 |
| Sigourney
Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, Ian
Holm, Harry Dean Stanton |
|
 |
Anamorphic
widescreen |
|
Dolby Digital
5.1 |
 |
DTS |
|
|
Trailer(s) |
|
Featurette(s) |
|
Documentary |
|
Audio commentary
|
|
Deleted scenes
|
|
Concept art
/ storyboards |
|
Multi-angle
feature |
|
|
|
|
Ash
(Ian Holm): 'I can't speak for your chances, but... you have my
sympathies.'
A
deep-space cargo ship picks up a murderous, indestructible alien life
form.
 More
a claustrophobic horror ride than a sci-fi epic, this plays like a juiced-up
Halloween in space. Several critics have found fault with Alien's
apparent lack of heart, but this emotional distancing simply enhances
the tension by making it nearly impossible to predict what's going to
happen next. By now, everyone takes for granted that Ellen Ripley is
the heroine of this story, but this particular film - especially when
contrasting its structure and character development with its sequels
- is set up to blow away your expectations again and again.
Today,
upon repeated viewings, Alien still holds up incredibly well
thanks to its tight screenplay that finds the room to build up suspense
before either scaring the bejezus out of you or throwing the viewer
another red herring, and of course its legendary production design,
still more than spectacular in this day of large-scale CGI effects. |
|
 |
 |
|
|
The Region 1 and Region 2 releases have different-looking boxes, but the content is (almost) identical. Some of the Easter Eggs available on the Region 1 release are not available on the Region 2 release.
The
movie is framed at 2.35:1 and is anamorphic. Some of the starry space
backgrounds look slightly muddy, but most of the film is astonishingly
crisp with outstanding details, contrast and shading, and no artifacts.
It certainly looks better than any other 20-year old film I have seen
on DVD.
The DVD sports the original stereo soundtrack, an excellent 5.1 mix,
and a puzzling but interesting 'alternate soundtrack', with a different
score and sound effects. Especially recommended for those who watch
the film once a month, for variety's sake... ;-)
All
of the extras (and there are plenty of them) are easy to find, clearly
documented and interesting to browse through. Highlights include the
conceptual artwork done by various well-known designers (including
Moebius, Ron Cobb and of course H.R. Giger) and more than a few deleted
scenes. There is also an illuminating audio commentary from director
Ridley Scott, focusing mostly on production aspects. The deleted
scenes and outtakes are also exceedingly well documented,
but their image quality isn't as good as the film's. An amzaing hour-long
documentary on the history and production of Alien is
available on a separate disc that comes with buying the full 'Alien
Legacy' DVD box set.  Alien
on DVD sports some of the best-looking menus I have ever seen. The fun
begins when the 20th Century Fox logo pops up but is interrupted by static
and finally replaced by text output as the Nostromo's central computer
Mother comes online and 'takes command' of the interactive menus. You
are then taken into the core of the board computer, where swift 3-D renderings
bring you into the various sections on the DVD. There are some fun easter
eggs hidden around here as well.
Dan Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on Alien.
Click here
to return to the front page.
|
|
| |
