Alien

Year of Release: 1979

Director:  Ridley Scott

Screenplay:  Dan O'Bannon, story by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett

Starring:  Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm

Running Time:  117 minutes

Genre:  Science-fiction, horror

Sometime in the future, commercial space tug Nostromo is returning to Earth, with it's seven person crew in suspended animation.  Receiving a signal from an unexplored planet, the ship's computer revives the crew to investigate.  Reluctantly, they set down on the planet and three of the crew set out to explore, and discover a bizarre alien spaceship, where the Nostromo picks up a particularly unpleasant hitchhiker.

This classic blend of horror and science-fiction is one of the classic suspense films.  Even after all this time, the special effects and production values stand up surprisingly well, even where it looks dated, such as the computer readouts, it still feels like an authentic depiction of a tatty, ragged, old banger of a spaceship where pieces haven't been replaced for years because there wasn't the money or no-one could be bothered.  It's a future which looks authentic and lived in, a million miles from the polished spotless spacecraft and heroic crews of Star Trek (1966-1969), the Nostromo crew really couldn't care less about exploring strange new worlds or seeking out new life and new civilisations.  They don't want to boldly go anywhere, except home to get paid.  They are not conventionally glamorous and the dialogue is deliberately banal.  It makes the alien sequences stand out all the more.  The alien spacecraft, designed by Swiss surrealist artist H. R. Giger,  is genuinely striking with it's mix of the organic and mechanical, and the Alien itself (played by dancer Bolaji Badejo) with it's biomechanical look and weirdly sexual elements manages to be both horrific and beautiful at the same time.  It's effect is heightened by the fact that the creature is kept off screen for most of the film and even when it appears, it's so shadowy that the details are barely glimpsed, making the monster almost impressionistic.  The film moves slowly and deliberately accruing the details of the world of the Nostromo, making the horror scenes such as John Hurt's notorious "chestburster" sequence all the more jolting.  Even more frightening than the Alien itself is the concept that, introduced in this film, runs through the franchise,  of the ruthless "Company" that want to keep the creature alive to use as a biological weapon, at the expense of all other considerations.   The fact is that the characters feel real, and you do sympathise with them as the film goes on.  It needs to be seen on the biggest screen and in the best quality possible, because a lot of the suspense depends on the way the image is composed, the cramped claustrophobic corridors, or the cavernous chambers where the threat could be lurking anywhere.  This is a very primal film, it's like a haunted house where you can't escape from.  I've seen this film many times, and I still find it exciting and suspenseful.  It's sequel Aliens (1986) is also a masterpiece, and Alien 3 (1992) is deeply flawed but has it's moments, Alien Resurrection (1997) isn't very good but it's quite fun.  The less said about the others the better.  Ridley Scott returned to the franchise with two sort-of prequels Prometheus (2012) and Alien Covenant (2017) which create this complex backstory which while interesting enough in it's own right, detracts from the mystery and unexplained fear of Alien.  In it's own right, this is a genuinely suspenseful science-fiction thriller which works it's dark magic time after time.

Sigourney Weaver and Alien
   

Brighton Rock (2010)

Year: 2010
Director:  Rowan Joffe
Screenplay:  Rowan Joffe, based on the novel Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Starring:  Sam Riley, Andrea Riseborough, Helen Mirren, John Hurt, Andy Serkis
Running Time:  111 minutes
Genre:  Crime, drama, gangsters

This film is an adaptation of a novel by Graham Greene, which was previously made into a critically acclaimed film in 1947, directed by John Boulting and starring Richard Attenborough.  In this film the setting is updated from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Brighton, England, 1964.  Violent gangs of warring Mods and Rockers are tearing up the coastal town of Britain, and young gangster Pinkie Brown (Riley) murders rival Fred Hale (Sean Harris) against the express wishes of his gang.  Brown hastily seduces and marries young waitress Rose (Riseborough), who is the only person who can tie him to the murder.  However Rose's boss, Ida (Mirren), was a close friend of Hale's and suspects that Rose can tie Pinkie to the crime and is determined to make her testify.  With the threat of the police, and powerful and wealthy local crime boss Colleoni (Serkis), as well as his own gang increasingly turning against him, the already psychotic Pinkie becomes increasingly unhinged and it is only a matter of time before he decides to silence Rose permanently.

This is a powerful and intriguing gangster movie, which plays more like a doom-laden tragedy.  The main focus of the film is the corruption of the innocent waitress Rose by the sadistic gangster Pinkie.  Despite a memorable riot scene between the Mods and the Rockers, it is difficult to see what difference it made, updating the story to the 1960s.  Also the film suffers at times from being too heavily symbolic, with Catholic symbolism (well, it is an adaptation of a Graham Greene novel) and at times almost apocalyptic portents of doom being layered on with a trowel. 

However, despite the flaws, the film looks good and is stylishly made.  It memorably depicts a bleak and savage world where there is little light or hope.  In the process, it manages to make the seaside town of  Brighton make Dante's Inferno look like an ideal holiday destination.  Sam Riley, who previously made an impression as Joy Divison frontman Ian Curtis in musical misery-fest Control (2007), gives a great perfomance as the monsterous Pinkie Brown, and Andrea Riseborough gives a star-making perfomance as the tortured Rose.  

