An Assessment of Organicity in Alien
Question: In Alien, is organicity portrayed as beauty or repulsiveness? In Alien, a film directed by Ridley Scott in 1979, a crew boards the Nostromos to explore a distress signal. However, once an alien is brought onboard, the crew struggles for their individual survival. There is a constant juxtaposition between the organic and inorganic, and the organic is often heavily associated with the abject, which entails messiness and even violence. Beauty refers to the visual aesthetics in the film, as well as pure, inner qualities of an organism. Organicity is defined as organisms that appear in their most raw form, are unaltered by social constructs, or has the ability to think. The main theme of the abject is put in conversation with gender and technology in order to understand the complexity of both beautiful and repulsive portrayals of organicity. Although organicity often has a repulsive connotation in Alien, the instances in which they are beautiful teaches us to embrace the abject. The moments of beauty found in organicity offers viewers an opportunity to change their perception of the abject. Towards the end of the movie, when Ripley thought she was alone on the shuttle, she began taking off her clothes. However, when she was surprised by the presence of the alien, she carefully slipped into a spacesuit. The smooth texture and warm color of her skin are shown slowly and clearly in a close-up shot, and unlike the rest of the scene
Many of the space themed science fiction movies contain underlying planetary archetypes within the plots that add to the movie such as Jupiter, the Moon, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury. Specifically, in this paper the planetary archetypes will be assessed in the films of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Interstellar (2014), and The Martian (2015).
My initial reaction to the film was of utter shock at the brutally raw reality of the film. Upon reflection and commentary from other sources, the film’s simple yet vastly effective filmmaking techniques of developing the explicit and implicit meaning of the film. The explicit meaning, as
The Alien is a science fiction horror movie. Its setting in space and the presence of technology and artificial intelligence empathizes on its science fiction genre. Moreover, the presence of the Alien and the fact that it is a threat to human lives reflects it is also a horror film. The movie revolves around seven human beings that have the mission to return to earth from the space.
Aliens aren’t real. My first reason is because they’re Fallen Angels (Demons), this s a fact. Aliens bodies aren’t like ours just as demons bodies aren’t like ours either, they’re spiritual beings. It explains how they move so fast, it explains their supernatural abilities, their fallen angels from heaven. They are smart enough to posses a human’s body and make them do things in unnatural ways, to make us continue wondering if aliens do exist and not think outside the box. They know how we think, because they’ve been human before, they know what we want to believe and don’t. Demons are the only things known to do such devious acts.
Shelley’s Romantic novel Frankenstein (1818) compares and reflects values of humanity and the consequences of our Promethean ambition against the futuristic, industrialized world of Blade Runner (1992) by Ridley Scott. The notions of unbridled scientific advancement and technological progress resonate with our desire to elevate humanity’s state of being, mirrored amongst the destructive ambition to overtake and disrupt nature and its processes. The disastrous implications of overreaching the boundary between progressive and destructive power and knowledge are heeded through the ultimate and inevitable loss of self and identity, transforming humanity into a form of monstrosity.
Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner reflects some of the key themes seen in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. For one, both the sources touch on the necessity of creators taking responsibility for their creations. Another key theme established in both works is the idea that emotional complexity and knowledge, over memory and appearance, allow people to be defined as human beings.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, whilst separated by 174 years, feature very similar content which can be seen by comparing the two side by side. Coming from different contexts, they both express their anxieties about technology, which is shown through a man made creature, and they both exhibit a strong valuing of nature. However due to their different contexts, these ideas are represented differently. The medium of production is clearly different, as is the representation of the creature and whether or not they are able to assimilate into society. In both texts the responder
BR depicts the hunger of mankind to break the barriers of humane principle and intrinsic concepts of nature. The extended irony in the film paradoxically gifts the artificial
“Horror and science fiction tend to present radically opposite interpretations of what may look like comparable situations.” (Kawin, 1981.) Bruce Kawin helps the reader to understand how a story in the genre of science fiction could be adapted, or bastardized if you like, into a horror. This is similar to the film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Both “Frankenstein” (1931) and “Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) portrayed characters and events differently than Shelley would have desired. Her novel had many deeper implications than the movie portrayed.
Abstract: Scientists claim that other life forms do in fact exist based on probability. The conditions necessary for life are likely to be present on various other planets. Signs of possible life have been found in material from outer space. Much research has been dedicated to proving the existence of life on Mars. SETI is a program entirely dedicated to finding and establishing communication with extra terrestrials. If other life forms are found, communication with these beings will be a difficult task. Laws to protect humans from the dangers of extraterrestrial beings are already in effect. Although contact with alien beings has not yet been made, technology today may make it a reality in the near future.
In the science fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey. The director, Stanley Kubrick, portray his masterpiece in an ambiguous understanding where he examines topics such as extraterrestrial life, the dealings with technology and the human evolution. Throughout the movie, Kubrick depicts the facade, monolith as an instrument in awakening intelligence. Moreover, the protagonists go through a drastic change of struggle to explore on the idea of technology and extraterrestrial life.
Spectacle Technique: Smoke and Mirrors Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a space-travel, science-fiction film about evolution and advanced alien architects. The film is broken into four parts: the apes (who encounter the 1st monolithic triggered evolutionary step), humanity’s discovery of the 2nd monolith (which encourages the trip to Jupiter), Bowman and Poole’s trip to Jupiter aboard a ship equipped with a HAL 9000 unit, and Bowman’s extraordinary experience with the 3rd monolith. Throughout the film, the narrative is muted, or at the very least Kubrick intentionally took steps to diminish the viewer’s ability to get involved with the narrative. Spectacle is the focus of this film.
All along the years, scientists, mathematicians and geniuses have been intrigued in the study of Aliens. Myths, stories, legends have been passed down from generation to generation. Remember those years of childhood when we were just so fascinated by aliens? “Do they really exist?” you would ask. Pondering daily for answers to mythical creatures, only, seeing them being crushed as we enter the terrifying years of teenagerhood.
The good thing about films is that we not only have the opportunity to choose from a wide selection of different genres, but also compare them and understand their purpose in the world. The Horror genre has used the basic principles throughout time, and as a result, films of this type have not proven to be as timeless as another genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy. At first, these two genres might at times seem similar as they have at several occasions been blended together, but their basic, common theme serves different meanings about humans. I shall compare and contrast these two genres and focus on both classic films and modern films. From the Horror genre perspective I shall discuss Psycho (1960) and The Mist (2007), while in the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre I will examine 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Pan’s Labyrinth (2006), and Serenity (2005). Although the Science Fiction/Fantasy genre and the Horror Genre share some similarities, the differences lie in their focus on human progress.
In addition, the film focus mainly on a human protagonist name Jake, and narrate his transformation from a human to an alien, which is done through a human-developed technology that injects human DNA into the alien bodies. After Jake’s transformation, the scene opens another implicit message: aliens are to be forcibly removed from their planet to create space for human activity (Veracini, 2011, p. 357). For the climax part of the film, the director establishes a passage that describes Jack becoming a native of Pandora, and the director again aims to introduce the audience with a message saying that human power against corporate force as to conserve our natural environment. This message seemingly gives audience a wonderful twist of the plot and is quite thought provoking for the audience. Hence, when a film includes well-integrated messages, it adds another layer of quality to the entire plot whereby all the elements of the plot becomes more meaningful, and the general audience could be attuned with the rhythm of the film because there is a logical flow from one scene to the next.