Dom Robinson reviews
Alien
Distributed by
Encore Entertainment
- Cat.no : EE 1088
- Cert : 18
- Running time : 116 mins plus trailers
- Sides 2 (CLV)
- Year : 1979
- Pressing : UK, 1995
- Chapters : 33 (18/12+3)
- Sound : Dolby Surround
- Widescreen : 2.35:1
- Price : £21.99
- Extras : Trailers for all 3 films
Director:
(Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, White Squall)
Producers:
Glenn Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill
Screenplay:
Music:
Cast:
Ripley : Sigourney Weaver (Ghostbusters, Gorillas in the Mist)
Dallas : Tom Skerritt (Picket Fences, M*A*S*H, Top Gun)
Kane : John Hurt (The Elephant Man, Rob Roy, "1984")
Ash : Ian Holm (The Madness of King George, Naked Lunch)
Lambert : Veronica Cartwright (The Right Stuff, Witches of Eastwick)
Brett : Harry Dean Stanton (Wild at Heart, Paris Texas)
Parker : Yaphet Kotto (Live and Let Die, Midnight Run)
Alien:
The Nostromo is a commercial towing vehicle carrying 20 million tons of
mineral ore, a crew of seven people, and is on a course heading back to Earth...
...that is until they are awoken from suspended animation several months
before their arrival to answer a space distress call.
When they land on the once-inhabited planet and go exploring, the unlucky
John Hurt is attacked by something strange which attaches itself to his face,
causes him more than an ounce of trouble, and escapes to another part of the
ship.
One by one the crew are picked off by the alien as they attempt to track it
down and destroy it, leading to an incredibly tense finale.
The alien creature was designed by H.R. Giger, who also worked on the designs
for the spaceship and the creature's lair, and was handpicked by director
Ridley Scott himself.
"Alien" is one of the perfect examples of how to make a suspense-filled film,
without resorting to unnecessary violence and bad language.
I was fortunate enough to catch a double-bill of "Alien" and "Aliens" at
my local cinema two years ago, and they are an absolute knockout on the
big screen. The suspense is in no way diminished on the smaller screen, the
widescreen ratio giving you the full composition of the picture so it makes
for a fantastic home cinema experience.
Colours are sharp and vibrant, and it's worth pointing out that the widescreen
video which came as part of the VHS 'facehugger' boxset a few years ago had
the film in a slightly less-wide ratio.
Thankfully, Encore have used the same master as the original single-tape
widescreen release which retains the exact 2.35:1 ratio.
The surround sound is used to excellent effect as the sound of the ship's
computers and controls hum from all around; computers bleep from their
respective screen positions and when the ship is set to self-destruct,
your speakers had better watch out... and the sound of the alien attacking
its victims makes your flesh crawl right off!
The side-break is well placed coming after the scene where Ripley, Parker and
Lambert think they've found the alien, but it turns out to be Brett's cat,
Jones, which is followed on side 2 by the scene where Brett goes "Looking for
Jones".
Chapters are sensibly placed at each key scene change, with chapter titles
helping to find your chosen favourite moment with ease such as
"Something he ate?", "Ash's True Colours" and "Looking for Jones".
The price of the disc is a key factor in making it a smash hit, and you pass
this one up, you'll kick yourself for not entering into one of the best
film trilogies in movie history, especially as it won Oscars for Best Sound
Effects Editing, and Best Visual Effects.
The disc is made complete with trailers for : Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3...
...and if you skip straight to exactly 53 minutes in on side 1, John Hurt
seems to be having a little trouble keeping his lunch down....
Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1996.
The following is a list of all the Alien films reviewed online to date :
2005 DVDfever Dom: Alien Vs Predator Special Edition (DVD)
2001 Adam Duncan: Alien (DVD)
2001 Adam Duncan: Aliens: Special Edition (DVD)
2001 Adam Duncan: Alien 3 (DVD)
1996 DVDfever Dom: Alien (PAL Laserdisc)
1996 DVDfever Dom: Aliens: Special Edition (PAL Laserdisc)
1996 DVDfever Dom: Alien 3 (PAL Laserdisc)
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
