Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1199 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-05-15
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi with Alien that, despite the passage of years and countless inferior imitations, remains shockingly fresh even after repeated viewing. Scott's legendary obsession with detail ensures that the setting is thoroughly conceived, while the Gothic production design and Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully unsettling score produce a sense of disquiet from the outset: everything about the spaceship Nostromo--from Tupperware to toolboxes-seems oddly familiar yet disconcertingly ... well, alien.

Nothing much to speak of happens for at least the first 30 minutes, and that in a way is the secret of the film's success: the audience has been nervously peering round every corner for so long that by the time the eponymous beast claims its first victim, the release of pent-up anxiety is all the more effective. Although Sigourney Weaver ultimately takes centre-stage, the ensemble cast is uniformly excellent. The remarkably low-tech effects still look good (better in many places than the CGI of the sequels), while the nightmarish quality of H.R. Giger's bio-mechanical creature and set design is enhanced by camerawork that tantalises by what it doesn't reveal.

On the DVD: The director, audibly pausing to puff on his cigar at regular intervals, provides an insightful commentary which, in tandem with superior sound and picture, sheds light into some previously unexplored dark recesses of this much-analysed, much-discussed movie (why the crew eat muesli, for example, or where the "rain" in the engine room is coming from). Deleted scenes include the famous "cocoon" sequence, the completion of the creature's insect-like life-cycle for which cinema audiences had to wait until 1986 and James Cameron's Aliens. Isolated audio tracks, a picture gallery of production artwork and a "making of" documentary complete a highly attractive DVD package. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
Astronauts must fight an unknown creature not only for their own survival, but for the survival of all mankind.

Special Features
2.35 Wide Screen
16:9 Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Original Theatrical Trailer
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Commentary By The Director
Artwork
Photo Galleries
Original Storyboards
Isolated Original Score
Alternative Music Track
Czech\Danish\English\Finnish\Hebrew\Hungarian\Icelandic\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Swedish

Customer Reviews

Satisfactory sci-fi, marred only by poor onscreen effects
I recall the week this film came out. I was on a camping holiday with my brother Anders and his friend Braithwaite. We had ventured to the rocky retreats of a local rivine. The trip turned out to be a total disaster, mainly because I forgot to bring the gas stove and also because Braithwaite drowned in some rapids. I do remember being excited though about the 'Alien' film, which was premiering at the time.
Myself and Anders went to see it the following week. He had always been a non believer in aliens and made it clear he was only going to see the film as a favour to me.
Directed by the late Ridley Scott, brother of Hollywood veteran George C.Scott, the film moves at a lethargic pace for the first hour. Some tedious scenes ensue, mainly with the crew sitting down to meals and discussing the mechanics of the ship. I found the first hour extremely dull and there is nothing to engage the viewer, except for some trite incidental music every now and then.
The cast is acceptable, if not a little thin on talent. Newcomer Sigourney Weaver (pronounced Sin-your-ree Wevver) was plucked from obscurity to play the heroine Helen Ripley. She brings no charm to the role and plays the character without emotion or pity, something which I found implausible.
I was pleased to see the wonderful Yaphett Kotto in the film, playing a world weary vet. I had followed his career since his debut in the sitcom 'Me, Janet And Mr Wilson'. He is commanding in this role and despite being the second only actor to have ever starred in a sci-fi film up to this point, he tackles the part with confidence and integrity.
My main criticism is the poor effects. The budget of two million dollars had to be stretched to great lengths and the special effects team were granted a meagre amount to play with. The alien is unconvincingly a man in a rubber suit and the spaceship interiors are clearly made out of cardboard and tissue paper.
On a positive note, the ending is a joy. Weaver battles the alien wearing just a bra. My brother Anders had left the cinema by the time this scene came on, so I was able to savour every delicious moment myself. The erotic interplay between Weaver and the alien in the final confrontation is quite majestic and dare I say it, a little arousing.
Alien has been re-issued several times since the film's release in various versions. I recommend watching the version where the alien dies at the end, rather than the version where they befriend it and invite the alien to take a position on the ship as a chef.

"In space no-one can hear you scream"
Edge of the seat stuff from Ridley Scott in one of the finest suspense films of all time. The alien itself is perfection, looks great, is mean as hell and is virtually impossible to destroy. The actors are great, in a cast led by Sigorney Weaver, John Hurt and Harry Dean Stanton you carnt really go wrong. So if you've not seen it, where have you been? And if you have then you know that i dont really need to say anymore..!

The bar of Sci-fi Horror
Alien is a masterpiece, all the more so if you consider that it is about 30 years old and is destined to become a timeless classic (if we ignore the computer screens!).

Pure perfection in horror story build up, it is dark and sinester from the start and the alien special effects set the bar for all other movies. This movie has been remade so many times under diffrent names and it has never been beaten.

It tells the story of a crew of a cargo spaceship that wake up from hibernation to find that the ship has gone of course to respond to an alien signal on a remote unknown planet. Encouraged to make a fortune if they encounter alien life they investigate and find a lot more than they had bargined for.

For alien fans this DVD provides delete scenes that would be used to make the squel Aliens and a wonderful directors commentary by Ridley Scott, one of the best directors of today. He provides great insight into the making of this film and how he builds suspence. I recommend you watch it with the directors commentary (but not for the first time) and you will really see how clever it is.

There are two classic Sci-fi horror movies, Alien and The Thing. Both get my greatest recommendations.