Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9147 in DVD
• Released on: 2000-05-15
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 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

'this place gives me the creeps'
well if you don't like monster movies
you ain't going to like this.
because i believe this is the ultimate monster movie.

watch in awe as weird prosaic horror descends on your everyday 22nd century mining operation.

a superb ensemble cast,
set design and art direction that still looks good today,
possibly jerry goldsmith's best ever score,
and fantastic sound design that compliaments it
(i can listen to this film without pictures)

they say there are only 12 stories in the world,
and this is one of them.
the moral being, beware 'the company'

a luscious sci-fi tone poem on celluloid.

classic stuff.

Excellent
The director's cut of this seminal sci-fi film is only slightly longer than the theatrical release.
Notable inclusions are: the whole crew listening to the garbled SOS signal (very chilling), Ripley getting punched/slapped in a fight with Lambert because she wouldn't let the investigating party back on bord (quarantine rules), and the infamous Dallas scene where he is coccooned as either food / host material (but without dialogue).
The only problem with this last scene is that it has been argued that it tends to break up the action and suspense that has been building as Ripley messes around with Nostromo's self destruct/ runs from the alien...but I think it's paced very well.
Despite this though, there's not much to choose between both versions.
This is a visually remastered (the film's original negative has undergone some digital cleanup and restoration) attempt with DTS so it is also an excellent reference DVD with which to show off your home cinema system (the opening shots as they orbit the planet are great).
The only dissapointment is the exclusion of "original trailers" from the extra's, which is there on the "standard" single disc edition (although, maybe I simply couldn't find them :D ).
Overall though, this still doesn't detract from an excellent dvd release that includes a whole host of other great extra's like HRGiger art....
Enjoy.

Lucas Take Note
Quite frankly, this is the ultimate in customer care. A number of us do not want Alien 3 & 4, so did not buy the box set. by releasing them seperatley, you get to buy just the ones you want.
A very nice feature is being able to choose between the original issue of the film or the new version. George Lucas, take note of this with your imminent Star Wars releases please.
The remastered print is amazing - visual and audio quality superb.
The extras are too numerous to list here - an outstanding example of how to reissue a classic film properly.