Alien (1979) — IMDb
Top rated movie #51
- Won 1 Oscar
- 18 wins & 22 nominations total
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Top cast
Sigourney Weaver
- Ripley
Tom Skerritt
- Dallas
John Hurt
Veronica Cartwright
- Lambert
Harry Dean Stanton
Ian Holm
Yaphet Kotto
- Parker
Bolaji Badejo
Helen Horton
- Mother
- (voice)
Eddie Powell
- Alien
- (uncredited)
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- Ridley Scott
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- Dan O’Bannon(screenplay by) (story by)
- Ronald Shusett(story by)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
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Did you know
- Quotes
[last lines]
Ripley: Final report of the commercial starship Nostromo, third officer reporting.
The other members of the crew — Kane, Lambert, Parker, Brett, Ash, and Captain Dallas — are dead. Cargo and ship destroyed. I should reach the frontier in about six weeks. With a little luck, the network will pick me up. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, signing off.
[to Jonesy the cat]
Ripley: Come on, cat.
User reviews1.7K
Review
Featured review
A horror classic that has stood the test of time! Still by far the best movie in the series.
‘Alien’ while technically science fiction is also one of the greatest horror/suspense movies ever made. Ridley Scott is now one of the most well known and successful directors in Hollywood, but I don’t think anything he’s made in the last ten years is a patch on this perfect film, which is a near masterpiece in my opinion. In fact, on reflection there are only three Scott movies I genuinely like, those being his first three. The last of these ‘Blade Runner’ was released twenty years ago now, so to me Scott is long past his use by date. Whatever, ‘Alien’ itself is a brilliant piece of work, and is almost flawless. Scott’s direction is superb and everything else about it is outstanding — a strong script from Dan O’Bannon et al, an evocative score from Jerry Goldsmith, brilliant design and special effects, including the amazing contributions from H.R.Giger, all add up to an amazing movie experience. I also really liked how the cast were character actors and not «stars» so there was plenty of suspense generated as to who will live and who will die. This is something very few subsequent movies have done, ‘Pitch Black’ being one of the exceptions. Sigourney Weaver may be an icon as Ripley now, but when the movie was first released she was virtually unknown, having had a small cameo in Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall’ and not much else. The rest of the cast are equally as good. I especially enjoyed Yaphet Kotto (‘Blue Collar’) and the legendary Harry Dean Stanton (‘Wise Blood’) as the wise cracking «below deck» crew. Many people seem to prefer James Cameron’s sequel ‘Aliens’ over this, but as I much prefer horror and suspense movies to action ones I think this is definitely the better movie, and still the strongest and most effective in the series.
‘Alien’ is a horror classic and an absolutely unforgettable movie that I can’t recommend highly enough. If you haven’t seen it before watch it immediately!
helpful•211
85
- Infofreak
- Dec 12, 2002
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Photos
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Where is the planetoid the Nostromo visits, and does it have a name?
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How does the spaceship create gravity? The spaceship does not seem to be rotating, although rotation is necessary to create gravity in the space.
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Why can the alien be alive in the atmosphere in the spaceship, which contains much more oxygen, which should be toxic to the alien, than in the planet the alien resides?
Details
- Release date
- June 22, 1979 (United States)
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- United Kingdom
- United States
- Official sites
- Official Disney+ Hotstar (id)
- Official Facebook
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- English
- Also known as
- Alien: The Director’s Cut
- Filming locations
- Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK
- Production company
- Brandywine Productions
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
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- $11,000,000 (estimated)
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- $81,900,459
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- $3,527,881
- May 28, 1979
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- $106,285,522
See detailed box office info on IMDbPro
Technical specs
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1 hour 57 minutes
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- 2.
39 : 1
- 2.
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What is a good film adaptation? — luarvik_1221 — LiveJournal
What is a good film adaptation?
When reading this article, please note that I am by no means a film critic, and certainly not a literary critic.
I can formulate the question differently — «What distinguishes a bad film adaptation from a good one?». Although this question is a big trick, since the work that is being created, whether it be a movie or a book, depends on many factors, such as the idea of the author, the target audience, the genre in which the work is created, etc.