This is a slow-burning but endlessly fascinating film, which provides enough thrills and suspense to keep fans of gangster movies happy, but adds a bracing layer of darkness and grit to the genre. 

Oh, they do like to be beside the seaside: Sam Riley and Andrea Riseborough in Brighton Rock 

Melancholia

Year:  2011
Director:  Lars von Trier
Screenplay:  Lars von Trier
Starring:  Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Skarsgard, Keifer Sutherland, Stellan Skarsgard, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Udo Kier
Running Time:  135 minutes
Genre:  Drama, science-fiction, apocalyptic

It's the end of the world as we know it in the latest laugh filled romp from controversial Danish director Lars von Trier.  Justine (Dunst) and her new husband Michael (Alexander Skarsgard) turn up two hours late to their own wedding reception, held at the lavish country house owned by Justine's sister Claire (Gainsbourg) and her wealthy astronomer husband John (Sutherland).  At the reception, Justine, who suffers from manic depression, alienates her friends, family and her employer with her increasingly erratic behaviour.  In addition, a large rogue planet called Melancholia, which had been hidden behind the Sun is scheduled to pass by (or more likely to collide with) Earth in fve days time.

The film is told in two parts, the first, "Justine", deals with the disasterous wedding reception and plays like a savage dark comedy, while the second, "Claire", deals with the characters preparing for the approach of Melancholia and is an intense chamber drama.  It's fair to say, that while the film belongs squarely in the field of apocalyptic science-fiction and the main plot of an object about to collide with and destroy the Earth has been done many times before, this is very far removed from the action-adventure thrills of conventional science-fiction cinema.  This slow-moving, somber movie even pulls the rug out from the audience by denying us even the suspense of wondering whether or not the planet is going to collide with Earth.  It opens with a series of surreally beautiful slow-motion images depicting Earth's destruction by Melancholia (von Trier said that he did not want the audience in suspense for the wrong reasons)   

Lars von Trier is one of the most controversial directors working today and tends to strongly polarise his audience.  In the press conference for Melancholia at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival he managed to alienate almost everyone by saying that he admired Hitler and the Nazis.  However he later apologised and claimed that he didn't mean it and it was just a joke.  Aside from his idiotic comments at the press conference, it's harder to ignore the fact that in Lars von Trier films the women, his lead characters are usually women, tend to have misery upon misery heaped upon them until they achieve some kind of transcendence at the end.  However, he is a talented film-maker and this movie is probably the most stunning and visually impressive of his career.  There is more than a hint here of the influence of the great Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky who did his own apocalypse film with The Sacrifice (1986).

The acting, as usual with von Trier films, is spectacular with Kirsten Dunst giving a career best perfomance as the unhappy Justine, a character who is never particularly likeable but is never entirely unsympathetic and she gets good support from Charlotte Gainsbourg as the stressed, but level-headed, Claire.  Also the unrelenting misery is leavened by a streak of welcome dark humour.  

Fans of slow and depressing science-fiction drama won't want to miss it.

Kirsten Dunst is electric in Melancholia

J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

Year: 1978
Director: Ralph Bakshi
Screenplay: Peter S. Beagle and Chris Conklin, based on the novels The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
Starring: Christopher Guard, William Squire, Michael Scholes, John Hurt, Simon Chandler, Dominic Guard, Michael Graham Cox, Anthony Daniels, David Buck
Running Time: 133 minutes
Genre: Fantasy, adventure, action, epic

Summary: The Third Age of Middle-earth: Bilbo Baggins (Norman Bird), a hobbit from the Shire, has a magical ring that can make it's owner turn invisible, among other more sinister properties. However the powerful wizard, Gandalf (Squire) believes the ring is extremely dangerous and demands that Bilbo leave it to his nephew, Frodo (Guard). Seventeen years later, Gandalf returns and informs Frodo that the ring is, in fact, the legendary "One Ring", forged by the Dark Lord Sauron. If Sauron should ever get hold of the ring he will have complete power and gain total control over Middle-earth. The only solution is to destroy the ring, however the only way that it can be destroyed is in the fires of Mount Doom in the heart of Sauron's stronghold in Mordor, a long and dangerous journey. To make matters worse, Sauron knows who has the ring and will stop at nothing to reclaim it.

Opinions: This film is an interesting and ambitious attempt to adapt the epic fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien's three-volume The Lord of the Rings. The main problem with the film was that it was intended to be the first of a two part adaptation and only covers two of the three books. The second film, which would have concluded the story, was never made. However, the material that was adapted sticks fairly closely to the books.
The animation in the film is showing it's age now, and a lot of the designs seem to belong more to a seventies prog-rock album cover than Tolkien's book, although there is a certain kind of old-school charm and there are some interesting effects, particularly the extensive use of "rotoscoping" in which live action footage is filmed and then animated over, and the voice cast are well chosen and work well for the characters.
Due to the condensing of the narrative, and lack of conclusion, the film is probably better for those who have read the books beforehand, and certainly Tolkien fans and fantasy fans will find plenty to enjoy.
The film remains a moderately successful experiment which despite it's flaws is worth checking out.


The hobbits hide from a malevolent Ringwraith in Lord of the Rings