A L I E N 30th Anniversary! by cljohnston108

OTHER SCIENCE FICTION SERIES

A L I E N 30th Anniversary!

POSTED BY: CLJOHNSTON108
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 15:37
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VIEWED: 3806
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Monday, May 25, 2009 3:24 AM

Hard to believe it's been 30 years since I defied my stepmother's edict, and went with my Dad to see A L I E N!
He was a set designer for TV, and we were both in total awe of Ron Cobb's Nostromo designs and HR Giger's designs for everything else.
They even had bits of the sets on display at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood: We walked past a patch of eggs out near the street, through the corridor into MU-TH-R's interface chamber, then out to face... the Space Jockey!
I consider myself very lucky that I got to see it before some religious zealots flicked a match on it ('cause they thought it was the work of the Devil!).
This movie and Blade Runner were like religious experiences for my Dad, and we were constantly talking about the design work.

I've watched it at least 20 times since then, and several more when I bought the Director's Cut DVD a few weeks ago, but I think I'm gonna fire it up one more time today, just to mark the occasion.

What say you all?

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Monday, May 25, 2009 6:00 AM

LWAVES

I say YAY!!

I watched Alien for the first time when I was young and I snuck downstairs to see it.
Late at night.
In the dark.
Curled up on the sofa.
All alone.

Back then there weren't any all night programs so the TV signal eventually went to a test card when everything had ran.

I didn't want to move when it had finished.
I didn't want to put my foot to the floor.
I certainly didn't want to creep upstairs in the dark.

But I did (eventually).

I'm hoping that the rumoured Blu-ray releases come about for the end of the year. Alien will probably suffer a bit through grain but Aliens should look fantastic and just think of all the detail a 1080p transfer should pick out if they do a decent job. Plus if they add lossless sound as well....

And for the record I still say Alien is better than Aliens (just) although they shouldn't really be compared as they are two different film styles.

"I don't believe in suicide, but if you'd like to try it it might cheer me up to watch."

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Monday, May 25, 2009 12:56 PM

CLJOHNSTON108

Oh, hey! It's "ALIEN Month" on this blog...

when is evil cool?: alien
http://vaultofthebankrobber.blogspot.com/search/label/alien

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 10:34 AM

LWAVES

Love the Lego man complete with chestburster.
It's a pity more licences couldn't be obtained to get many iconic movie characters done in lego form. I'm sure they'd sell but I guess the logistics (and cost) would be too great.

On a side note I always wanted a rubber facehugger. A LaserQuest game I used to go to had one but I never could find out where they got it. They used to drop it on unsuspecting people during the game as they walked around the gantries above. Really cool to hear them scream. In LaserQuest everyone can hear you scream!!

"I don't believe in suicide, but if you'd like to try it it might cheer me up to watch."

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 11:41 AM

MSA

Hey Lego Land is always looking for new stuff... who knows. Could be a Firefly lego moment in our futures

I can't remember when I first saw Alien, but I do know every time I got a stomach ache for months after I became paranoid...

To love someone is to see a miracle invisible to others.
--Francois Mauriac
It's fuzzy-minded liberal thinking like that that gets you eaten.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009 1:34 PM

WASHNWEAR

A few years back I bought the big collectors' DVD set with all the movies (theater versions AND director's cuts where applicable), and more bonus material than you can shake a really big stick at. I watched it all over the course of a week or so, and reckon that by now I am recovered sufficiently to watch at least the original again.

Alien exposed me to several concepts and notions, more or less for the first time, that fractured somewhat the Star Trek-topian mold my mind was in. In no particular order of importance I learned that:

1. People on space ships parade around in their underwear. For extended periods.

2. Cats apparently are totally cool with interstellar space travel. Except for freakzilla alien intruders, of course.

3. Corporations are evil (reinforcement, that - the seeds had already been planted).

4. Not all space ships are pretty, pristine things that just rolled out of drydock (reinforcement again - Star Wars did it for me first).

5. Chain-of-command, and respect therefore, can be pretty damn optional.

6. Uniforms, and respect therefore, are pretty damn optional. (I guess that's kind of a repeat of #1.)

7. In space, just because people can't be heard screaming, doesn't mean they won't be seen smoking.

W W M D ?
What would Mother do?