For simplicity, consider two approaches. The first is a typical action game, where there is an obviously good guy (he is also a protagonist) and an obviously bad guy — he is also an antagonist. At the end, we are waiting for the final scene of the epic duel between them, in which, of course, the good guy will win.
This is the script for most action or sci-fi (fantasy) films, with a few exceptions where the creators try to take a step or two away from the usual stereotype (either the main character is not quite a “good guy”, or a bad one is not so bad anymore, In short, there are options.
And another example is a work (most often a novel), where the author tries to convey some idea to the reader by explaining the actions of the main characters through their MOTIVES.
To answer the question, I propose to consider two film adaptations. The first «Inhabited Island» Director Fedora Bondarchuk 2009
and «Dream Catcher» 2003 ( Director Lawrence Kedan, ).
It is interesting that if the Russian film, although it did not pay off, on the whole received quite good ratings, then the American one both failed and received extremely negative ratings from critics.
There is one significant difference between these two films. «Inhabited Island» I FIRST READ, and then I looked, and «Dreamcatcher» I FIRST LOOKED, and only then I read it. Why read? Yes, because I had a lot of questions, such as:
— If Duddits and Mr. Gray are representatives of the same alien species, why is one trying to save the Earth and the other to conquer it?
— Who is Mr. Gray — a mutant worm or a gray man, and what role did red moss play?
— Why, if aliens have been on earth for a long time, their ship was destroyed only now?
— Why was King’s favorite theme of school bullies not developed enough?
— What role did the Duddits put Gary Jones under the car?
— Why on earth would a hardened warrior and Curtis’ second-in-command Oeun Underhill trust Henry Devlin?
— How does Colonel Curtis, unaware of Mr. Gray’s plans, end up on Henry and Owen’s tail?
— And here is the Indian amulet, whose name is the novel, etc.
In general, there were so many of these questions that after the next viewing (and I really liked the film, unlike the gentlemen of film critics), I could not stand it and had a burning desire to read the book. I solved this problem by going to the city bookstore and finding the desired (what luck!) Book. Yes, I forgot to clarify that I am one of those conservative dolts who in our electronic age prefer an ordinary book to an electronic one. After reading the book, I was more than satisfied. All the missing pieces of the puzzle fell into place, and all the motives and actions of the characters were explained in detail. For those who have not read the book, but only watched the film, I will say that there are many episodes left behind the scenes that were not included in the film, which played a key role. In general, there are no questions for Stephen King, in fact, as well as for the Strugatsky brothers.
But there are questions for the directors. I’ll start with Bondarchuk. I consider the main points of this literary work to be Kammerer’s dialogue with the Sorcerer and the final conversation in the car of the same Kammerer with the Wanderer. These episodes reveal EVERYTHING — the motivation of the main characters, the idea that the authors want to convey to the reader. Everything else is the background for this. And both of these episodes in the film are monstrously castrated. Coincidence? I don’t think. It’s just that Bodnarchuk, clearly representing his target audience, made a clear roll towards a typical action game, where everything is simple and clear. Here is an idealist hero who, in the name of the bright idea of the struggle for the human mind, fights against evil. The fact that during this struggle he kills a lot of innocent people whom he is so trying to save is unlikely to occur to the typical consumer of this movie. But in the novel, the Sorcerer directly points out to Kammerer this inconsistency with his principles and actions. To tell the truth, the film also has a similar attempt, but only an attempt. The Sorcerer also tries to convey what the Stranger, aka Sikorsky, later tells him — whatever your principles and ideals, you first need to THINK, collect all possible information, carefully weigh everything, and only then ACT, taking into account ALL the existing circumstances. Kammerer, having barely learned about the true purpose of the towers, spends all his energy, strength and intelligence on solving this problem without thinking at all about the overall picture and the consequences that Sikorsky will tell him in full. Moreover, he will tell not during a violent fight (a separate fi is for staging fights. Arms and legs would be torn off by such a «craftsman»), but during a conversation while driving a car.
