A few weeks ago, my wife and I decided to do a nearly impromptu romantical evening together. "Let's go see a movie tomorrow!" we thought. This nearly drop-of-a-hat, pseudo-spontaneity would have all been for naught if Grandma hadn't been available and willing to babysit our wee dude. Such is life for even mildly responsible parents who are unwilling to let their nearly-two-year old fend for himself for an evening.
I ducked out of work a little early so that we could catch the last of the matinee showings, raced home, and got Grandma and Grandpa settled in at our house. My wife and I zipped over to the new gigaplex in our neighborhood, snagged a perfect parking spot, and relished the zingy feeling in our tummies as we rode the escalator up to the theaters, turned in our tickets, bought popcorn (with butter no less!), and snuggled into our pick of modern recliner seats in a nearly empty theater.
What movie inspired such a wild, wanton impulse? Why, it was Alien: The Director's Cut, of course.
I have to say that we both enjoyed the heck out of ourselves, and it wasn't just all the butter in the popcorn.
I was reminded that Alien is actually a pretty damned good movie.
Rather than trying to flog a dead horse of a movie with FX, CGI, CGI characters, FX, explosions, sex, and gore, Alien is largely driven by actual, human characters. Sure, one of those characters ends up being mechanical and you have to do a little creative extrapolation with regards to his motivations and final, spastic behavior, but in general, the characters are human and compelling. One thing that surprised me while watching the director's cut was how short a time it takes to get to know and care about the characters.
Kane is annoyingly chipper, volunteering for duties and allowing himself to be seduced by their alien discoveries.
Ash is reserved. He doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the crew. He can quote the company rules and regs. Obviously a dweeb.
Parker and Brett are the plebes, the blue-collars, the type of union slackers who naturally sink to their lowest energy state. Parker is always angling for more cash. You get the impression that Brett is nearly retarded, keeping his job by the merit of his technical abilities and very little else. Right.
Dallas is a man obviously out of his depth. He probably got a kick out of the pay and the responsibility as long as things were boring. Now that the situation has gone beyond the routine, all he wants to do is sit in the lifeboat and listen to music. He does step forward to go alien hunting, but he's ineffectual and he practically crawls right into the alien's jaws.
Lambert is weak and whiny.
Ripley appears to actually have a head on her shoulders. In the ancient tradition of human organization, the captain is the one with the authority, but it's the second-in-command who actually gets the work done. Ripley is the one who tries to motivate Brett and Parker. Ripley thinks to analyze the alien signal further and discovers its true meaning. Ripley is cool under pressure and makes the correct decision to keep her captain and infected shipmates from boarding. Ripley keeps the crew from breaking down completely after Dallas is snatched. Ripley does her best to demonstrate that she deserves to live, except for the bit where she leaves the lab door open when searching for the missing proto-alien.
Jones is a stupid cat inserted into the movie to give the ship a perversely homey feel, to leap out of lockers when everyone is expecting an alien, to lead Brett to his death, and to save Ripley's life.
I love how the movie takes the time to flesh out these characters: Brett's punctuating everything Parker says with "right," watching the crew do their jobs after they thaw out and realize that they're not where they expect to be, the friction between the mechanics and the officers. The costumes enhance the characterization: Brett's slovenly Hawaiian-print shirt and Ripley and Ash's company jumpsuits.
The sets are also pretty good, emphasizing the working-ship quality of the surroundings. At some points they diverge into the ridiculous. Mother's user interface looks like it was lifted from Forbidden Planet. Many of the interiors are a preposterous waste of volume and atmosphere in an interstellar spacecraft. I can forgive these gaffs in light of the rest of the film.
Overall, I thought the director's cut was superior to the original theatrical release.
The movie feels a bit different. The pacing has been tautened. Most of the changes were too subtle for me to notice. These are the few I remember:
There's a fight between Ripley and Lambert outside the medical bay. This is a great scene that highlights the tension between the characters and the deep resentment incited by Ripley's refusing to break quarantine.
They added an absolutely perfect shot of the alien just before it munches Brett. It's the first look you get of the alien and it's absolutely chilling. The alien is hanging from the chains right there, indolent in all its biomechanical horror, hiding in plain sight as Brett shuffles right under it. Dang that was good.
I was surprised by a relatively minor scene late in the movie. Unless my memory fails me, the scene where the alien is distracted by Jones in his box has been slightly extended. After the alien hovers over the cat, allowing Ripley to get away, it knocks the box (and poor Jonesy) aside in apparent irritation.
Finally, and most obviously, Ripley stumbles across Brett and Dallas cocooned in the alien's "nest". The scene nudges the horror element of the flick closer to 11. It also relieved a tension I felt since I first saw the movie. As I explained in a previous Cant, Alien was the first real book without pictures that I ever read. I was about seven or so. It made a big impression on my young mind. The scene that made the deepest dent was Ripley discovering Dallas cocooned inside an alien egg. Ever since and until now, I've felt a little cheated by the movie.
After the flick, we met my in-laws at the food court downstairs, wolfed down some surprisingly good mall-style Chinese fast food (I say "suprisingly good" because it tasted good and didn't make me sick afterwards), chased our son around the mall for a bit, and then returned home to sleep the sleep of the well entertained.
Pakeha