Barnes & Noble

Combining the monster film fright of The Thing From Another World with the suspense of Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, Ridley Scott's atmospheric Alien (1979) delved deep into the dark fears of space exploration in a year when Star Trek: The Motion Picture was more concerned with spectacular space battles. Sigourney Weaver, in the definition of a breakthrough role, stars as the most steadfast crewmember of the mining ship Nostromo, which after touching down for an emergency call unwittingly receives an unwelcome guest -- yes, an alien. As the mysterious, bloodthirsty creature roams the dark ship, the remaining crew -- including John Hurt, Yaphet Kotto, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, and Harry Dean Stanton -- fall prey both to their own emotions and the monster. Latching itself onto Hurt's face and giving birth in an infamous, stomach-turning way, the titular visitor embodies ghastly characteristics that are at the same time motherly, violent only from an instinct to protect and reproduce. These concepts of motherhood and reproduction are further explored in the original's star-studded sequels -- James Cameron's Aliens, David Fincher's Alien 3, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Alien Resurrection. Indeed, one could say that Scott's film is the first feminist monster movie, reinforced by both the mother-monster and Weaver's strong-willed Ripley, who goes against the damsel-in-distress stereotypes of most horror flicks. (Ironically, the role was originally written as a man.) Designed with psychosexual imagination by macabre artist H.R. Giger, Alien still elicits screams from viewers -- screams that unfortunately, in space, no one can hear. Jason Bergenfeld

All Movie Guide

"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, Alien. 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' (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

Entertainment Weekly

Pay attention to the enhanced detail audible in a new six-track sound mix, which may be the most important cleaning job of all; silence and Jerry Goldsmith's score have never twined so hauntingly. Lisa Schwarzbaum

Baltimore Sun

Alien, even with some scene tinkering that has left this "director's cut" one minute shorter than its original release, is still one of the creepiest, scariest, most shocking films ever. Chris Kaltenbach

TV Guide

And while this director's cut doesn't really differ all that much from the original 1979 release, it contains a few minutes of never-before seen footage, including one serious bitch slap and an entire scene in which Ripley stumbles upon a few not-quite-dead crew members whose terrible fates foreshadow James Cameron's 1986 sequel. Ken Fox

Product Details

• UPC: 086162000751
• Source: 20TH CENTURY FOX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:56:00
• Sales Rank: 2,290

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Alien Quadrilogy
• Alien / Species
• Alien 1-3 (3 Discs)
• Triple Feature: Terror from above
• Alien Predator Total Destruction Collection
• Abyss/Alien
• Ultimate Sci-Fi Collection (20pc) / (Box)

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