As for the film adaptation of «Dreamcatcher», there are even more questions, especially considering the main point — in the movie Duddits is an alien, but not in the book. Did the screenwriters of this film (one of whom was the director himself) do the right thing by treating the original source so drastically? Probably, if you set the task to shoot an action about «bad» and «good» guys, it could not be otherwise. In the role of good guys — four school friends who have been good since school and were not afraid to stand up for Duddits in front of hooligans, Duddits himself is a kind alien (for nothing that is a representative of the same species as Mr. Gray), as well as renegade military Owen Underhill. In the role of bad guys — the same school hooligans, Mr. Gray and associates, as well as Colonel Kurtz, performed by the incomparable Morgan Freeman.
By the way. As for me, these two works are united by the figure of such a tough fighter with an alien infection. Let me remind you that Rudolf Sikorsky, who also appears in the novel «The Beetle in the Anthill» at the time of the events described in the novel «Inhabited Island» already held the post of head of COMCON-2 (Committee for the Control of Extraterrestrial Civilizations) in whose task, just, and included ensuring the safety of the inhabitants of the planet Earth, and not only from aliens, but also from all sorts of dangerous terrestrial scientific experiments. In parallel with his activities on the planet Saraksh, Sikorski was closely involved in the «case of foundlings» (see «The Beetle in the Anthill»), which explained his frequent long absences mentioned in «Inhabited Island». In «Dreamcatcher» such a wrestler is Colonel Kurtz/Curtis . Remember his appeal to his soldiers before the execution of aliens:
— If you think what kind of monster you need to be in order to kill these cute defenseless creatures, I will answer you — I am that monster.
And if in this particular case Kurtz/Curtis is absolutely right, then otherwise…
Suffice it to recall how the book and the film show the scene of his reprisal against one of his subordinates. In the film, one of the patrolmen who let a woman infected with a fungus through the perimeter of the quarantine zone is punished. The book contains an assistant to the cook, who turned out to be punished in almost similar way (only instead of his hand, the colonel shot him his leg) for calling the aliens «cosmic nigers» (I remind you, in the book Colonel Kurtz — white, not black). This moment in the book makes it clear that Kurtz has almost completely lost his mind over the years of his tenure, and is also no longer able to distinguish necessary evil (mass execution of aliens) from real (mass cleansing of civilians, coupled with most of his own subordinates, in which included the recent «favorite» Underhill).
The figure of Rudolf Sikorski is much larger. Yes, the post is required. Not only is he the head of COMCON-2, he is also one of the members of the World Council, whose opinion is listened to by much older ones. He can’t afford pettiness like resenting some brat like Kammerer (another stone in the direction of the film adaptation), just as he can’t afford to accept and commit rash actions.
— …We are employees of KOMKON-2. We are allowed to be known as ignoramuses, mystics, superstitious fools. We are not allowed one thing: to underestimate the danger. And if our house suddenly smells of sulfur, we simply have to assume that the devil with horns has appeared somewhere nearby, and take appropriate measures up to organizing the production of holy water on an industrial scale. ..
Absolutely. the movie will never be on a par with the book. The genres are too different, and the instruments differ dramatically. But what about the question posed in the title? It seems to me that a good film adaptation can be considered a film that meets the following formula:
I watched the film — I liked the film — the film made me think — you thought and turned to the source for answers.
That’s all, thank you for your attention.
Kurtz, Gary
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October 16, 2021
Gary Douglas Kurtz (English. Gary Douglas Kurtz) (July 27, 1940 — September 23, 2018) — was an American film -cinemar the list of works includes American Graffiti (1973), Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope (1977), Star Wars. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Dark Crystal (1982) and Return to Oz (1985). Kurtz also co-produced the sci-fi adventure film 1
- USA
| 1977 | Star Wars. Episode IV: A New Hope | Producer | Academy Award Nomination for Best Picture Golden Globe Award Nomination for Best Picture — Drama Winning Best Picture from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1977 Nominated for a BAFTA Award for best film in 1979. Japan Academy Award Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1979 People’s Choice Awards Winner at 1978 in the Favorite Movie category. Winning the Hugo Award in the Best Production category. Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film |
| 1980 | Star Wars. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back | Producer | People’s Choice Awards 1981 Favorite Movie. Winning the Hugo Award in the Best Production category. Winning Saturn Award for «Best Science Fiction Film» |
| 1982 | The Dark Crystal | Producer | Winning Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film Winning Hugo Award 90 Category. |
| 1985 | Return to the country of Op | Producer | Nomination Saturn for the Best Fantesis Film |
