Tuesday, June 18, 2019
What Culture Fears do the Antagonists of Ridley Scott's Alien Movie Review
What Culture Fears do the Antagonists of Ridley Scotts Alien Represent - Movie Review ExampleThe main actors of the image are Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), Tom Skerrit (Dallas), veronica Catwright (Lambert), John Hurt (Kane), Ian Holm (Ash), Bolaji Badejo (Alien), Yaphet Kotto (Parker) and Harry Dean Station (Brett) (IMBD). The delineation holds many symbolic cultural and economic representations of the 1970s essentially through the portrayal of the antagonists. During 1970s the Feminist movements were wide spread. Women in America were fighting for Equal reclaims Amendment in US constitution. Over 1000 state were involved in the Equal Right Amendment Extension march of 1978. In this background Alien shows the gender role reversal in the form of tough female protagonist (Ripley) who finally slays the unknown at the end. Again in a scene from the film, Ash refers to the alien creatures as Kanes son thus implying him to be a mother. The success of the film was due to its embodiment of feminism. During that time in America, sexually transmitted disease was wide spread. It affected nearly 40% of sexually active individuals of that time. In the movie this issue was also addressed. The Alien was born through the penetration of the host Kane and Ripley made it a point to use quarantine for fear of infection. Ash, the android in the movie signifies the way how technology is getting beyond piece control. The movie released a short time after the partial nuclear meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania and this event changed the way how people viewed this movie. In 1979 America experienced second petroleum crisis because of disrupted production and Iranian revolution and so there was a continuous oil price increase and there was a fear among the people that there would be no more oil or gasoline left. The movie portrays this fear of the people and shows that the lots mission was to bring mineral ore from distant places in the galaxy and to return them to earth (Alien Film analysis). There are many sexual imageries and connotations in the film. Alienscreenwriter Dan OBannon spells it away himself One thing that people are all disturbed about is sex... I said Thats how Im going to attack the audience Im going to attack them sexually. And Im not going to go after the women in the audience, Im going to attack the men. I am going to put in every image I screw think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs. Homosexual oral rape, birth. The thing lays its eggs down your throat, the whole number (Dietle). The human crew members who invaded the alien ship are in effect the man sized sperm crawling through it. The birth of the alien holds another story. The filmmakers presented the birth in a violent manner and it was representing the mens ignorant ideas about pregnancy and birth (Dietle). Alien is not just a sci-fi monster movie. The straightforward part of Alien is the way in which the alien encounter is destabi lized by an inclusion of provoking themes like high technology and human sexual activity. James H. Kavanagh taken the film within a Marxist framework. Judith Newton has reappraised the film in the light of contemporary feminist discourse and Barbara Creed had applied Freudian concepts of sexuality to it (Pimley, 3). Although the film employs a familiar and traditional scenario, the themes of technology and sexuality explored in Alien anticipate the new wave, displaying a newfound interest and concern for the human body that would become a defining feature of 1980s science fiction. It was to be a decade during which the boundaries
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