Alien

Ridley Scott’s Oscar winning 1979-sci-fi-thriller Alien is a masterwork of the genre, not just for its universally praised qualities, such as the in its dirty and sombre tones consequent camera work or the masterfully established atmosphere. What is below the surface reveals some deep meaning and multiple ways of interpretation, boosting the film above the genre average.
On one hand, Alien is about technology. A technology that is omnipresent in the world the movie takes place. In the late 70s, people looked with a mixture of feelings like hope and above all anxiety towards a future controlled by technology. Scott obviously recognized this, and chose a good moment for his work, because the Star Wars-euphoria was still conquering the world at that time. Without George Lucas’ worldwide success two years before, Alien would probably not have had the importance in the cinematic landscape it has got now.
In the film, technology is given human characteristics and organic forms. However, the opposite is also true. On one side, it is Ian Holm’s character Ash who is the personification of technology. For a very long time, the spectator doesn’t notice that Ash is actually a robot. He behaves like all the other crew passengers, which is a proof that humanity has also moved towards technology and a technical behaviour. It’s only after his attack against Ripley that Ash turns out as a robot.
Furthermore, the spaceship Nostromo (a clear allusion to Joseph Conrad) has got organic features. The long, sheer endless slots, pipes and floors remind of a human body with veins and arteries. Towards the end of the movie, the strange noises audible on board of the Nostromo become more and more frequent, which could stand for the increasingly faster pulse of the protagonist, but also of the spectators who find themselves absorbed by the film’s inner tension. One more instance for this thesis is the alien itself. It often looks like a gigantic insect that gets bigger and bigger, but with the acidic liquids it secretes and its special teeth pattern it appears more like a sort of amalgam of organs and microchips. The alien is not just an unknown species, but also a parasite living in the blood vessels of the Nostromo.
Ash’s attack against Ripley is probably the pivotal scene of the entire movie, and therefore must be seen as more than merely a exemplary sequence for the fight between mankind and technology. Ash is a robot that perfectly looks and acts like a human being, and thus its attack against Ripley stands for the sexual offences that reign between the male and two female characters on board of the Nostromo. It must be seen as a kind of discharge for all the tensions between the crew members, for tensions which were systematically concealed at the beginning. Alien is also a battle of the sexes. The members’ sole names are already an indication for this. Names like Ripley (an allusion to Patricia Highsmith’s character?), Dallas, Ash or Kane don’t tell anything about the person’s sex, but the differences between the two genders are constant and omnipresent, just like the dark and unknown menace onboard. Then the board computer’s name is another evidence for this idea. It is called “Mother” (again a commingling of human and technological facets) and represents matriarchal society. In spite of the superior number of males and the fact that the leader is a man, they are all controlled by a “mother”. Opposed to the “mother” is the alien representing male violence and defence against femininity. The question is also in how far sexuality has already become a part of technology. All this comes out in shape of the unknown creature. Its birth is very bloody and brutal, and it has got the form of a phallus. Moreover, lets not forget the fact that it was given birth by a man. The alien’s main antagonist however is Ripley. A female protagonist is already unusual enough for a world of heroes dominated by men. Generally, women are only the victims. The final fight between Ripley and the creature is a combat between a female arming herself and a male who has already become a weapon. Ripley wins the fight, and when the alien is catapulted out of the spaceship, its silhouette reminds the aspects of a man. Finally, Ripley undresses and now definitely reveals that she is a woman. While she undresses, the camera glides along her body, like a peeping tom, in a voyeuristic way. Actually, throughout the entire movie, Ripley hasn’t clearly defined her womanhood. This was probably a defence against the sexual offences of her fellow crew members. Her androgyny is fortified by her height. Heights are an important aspect. Sigourney Weaver is well over 180 cm/ 5’11” tall which would rather be seen as a man’s height. On the other hand, the Alien stand at a gigantic height of 218 cm/ 7’2”. Despite this height difference, Ripley defeats her enemy.
What remains fairly subtle in Ridley Scott’s first part, becomes obvious in James Cameron’s sequel. In Aliens, Ripley becomes a mother figure herself, as she has got to protect the little girl who has lost her family. Her opponent is a huge alien mother and her breed. This battle of the mothers is materialized in a breathtaking showdown.
Six years later, David Fincher decides for his settings a futuristic prison where Ripley is surrounded by a bunch of male prisoners and rapists. At the end, she kills herself, in order not to become the mother of an alien herself.
In 1997, Jean-Pierre Jeunet resurrected her, but unfortunately reduced the metaphor of the battle of the sexes to mere sexuality.
Therefore we only can wait for a fifth and a sixth part which have both already been announced, hopefully with Ridley Scott as a director who apparently has best understood the central theme of the Alien-tetralogy. Clear is that he will never come to a definite conclusion.

Sources: inspired by ARTE's Filmklassiker (German books)

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