Alien: Film Review

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Figure. 1. Alien Poster.
Ridley Scott gives the viewers a scare in his classic fantasy/thriller Alien. (1979) The story goes by the classic but basic structure with the survivors trapped, and getting picked off one by one by something deadly, the same structure that since then is seen today in a lot of horror movies. In this case, they're stuck on a spaceship, being stalked by a mercilessly hunting alien, taking them out in one or twos. Unlike other older movies, Alien wasn't one to create the typical and predictable stereotypes for the genders. The characters are addressed by their surnames, so really in the script there would have been no telling if someone was male or female, and the decision resulted in having the main character Ripley (Signourney Weaver) being a female role. This is a nice change compared to where there is strong objectification around female characters in films, and it encourages equality which has positively become a lot more common over the years. 
Figure. 2. Chestbuster scene still.
Figure. 3. Alien monster.

Second-wave feminism is a period that began in the 1960s, to broaden the gender equality debate and settle more issues that first-wave feminism focused on. Second-wave feminism was still going on when this movie was released, and when thought about, the horror in Alien is more in depth than just fear about being mauled by this monster. It represents men's fear regarding second-wave feminism, it is "Not the fear of the devouring Alien, but a fear and anxiety of a future where the equalizing of the sexes might lead to the blending of sexual biology as well." (Haggstrom, 2012) There is a lot in the film that gives this away, and a lot more obviously than the fact it was released during the period of second-wave feminism.


Throughout the duration of the movie there are numerous times where shapes and forms appear visually as penises and vaginas. It is more than just a coincidence, as it is seen more than once, and not subtly when it appears. One of the earlier on signs is when the crew discover a dead creature in the body of the ship, with something extending out of it that simply looks like a giant boner. The crew enter the ship through entrances that represent vaginas. Another thing that looks like a vagina is the face hugger that locks itself onto the face of Kane (John Hurt) Furthermore, the process of certain events highlight rape and sexual context. Kane is an example of this, "It is Kane who is impregnated by a scorpion-like monster that attaches itself to his face, raping him orally in an act of sexual domination." (Haggstrom, 2012) It also chokes him, and plants a seed in him. This instills fear into men, exampling the possibility of pregnancy for both sexes now. Now that men share the burden of pregnancy and childbirth, it plays with their anxieties and escalates the level of horror due to this idea. Soon after in the classic and well known chestbuster scene in Alien, the unexpected and shocking birth takes place while everyone is at the dinner table eating spaghetti. The alien bursts through Kane's chest (who was thought to finally be okay) spewing blood everywhere in a gory and horrific manner. "Again, it's no accident that the newborn looks like a penis that's "erected" its way out of a man's chest." (Dietle, 2011) (See Fig. 2.) The male body is penetrated, as opposed to being responsible for doing the penetrating. It eliminates the power of men's roles and ultimately takes away the power that a man may feel like he has from his penis, which creates sexual confusion and now nobody is safe from this unconsented and brutal sexual attack.

Once the Alien grows and disappears somewhere on-board the Nostromo, the crew split up in an attempt to find the creature and stop it. It is from this point where their territory seems to become the alien's territory, it overpowers them in every way and it isn't long before their habitat soon belongs to the alien. Although the lurking monster is hard to see in this movie at a lot of points, when it is seen its features are very strong and once again resembles a penis and vagina. The shape of the Alien's head is probably the most obvious resemblance of an erect penis throughout the whole film, and where better to put this obvious resemblance than on the dominant beast itself? (See Fig. 3.)

Not only this, but the Alien has an unusual mouth. It's mouth represents a toothed vagina, to evoke vagina dentanta which means a vagina with teeth. Not only does this make the vagina seem a lot more threatening and brings out the anxieties and fears in men, making them feel less in control and more in danger, but it also declares that the Alien isn't one specific sex, as it has both male and female genetalia. This pushes the fear now that it is too high up to be classified as a gender, and is the ultimate sexual predator to all. What's special about Alien is that a child watching this movie would be terrified because of the violent and scary content of being murdered by an alien. But then an adult would feel the fear due to the noticeable fact that Alien is playing with the anxieties of men and expressing the horror behind rape, penetration and impregnating. Alien screenwriter Dan O'Bannon said “I’m going to attack the audience. I’m going to attack them sexually.” (O'Bannon 2002, cited in Screenprism) Although this is quite a chilling and creepy sentence to hear from him, there is no doubt that this target was hit successfully. 

Illustrations List
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Bibliography
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Comments

  1. Jackie22 October 2017 at 23:34

    An excellent review Frankie; you have really considered the themes of sexual representation well. Just be careful that you keep your tone serious and academic - this felt a little out of place -'...that simply looks like a giant boner.' ;)

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