Alien [Collector's Edition] [2 Discs]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

"In space, no one can hear you scream." A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic. On the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo's crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship's Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas's (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane's stomach and escapes. The alien starts stalking the humans, pitting Dallas and his crew (and cat) against a malevolent killing machine that also has a protector in the nefarious Company. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Features:
  • cc
  • Includes both the 1979 theatrical version and the 2003 Director's Cut
  • Full-length audio commentary by director Ridley Scott, writer Dan O'Bannon, executive producer Ronald Shusett, editor Terry Rawlings, actors Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Hurt (for both versions)
  • Introduction by Ridley Scott
  • "Star Beast: Developing the Story"
  • "The Visualists: Direction and Design"
  • "Truckers in Space: Casting"
  • "The Eighth Passenger: Creature Design"
  • Sigourney Weaver screen test
  • "The Chestbuster: Creature Design"
  • Multi-angle scene studies
  • Still photo galleries
  • Deleted and extended scenes

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Won Best Visual Effects - 1979 (H.R. Giger, Nick Allder, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson)
•     Nominated Best Art Direction - 1979 (Michael Seymour, Ian Whittaker, Roger Christian)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Art Direction - 1979 (Michael Seymour)

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Tom Skerritt - Dallas
       Sigourney Weaver - Ellen Ripley
       Veronica Cartwright - Lambert
       Harry Dean Stanton - Brett
       John Hurt - Kane
       Ian Holm - Ash
       Bolaji Badejo - Alien

• Director:

  Ridley Scott

• Producer:

  Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill

• Screen Story:

  Dan O'Bannon

• Screenwriter:

  Dan O'Bannon

• Screen Story:

  Ronald Shusett

• Cinematographer:

  Derek Vanlint

• Composer (Music Score):

  Jerry Goldsmith

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Lionel Newman

• Featured Music:

  Howard Hanson

• Editor:

  Terry Rawlings, Peter Weatherly

• Production Designer:

  Leslie Dilley, Anton Furst, Michael Seymour

• Art Director:

  Roger Christian, Leslie Dilley

• Executive Producer:

  Ronald Shusett

• Set Designer:

  Ian Whittaker

• Costume Designer:

  Roger Dicken, John Mollo

• Special Effects:

  Nick Allder, Bernard Lodge, Carlo Rambaldi, Brian Johnson

• First Assistant Director:

  Paul Ibbetson

• Camera Operator:

  Adrian Biddle

• Casting:

  Mary Goldberg, Mary Selway

• Creature Design:

  H.R. Giger

• Conductor:

  Lionel Newman

• Model Effects Supervisor:

  Martin Bower

REVIEW:

• Combining science fiction with horror, Swiss artist H.R. Giger's alien design and Carlo Rambaldi's visual effects creepily meld technology with corporeality, creating a claustrophobic environment that is coldly mechanical yet horribly anthropomorphized, like the metallic monster itself. Director Ridley Scott keeps the alien out of full view, hiding it in the dark or camouflaging it in the workings of the Nostromo. Signs of '70s cultural upheaval permeate Alien's future world, from the relationship between corporate capitalism and rapacious monstrosity to the heterogeneous crew and Ripley's forceful horror heroine. The intense frights and gross-outs, however, are credited with making Alien one of the biggest hits of 1979 (it premiered on the two-year anniversary of Star Wars); Giger, Rambaldi, et al. won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Alien went on to spawn three genre-bending sequels (and reconditioned Ripleys): exceptional '80s actioner Aliens (1986), dark prison drama Alien 3 (1992), and exotically grotesque Alien Resurrection (1997). With its atmospheric isolation, implacable monster, and whiff of social conscience, Alien stands as one of the more thoughtful yet utterly terrifying horror films of the 1970s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi