming Alien: Covenant return to this patient form of storytelling. If anyone can do it, it's the guy who perfected it almost 40 years ago.