My very modest collection of ALIEN bling, much of it in tow since 1979. There are people who have entire rooms of ALIEN stuff, every video or toy, lifesized Alien creatures. Flamethrowers. Their own pressurized cat box. I have a few books & tapes, now some toy forms. It'll do.
I also understand completely & with sympathy for those who don't like it that the ALIEN film franchise is not everyone's cup of tea. I know some who simply cannot deal with it -- Too dark, disturbing, violent and unsettling. And rest assured I for one have little to no use for most of the sprawling 40 year lifespan of what the original film led to.
And to be honest I don't really care about the myriad of sequels, prequels and spinoff nonsense, Am only interested in the 1979 film as a singular work of art. In my opinion it is the best movie ever made and one of the pinnacle achievements from the history of art regardless of medium. Forty years later it is still as potent an entertainment as ever and a working lesson on practical filmmaking, itself a dying art form in the world of slick, glossy, unmemorable computer graphics driven science fiction event programming.
I'm seriously considering trying to pitch a Media Arts course on ALIEN, maybe here at Syracuse University, known for its often trend setting curriciula studying pop culture topics. I think it'd be a hit and students would enjoy coming to the classes, which would include screenings of the film and other media forms which influenced the film's development. Click here for a look at what I have in mind.
A statistic I repeat endlessly when jabbering on about ALIEN (1979) is how I was all of twelve years old the summer it debuted, and was instantly fascinated. Still riding high on the marvel of STAR WARS (1977) and daily after school episodes of the original "Star Trek" series, ALIEN looked like exactly what I'd been hoping for. A high gloss production of a science fiction thriller that looked like it should, rather than a bunch of guys standing around in motorcycle helmets & foil suits.
There was just one catch, the frustrating matter of being 12 and having parents who cared enough to keep their kids away from stomach churning R rated horror films. I couldn't go, and begged most of the adults I knew to serve as a parent or guardian. Must have asked the wrong people, and the TV spots & word of mouth from compatriots who did get to go was astounding.
Had to get in on that action, and did by amassing a collection of print material on the film starting with the 1979 ALIEN novelization by Alan Dean Foster. And the Heavy Metal Magazine "ALIEN The Illustrated Story" plus a calendar and fan magazine filled with pix to wonder about. The coup was an enormous coffee table sized "Movie Novel" reproducing the film frame by frame with dialog added like a graphic novel. Infamously carried the thing everywhere with me for about two years - the beginning of Steve always having a backpack or shoulder bag - being warned repeatedly not to take it out in class etc. It's AWOL currently, in the house somewhere ... It'll surface.
I also pedaled by 3 speed bike over to Shoppingtown Mall and purchased the movie soundtrack on cassette, so I could listen to it on my little tape recorder with earphone and read my ALIEN books. The best was the "Book of Alien" seen above, which described & showed how much of the movie was made including concept artwork, miniatures and model sets, the clever way in which the shooting sets were assembled from aircraft junk, and how the hideous Alien creature evolved from something resembling a Thanksgiving turkey into a vision that spawned a billion dollar media franchise.
"Ash, can you see this?"
I finally got around to seeing the movie when ABC showed a somewhat edited print on television in 1982. For my 17th birthday in January 1984 I was allowed to rent a VCR and large screen television for a movie night party and ended up watching ALIEN in my room on surround sound stereo after and it still scared the living snot out of me. And made up for lost time by acquiring home video VHS recordings to watch over and over again, followed by DVD. Now streaming on HD from Amazon. The film and I have grown older together.
I also should make note that I have zero patience for any of the Alien Franchise sequels or spinoffs. I haven't even done PROMETHEUS or COVENANT yet, though I know I will have to at some point. I'm only interested in ALIEN as a singular work, admiring the film for how it was put together. We would not believe in the Alien's terror if we did not believe that was a bunch of people up there getting into all that trouble, and like to say that I admire the human side of ALIEN more than it's monster,
Illustration from the hardcover "Young Person's Reader" copy of ALIEN, 1979
Below are a series of videos I just felt inspired to make, The first one is a home made reconstruction of the Planetoid Sequence up until Kane goes down into the shaft, needlessly putting his fellow crew members in sever danger. Plus a series of uploads about the toy forms I have collected in pursuit of further geekery, my Parker & Brett action figures now the pride of the space toy collection.
All my videos are workplace safe with no horror, gore or nudity. Some are even funny,
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