Aliens Notes

Fitzsimmons, J Alien - Series: an allegory of context A question of recognition Alien (1979) pits the whole crew of the Nostromo against the Xenomorph (strangeshape) monster, and director Ridley Scott draws on a tradition of monster movies ranging from Kurt Neumann's The Fly (1958) to Merian Cooper's King Kong (1933) [or any of its many incarnations]. He also draws on suspense techniques perfected in film noir and by directors like Alfred Hitchcock. Some have read the film as an allegory of a conspiracy between technology and capitalism (the Nostromo's computer, called Mother, and the ship's science officer, Ash, an android, appear to act on behalf of the invisible corporation's interests and against the interests of the human crew). Others have seen it in racial terms -- the mostly white crew battling the anonymous, black and very scary monster. The more cynical have seen it as a version of Star Wars with the Xenomorph playing Darth Vader with a large, shiny head and a drool problem. That Alien looks familiar Aliens (1986), despite it being the next in the series, is a very different movie because the coded possibilities of the genre are slightly different from Alien. Where Scott drew heavily on the escape thriller, James Cameron adds in dimensions of the war/action thriller. This time the marines are sent in when the colony on the planet from which Ripley's crew had unfortunately picked up the Xenomorph in Alien does not report in. There are many shots of high-tech weaponry, marines doing chin-ups, all the testosterone and bravado normally associated with the prelude-to-warviolence films. Added to this is a battle between two mothers: Ripley, clearly now the star of the movie, is resourceful, tough and determined, and she fights the queen Xenomorph, itself ruthlessly protective of her nest, a monster covered in mucus. The special effects are themselves a 'character' in this movie (as they often are in scifi) in a way they were not in Alien, and there are multiple climaxes. In the film's last climax, Ripley, empowered in the mechanical loader's metal frame, battles to protect her adopted daughter, Newt, from the Queen which, despite the (expensive) special effects, still looks remarkably like an insect pinned to a viewing board. 'Get away from her, you bitch,' she says to the Queen, and then she throws it out of the airlock. Some have read this film as an allegory of the Vietnam War (the American soldier goes in with massive firepower and incompetent commanders and is forced to retreat by an enemy who seems to live in rather than on the surroundings). Others have seen its as a battle between two versions of being a woman: on the one hand, Ripley has a career, adopts Newt, and all but ignores the romantic possibilities with the film's male hero, Corporal Hicks (Michael Biehn); on the other, the Queen is a dedicated mother lost to Ripley's career world, living out of sight in an alien, nesty domestic sphere where rearing her young seems to be her prime purpose. Ripley wins, but only just, and only after it has been acknowledged that she does have a role as a potential mother (after the Queen had been thrown out of the airlock, Newt flings her arms around Ripley and says 'mommy'). Technology gets let off the hook (the high-tech guns do kill the Xenomorphs but not fast enough, and the android, Bishop, has been programmed so that he cannot allow a human to come to harm). Even the corporation gets a reprieve: it is not the corporation which sends the colonists to investigate the Xenomorphs but Carter Burke who is trying to make a fast buck). Ripley dies As we have seen, Alien is very much a suspense thriller, an allegory of capitalism's failure of compassion and of the dangers