another color out of space
This afternoon at the movie theater I saw a poster for some rerelease of Alien. I looked it up online... apparently there will be some "director's cut" of Alien (isn't there already a director's cut on DVD?) released on Halloween this year. I'd actually love to see Alien on the big screen again. My mom took me to see Alien back when it was first released in 1979. We had seen it reviewed on "Sneak Previews", the PBS Siskel and Ebert movie review show and for some reason were really intrigued by the sound of the movie. Especially the "chest burster" scene. I would've been 10 at the time and am pretty sure this was the first R-rated movie that I ever saw uncut.
Once the movie actually started I kept looking away from the screen, and covering my eyes and watching through my fingers. I had the idea that if I saw the gory "chest burster" full-on, I would throw up. Once that was out of the way though, I would be OK with whatever other violence was in the offing. It was like a trap that had been set in the movie for me. My mom was pretty annoyed with this behavior, of course. Even if I didn't watch the movie as closely as I should've, it made an impression. I had been raised on Star Trek reruns, and the grubby, bitching, working class crew of the Nostromo was a novelty. Their space ship seemed pretty industrial - I've also heard it called a "haunted house in space, complete with chains and dripping water". It also featured girls in their underwear, smoking, porn mags and swear words. The monster itself was a freaky nightmare. As I recall you never see the monster full-on, you never really know what it wants or how it operates, and it doesn't talk or scheme or explain itself - it just keeps killing people. It didn't even have eyes. Outer space as harmful - I liked it, it made sense to me.
My mom was less impressed and declared that Alien was a rip off of some 50s monster movie that she'd seen (I guess she was right). I think she appreciated Sigourney Weaver as the hero though. Early in the film when a load of numbers flashed by on one of the computer screens, she pointed this out and told me that I needed to work harder in math at school if I ever wanted to be an astronaut. I paid this no heed, of course, of course.
We saw the movie at the Dayton Mall, and after it was over wandered through one of the big anchor department stores. They had all this B. Kliban cat stuff up everywhere; beach towels and stuff. "I love to eat them mousies...", that kind of thing. They also had some Smurf stuff on display. First time I ever saw or heard of Smurfs. They were selling little mushroom houses, figurines - all pricey and maybe aimed at the Hummels market or something.
Once the movie actually started I kept looking away from the screen, and covering my eyes and watching through my fingers. I had the idea that if I saw the gory "chest burster" full-on, I would throw up. Once that was out of the way though, I would be OK with whatever other violence was in the offing. It was like a trap that had been set in the movie for me. My mom was pretty annoyed with this behavior, of course. Even if I didn't watch the movie as closely as I should've, it made an impression. I had been raised on Star Trek reruns, and the grubby, bitching, working class crew of the Nostromo was a novelty. Their space ship seemed pretty industrial - I've also heard it called a "haunted house in space, complete with chains and dripping water". It also featured girls in their underwear, smoking, porn mags and swear words. The monster itself was a freaky nightmare. As I recall you never see the monster full-on, you never really know what it wants or how it operates, and it doesn't talk or scheme or explain itself - it just keeps killing people. It didn't even have eyes. Outer space as harmful - I liked it, it made sense to me.
My mom was less impressed and declared that Alien was a rip off of some 50s monster movie that she'd seen (I guess she was right). I think she appreciated Sigourney Weaver as the hero though. Early in the film when a load of numbers flashed by on one of the computer screens, she pointed this out and told me that I needed to work harder in math at school if I ever wanted to be an astronaut. I paid this no heed, of course, of course.
We saw the movie at the Dayton Mall, and after it was over wandered through one of the big anchor department stores. They had all this B. Kliban cat stuff up everywhere; beach towels and stuff. "I love to eat them mousies...", that kind of thing. They also had some Smurf stuff on display. First time I ever saw or heard of Smurfs. They were selling little mushroom houses, figurines - all pricey and maybe aimed at the Hummels market or something.