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Sunday, May 31, 2009 11:51 AM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

Quote:
Originally posted by cljohnston108:
Hard to believe it's been 30 years since I defied my stepmother's edict, and went with my Dad to see A L I E N!
He was a set designer for TV, and we were both in total awe of Ron Cobb's Nostromo designs and HR Giger's designs for everything else.
They even had bits of the sets on display at the Egyptian theatre in Hollywood: We walked past a patch of eggs out near the street, through the corridor into MU-TH-R's interface chamber, then out to face... the Space Jockey!
I consider myself very lucky that I got to see it before some religious zealots flicked a match on it ('cause they thought it was the work of the Devil!).
This movie and Blade Runner were like religious experiences for my Dad, and we were constantly talking about the design work.

I've watched it at least 20 times since then, and several more when I bought the Director's Cut DVD a few weeks ago, but I think I'm gonna fire it up one more time today, just to mark the occasion.

What say you all?

That's so cool!

I saw it on a date with my high school sweetheart at the time, which tells you why this post makes me feel REALLY old. I still love the movie. The girl? Not so much.

Mike

Build a man a fire and he'll be warm for a day...
Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

"You're a idiot." -AuRaptor, RWED, May 27, 2009.

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Saturday, June 6, 2009 11:11 AM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by Kwicko:

I saw it on a date with my high school sweetheart at the time, which tells you why this post makes me feel REALLY old.

Here I thought you to be something of a kid, Mike, seems we're contemporaries.

While driving home from the flick at night with my friends (first hand-me-down junker), I threw my head back, yelled & purposely veered slightly while thrusting my hand up in an attempt to simulate a chest-bursting.
Two were amused, one started cursing me & threatened to start walking home he was so startled.
Ahhh, High School days...

The laughing Chrisisall

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Saturday, June 6, 2009 12:09 PM

ANOTHERSKY

Apologies in advance if this makes anyone feel old, as I'm "something of a kid". Might be a comfort to know that to me, the film is startlingly non-aged. Like browncoats, it just gets better.

My mother, of all people in the verse, told me I had to see it, called it a "film classic". Which surprised me to no end until about ten minutes in when I had to agree.

Nice list, Washnwear. It just seemed more "realistic" to me, which is probably why I got into the 'verse a heck of a lot easier than say, battlestar.

There was one complication though--I'd seen Serenity and some firefly first. Thus, retroactively corpotations-are-evil was a foregone conclusion. There's something quite similar.
Therefore I burst out laughing at the hawaiian shirts. And couldn't figure out where I'd seen the Weylan-Yuitani symbol before. Inspired an obsession with movie refrencing that is still going strong.

Alien is still excellent, and 30 years later remains a very unique movie.

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009 10:10 PM

SHINYGOODGUY

Alien was one of those movies I did not see in the theatre and I regret it to this day. Don't ask, because I don't know why.

I was not into movies as much, I guess. But it is a classic and I try not to miss anything that may be considered a classic anymore.

SGG

Tawabawho?

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Monday, June 22, 2009 11:58 AM

TRAINBANDIT

Quote:
Originally posted by lwaves:

And for the record I still say Alien is better than Aliens (just) although they shouldn't really be compared as they are two different film styles.

I watched "Alien" when it came out in the theater thirty years ago. I was taking theater and we all thought it was amazing, which it was. I remember the chest burster...sigh...good times.

I think the second one was a little better, though, because of Ripley's character development, plus adding Newt into the mix made the whole thing that much more scary.

However, they should have stopped there. I HATED the next ones. I heard, back when it came out, that #3 was written by too many writers who couldn't get in synch. I do remember one good moment, though: when Ripley sits down to eat with the prisoners, the guy who eventually sacrifices himself with death by hot lead tries to intimidate her by saying "I am a rapist of women," and Rip just looks at him and says, "Oh. Well then. I must make you pretty nervous." Loved that moment, but hated the "I love you, little monster, erupting out of my chest," moment at the end, during her swan dive.

I didn't even bother watching "Resurrection" all the way through, I thought it was so bad.

I am happy with my movie one and movie two DVDs. To Ripley!

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 10:47 AM

LWAVES

Quote:
Originally posted by TrainBandit:
plus adding Newt into the mix made the whole thing that much more scary.

Yeah, Newt was REALLY scary.

She did what all but one marine failed to do.
Survive.
I love her line "They mostly come out at night. Mostly". It's just downright creepy.

"I don't believe in suicide, but if you'd like to try it it might cheer me up to watch."

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Tuesday, June 23, 2009 3:37 PM

TRAINBANDIT

Yeah, I also loved that Newt survived: she was TOUGH. And she had that Wednesday Addams sort of stare which just scared the hell out of me.

I also meant that putting a child in that situation made the movie even scarier. Bad enough adults are being glued to the wall and perforated, but kids too? Good plot device!

--------------------------------
Please, spend an hour with him!

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