Alien Marathon I: Alien (1979)

• Kane first to wake, first to die.
• I heard Ripley say "cornbread" during first meal scene, which should be familiar to fans of the second movie. :) Watching director's cut, so I wanted to confirm it was in the original -- it's there.
• Coffee, Parker says, is the only thing good on the ship. :)
• 1200 km planetoid with .86 gravity. For reference, our Moon is about 3500 km with 1/6 (.16) Earth's gravity. Must be pretty damn dense. Other similarly sized moons in our solar system:
  • Charon, moon/companion of Pluto, 1207 km.
  • Umbriel, moon of Uranus, 1170 km.
  • Ariel, moon of Uranus, 1160 km.
  • Dione, moon of Saturn, 1120 km.
• Lived-in, worked-in areas of ship versus clean, well-lighted places like Mother's room, eating area, and sleeping chamber.
• "Can't see a goddamn thing." "Quit griping." "I like griping."
• Claustrophobia, distortion, static -- everything is cramped and concealed.
• Ripley tries to keep the "away team" out, following the quarantine rules. Ash lets them (and it) in. Thus follows Rule One of Alien: Listen to Ripley.
• Great moment of Jones the cat watching Brett getting whacked by the alien. The impassive predator. :)
• Iris hatches: old movie transition. Camera lens/eye closing to...darkness, nightmare, death.
• Elemental stuff: fire, metal, electricity, wind, water.
• Alien in air ducts, compared with facehugger inhabitation/suffocation.
• Subtle heartbeats in moments of tension.
• Three women. Ripley (leader, warrior, intelligent, caring, strong). Lambert (navigator, selfish, self-centered, overly emotional, weak). Mother (AI, emotionless, controlling, manipulative).
• Ash as Mother's mouthpiece/agent, an emasculated male (android). Mother's milk for blood/fluid. Chokes Ripley with rolled up porno mag. How's that for symbolism?
• Parker: mercenary male. Dies "protecting" the useless Lambert -- doesn't kill alien in order not to kill Lambert. Parker also obeys Ash not to kill the chest burster with a knife.
• Dallas: balanced leader, but ineffectual. Brought about his own and his crew's ruin by insisting on bringing back Kane, despite his best intentions.
• Nostromo as human body/personality. Lots of fun symbolism there.
• Alien itself much more "man in a rubber suit" than later versions, which is funny given this from Ridley Scott in the Book of Alien:

I've never liked horror films before, because in the end it's always been a man in a rubber suit. Well, there's one way to deal with that. The most important thing in a film of this type is not what you see, but the effect of what you think you saw. It's like a sort of afterburn–what you think you saw.

Next up, the military has a go.

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