it's impossible to celebrate the brilliance of Ridley Scott without
discussing his magnum opus, a movie that transcended cinema and extended its
tentacles beyond popular culture alien is a film that was largely and
wholeheartedly ahead of its time today I want to discuss the stunning set design
of alien and just how Ridley Scott redefined the language of science
fiction on film from the opening scene of the film Scott achieves many things
the most fascinating however is how he establishes a queasiness and fear in the
audience while also maintaining a palpable sense of intrigue through the
set design alone why alien works so well as a science fiction thriller is because
scott abandoned the spectacular aesthetic of sci-fi cinema that so often
holds narrative progression to fetishize special effects you need look no further
than the shot of the USS Enterprise at the start of Star Trek the motion
picture the final reveal of the mothership in Close Encounters or any
incarnation of the Death Star in Star Wars to understand this point Scott's
brilliance in directing alien derives from the fact that he so happily
established a new form of science-fiction grammar in fact this
visual grammar would later be echoed and mimicked in films such as The Matrix and
Red Planet instead of being outside and exploring the world as sci-fi often
wants us to do were largely stuck inside the rundown twisted corridors of a ship
that immediately works as a way of Scott installing a fear and uneasiness in the
audience that is quite poetic and revolutionary
in the same year of shooting John Carpenter's panag lied opening of
Halloween and the Steadicam of Kubrick's The Shining had already become cinematic
norms Scott's camera though rarely stays static it's always sliding away from
what it reveals as if appalled yet it also slides away in a slithering manner
that the creature is renowned to do quickly tension escalates despite this
being only a handful of minutes into the film how fear is built though largely
derives from the camera prowling around the empty spaces of the Nostromo ship a
battered truly ugly spacecraft unlike the aforementioned Death Star or USS
Enterprise it drifts around these corridors in hesitant glides unsure of
what's around the corner the point of view wobbles and shakes lightly
rejecting an otherwise smooth trajectory in fact Scott's camera is always
wobbling in this film it's almost a meta way of mimicking the fear and
nervousness of the characters and transmitting that to the audience in an
organic manner the emblematic architecture lends itself beautifully to
Scotts camera the corridor the duct and the tunnel in sci-fi corridors of
typically pristine lavish and shiny once again just a quick glance at Star Wars
or Star Trek reinforces this but Scott much like when his ever moving camera
rejects the era and genres cinematic formula and instead opts for a murky
look to manipulate the camera around for one Scott demanded that the set be built
from scrap electrical equipment and dismantled aircraft his demands adhered
to by the set design team and eventually the studio it's a typical Ridley Scott
set though busy layered lit low and gleaming with information the closer to
the creatures we get the more bare icky and organic the interiors become rather
than build an enormous ship they developed a model to make it look big
Scott used his two sons and friend to make the actors in suits look small
this essentially achieved two things one as a for mentioned it gives the illusion
of the model looking enormous but it also emphasizes how far out of depth
these characters are in a world they do not understand
it emphasizes that they have gone from predators in their own world to
tantalize and prey for the ungodly creatures prowling around a real
testament to Scott economic visual storytelling the film constantly goes
from loud deafening sounds to utter silence with characters staring
pensively into space in the chest bursting scene for example
Scott and Goldsmith do something interesting the soundtrack rises from 55
beats per minute to a hundred and ten this mimics the anxiety and fear of the
characters and of their heartbeats in a meta way the soundtrack rises to a
climax in tandem with the audience and characters which achieves this effective
kind of emotional contagion and bliss much like the thumping of a heart yes
but it could also mirror the creature wriggling and struggling to burst out of
Kane's chest twenty minutes into the film we get this gorgeous shot of the
back of a helmet it could simply have just been the back of the helmet sure
but Scott designed it to look entirely different it has scales and looks eerily
similar to the iconic design of the creature thus for a brief moment the
audience's hearts tighten especially since the score is vibrating with quite
an atmospheric sound from that moment onwards if we weren't already we as the
audience live in constant fear throughout the entirety of alien because
as the film goes on to establish any character could be picked off at any
moment silence as per Scott's subverting of science fiction and grammar equals
the sheer opposite of restlessness it's the precise moment when the
audience gather in the palm of his hand as his fingers proceed to crush us
what's impressive about Scott's direction of alien though is he does not
fetishize the creature and endeavor to reveal the thing in all its glory
in fact he rarely reveals the alien instead he shows us these scattered
glimpses of all the stages of the creature from the egg to the face hugger
and eventually the main thing it represents the fast and brutal life
cycle of the creature but we only get jarring disconnected snapshots of these
developmental stages the gaps that remain ensure that
ensnares the audience and terrified speculation Scott carefully constructed
a tactic where the most important thing is not what you see but the effect of
what you think you saw it's like her sort of horrific
afterburn most science fiction of this time would revel in the creature yet
Scott forfeiting to let it breathe and cause havoc from afar one can infer that
Scott never had an idea of showing the creature in its final form for long
periods of time the focus was always on how brutal its developmental stage is
renowned for his artful mind and in-depth storyboarding Scott actually
drew inspiration for the creature from the Francis Bacon triptych titled three
studies four figures at the base of crucifixion this ultimately reveals that
Scott's mindset was always in project in the developmental stages of Bacon's
panel in his own film rather than fetishize in a final form scott
tantalizingly plays of the growth of the creature perhaps it's here where Scott
subverts the grammar of sci-fi most Dallas's death is a fine example of this
as the ducts are sealed behind him the apertures closed like the diaphragm of a
camera another stellar nugget of this gorgeous set design that emphasizes the
claustrophobia of the picture he's trapped in the mechanism of a camera
that pulls focus elsewhere yet never on him in his last moments he is hemmed
into this entirely enclosing frame Scott corners him much like he corners his
audience into witnessing sheer fear in those tubes we don't know which way is
up or down backwards or forwards Lambert screams that the alien is coming at
Dallas but Dallas sees nothing except the last flash a shocking glimpse
of the creature his blip then disappears from the sensors and again Scott
seemingly focuses on a glimpse and idea of the creature keeping the audience in
a constant state of uneasiness here's the thing about science fiction though
one of the things we remember most our world's languages characters of
different intergalactic races therefore the typical grammar of science fiction
is one that utilizes characters dialogue to build the world
what does that say about a lien then a film that heartily restricts its moments
of dialogue and removes a pre-established hierarchy between
characters when the crew finally interact about ten minutes into the film
it's a cacophony of overlapping dialogue that ensues
this ensures an establishment of chaos beyond the fear of the unknown
it plays toward an instability in this crew and is a viable nod toward them
being picked off one by one as the film grows in runtime after all this chaotic
clashing of sounds indicates that any chance of the crew working together is
not one of my favorite components of Scotts direction is that despite being
set inside a ship no hierarchies are established and no real chain of command
what this does is forced the audience to fear for every character equally since
everyone's importance is on a level platform they could all be collateral
damage no one has a path to the final act that fear and that Titan intention
is largely derived from Scotts insistence on there being very little
military and hierarchical talk just take a look at Brett and Parker - resentful
co-workers that resist orders the fire authorities every muttered syllable and
every painfully slow gesture they have no respect for Dallas's office for no
one no respect for mothers instructions despite the set design dictating that
this be the most regal and authoritative area of the otherwise downtrodden NOS
drama Ridley Scott's masterful direction of alien remains one of the finest
pieces of the craft in the history of cinema not only did he create a
masterpiece he also redefined the language and grammar of science fiction
on screen one of the greatest achievements in organic practical
effects and a testament to the genius of the man's mind