Watching Alien (1979) for the First Time!!

"Let the cat and Sigourney be okay, for this movie." It's like the filmmakers made this just for you, Ylva. Yours is the best of all reactions on YouTube to my favorite movie. I can never watch it for the first time again, so it's fantastic to see someone else get pulled into the story, as well as comment on the filmmaking. Helen Mirren talked about this movie in her MasterClass. Among all the behind the scenes trivia or analysis surrounding this classic movie, I thought her comment might appeal to you: “The first time I understood what was possible was I was privileged enough to read the script of <i>Alien</i>. I was up for a role in it, which I didn’t get, sadly. But I was privileged to read the original script, Ridley Scott’s script of <i>Alien</i>. And it was brilliant, because the way it was written, all the characters had names like Ripley, or, I don’t know, Tonn, they had these weird names that could be male or female. There was not a single direction in the script that said whether this was a man or a woman. It didn’t say, ‘Ripley is a tall, athletic woman with a fierce determination in her eyes,’ that sort of stage direction which you often get. So annoying. There were no stage directions at all for any of the characters, so any of the characters could have been played by a man or a woman. And that was such a liberating idea for me. I had never thought of that before. Thought that was possible. And there it was, laid out for me in this wonderful script of <i>Alien</i>. And from that moment on, it really transformed my thinking about who could play what and why. And <i>Alien</i> was quite a long time ago and it’s taken us all--and especially the world of producers and writers and directors--to catch up, and indeed the audience, to catch up.”

Thanks SplinterTME!! Ripley is awesome, I'll definitely try and find that version of the next movie to react to 😊

Love the reaction. Lieutenant Ellen Ripley: now that’s how you do a strong female character. She is totally badass. I remember watching these as a kid and thinking I wanted to be like Ripley. The second movie is my favorite. If you can, watch the special edition as it’s the director’s favorite and his intended film. The theatrical version cut a lot of stuff and he wasn’t very happy with it.

SplinterTME