JAMES CAMERON, ALIENS (1986, DIRECTOR'S CUT 1992), 2HRS 34 (LD/WS)

THE DIRECTOR: JAMES CAMERON (1954-)

Life

Canadian born director, screenwriter, and producer; studied physics California State University. Began his career designing sets for Roger Corman and has since established himself as a premier director of action films. JC made a name for himself in the 1980s with SF films which were unusual in their set design (drawing upon JC's own skill as an artist) and excitingly paced in their editing. He also co-wrote many of the scripts of the films he made. His first big success came with "The Terminator" (1984), a low budget "sleeper" which made his fame and fortune.

Films

His films include:

THE FILM: THE ALIEN TRILOGY

Alien is a witty variation on the standard horror motifs of the haunted house and the slasher; Aliens is an all-out dynamic action picture, a war film in outer space; Alien3 is a brooding meditation on the theme of guilt. (Scobie, Science Fiction Studies, 1993).

Cast

Part 1 Alien (1979)

Cameron's "Aliens" is the sequel to Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979) one of the most influenctial SF films made. RS also made "The Duellists" (1977) based on a Conrad story of 2 fanatical duelists during the Napoleonic Wars; and "Blade Runner" (1982) based a the SF short story by Philip K. Dick about a group of fugitive android slaves who flee a slave-catcher assassin.

In "Alien" a commercial bulk ore carrier "The Nostromo" (from another Conrad story) answers a distress signal from a small planet only to inadvertently let on board an "alien." The lone alien runs amok killing all the crew except for officer Ripley (and her cat) who then blows up the "Nostromo" and escapes in a small craft. To wait until rescue R entered "hypersleep". The original alien grew to maturity through a series of metamorphoses, using other living creatures like humans as a host for one of these metamorphoses - the egg out of which hatches the "face hugger", the face hugger which attaches itself to another creature's face in order to insert itself into the living flesh of its host organism, the "chest buster" which tears its way out of the host's body when it has grown sufficiently, and the "warrior" or mature alien form which has acid for blood and a total disregard for all other life forms. The mature alien has a remarkable capacity to fight for its own survival and seems untroubled by any moral questions concerning the killing of other species for its survival (perhaps like humans with respect to other living creatures?).

The film was made cheaply in the UK and very successful at the box office. It follows the well-worn formula of horror/thriller movies in which an assailant kills unsuspecting victims one by one until stopped by the lone hero/ine. The film is unusual in that it depicted space flight as routine, privately operated, working class, boring, ramshackle and dirty; the interesting design of the alien based upon the Swiss surrealist artist Giger; and the powerful role of a woman - Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).

Designs for ship and aliens by Swiss artist H.R. Giger (born 1940). Themes in his work: phallic images (near pornographic); death; creatures who are part insect, human, mechanical ("biomechanoids"); creatures which are shaped like guns or bullets in guns; torture (Vlad the Impaler). Early work depicted himself as one of the "Atomkinder" whose parents will come to view as abnormal. Designs for other SF films: "Dune".

The Sequel: Aliens (1986)

The asexual-virgin mother Ripley appropriates the big phalli of the Colonial Marines and becomes a monstrous killing machine in order to fight an even more monstrous mother. (Lynda Zwinger).

JC conceived the idea of a sequel to "Alien" and wrote an outline for it (called "Ripley and Soldiers") as he was working on the script for "Rambo: First Blood Part II". Idea of a squad of "Colonial Marines". In an interview he noted how much the Vietnam War was on his mind as he planned "Aliens", especially the issue of a how a low tech society like North Vietnam could defeat a sophisticated high tech society like the USA, and the reasons why soldiers regarded their terrible war experiences as the most exciting of their lives and sought to re-enlist after their tour of duty ended.

In the sequel Ellen Ripley awakes after the passage of 57 years to find she has been found by a space salvage crew. In the meantime, her 11 year old daughter has grown up and died of old age (thus R has broken her promise to return to her), "The Company" has established a colony on the planet LV-426 where the "Nostromo" took on board the alien. In typical fashion in these type of movies, the oddly named "Weyland-Yutani Corporation" and the government authorities ignore her warnings. She is suspended from duty as ship's officier and gets work as a futuristic fork lift druck driver (a "power-loader" operator) until the inevitable moment arrives when contact with the colony is lost. R agrees to advise the company, represented by Carter Burke, and the squad of "Colonial Marines," led by the unpopular and hapless ("gormless") Lt Gorman, which is sent to rescue the colonists. All the colonists (except for a little girl "Newt") have been captured by the warrior aliens and "cacooned" ready to host the "new born" face huggers. The Colonial Marines try to rescue them but are caught in an ambush by the warriors and suffer heavy casualties. R leads an expedition to rescue the survivors in the Armoured Personnel Carrier. R and the Marines retreat to the Operations Centre of the colony to decide their next course of action. With the help of an android Bishop they realise there must be a "colony" or hive of aliens, with a "Queen" who lays the eggs and warrior aliens to protect her and the eggs. The Company's representative Burke betrays R and N by exposing them to a face hugger so he can smuggle an alien back to earth for the Bio-Weapons Division. With the colony's nuclear power station about to explode and the warrior aliens swarming to attack the Marines, they attempt to escape. Most of the Marines die in the retreat and N gets lost, thus forcing R to return alone to rescue her. A final battle takes place between R and the Queen alien before R and N are safe to sleep "perchance to dream."

Filmed in decomissioned Acton Power Station in London.

The version we will see is a Laser Disc, Wide Screen so-called "Letterbox" format in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Ordinary video and TV has an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It is also the newer "editor's cut" (1992) which restores an extra 17 of material cut for theatrical release. Commercial films over 2 hours in length suffer at the box office.

The Third in the Trilogy: Alien3 (1993)

Third film in trilogy "Alien 3" (1993) dir. David Fincher. Cross between "Alien" and "The Name of the Rose." Troubled history with several writers and directors. References to medieval plague (AIDS). Shaven-headed Ripley crashes on male only prison planet. Prisoners have adopted ascetic Christian fundamentalism. R's body contains an alien (how did it get there?) and other eggs are on her crashed ship. Aliens wipe out most of the prisoners, R leaps to her own destruction as alien bursts from her chest, which she cradles new born child-like in her arms as she plummets towards purgatory.

Robin Martin observes of the film Aliens that it has been:

... praised and criticized as a female version of Rambo, for which Cameron wrote the first draft of the screenplay. However, Ripley, the female hero of Aliens, differs dramatically in her motivation from Rambo. Instead of acting out of revenge, Ripley is motivated by a new and arguably feminist formulation of mothering. (p. 353)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robin Roberts, "Adoptive versus Biological Mothering in Aliens," Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Winter 1989, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 353-63.

THINGS TO NOTE