Rob, hope you're well. I reached out to you a while back as a fan and a man struggling with depression. You were kind enough to reply and give me advice and I want to say I took your advice on board and I'm much better now. Thank you so much. And I'm glad to be here watching new content. All the best, and I look forward to more new content.
One thing I always noticed is that after the initial "I" appears the titles do not then fill out from the middle, expanding to spell the whole word. Rather the next two bits to appear are the furthest left and furthest right thus bracketing the title. It sets the boundaries. Always made me think of containment or confinement. The "I" is now trapped.
"I" somewhat begins standalone in the middle and slowly becomes encompassed/surrounded the other two and further by the angled lines. Very claustrophobic!
The rings coming out upwards isn't a continuity error, it's how the rings should go around since they are tilted sideways. Albeit the rings should've been a bit higher in the frame, as they should've gone up a little behind the planet.
The title sequence definitely stirs up a sense of foreboding doom. This is horror done right; the entire movie right from the start takes it's time and hides in the shadows, waiting for you, giving away small glimpses of unknown terror throughout the movie which is much scarier because the dread and pressure is always there and always building. The letters emerging slowly from where they've been hiding in the darkness during the title sequence is scary and as Rob says, great foreshadowing starting before any action has even happened on screen.
I saw this movie as a kid (9 years old) in 1979 and it scared the living shit out of me, even today I still have nightmares about it and it's aliens. Would you believe that just the title sequence is enough to scare me 40 years later? One of the best films ever made.
A couple of days ago I had another nightmare, after a few years of inactivity. They get more and more scarce but evidently the beast always keeps lurking in our minds. I'm 46, saw it at 12 years of age.
our teacher in publishing showed us the opening of Alien in class to show us how creative we can be with fonts. It's cleverly done and somewhat it looks simple.
Seeing this the first time in the theater, these titles stuck me in a way that generated a kind of fear I'd never had before. For me, Alien made a huge impact on my appreciation of film making. I had a subscription to Heavy Metal magazine, articles about HR Giger, concept art Mobius had done. And how Pinewood was sealed/ off limits. But the trailer that ran on TV, with the egg cracking and the light coming out, with the screams. "in space no one can hear you scream" (Dan O'Bannon). Jerry Goldsmith score is really amazing. (Goldsmith also scored Logans Run in 1976). If Im not mistaken, it took him 3 weeks to compose for Alien. My step dad was a jazz pianist and took me to see Alien because he liked Lionel Newman the orchestra conductor who conducted the orchestra. The sounds in the (title) music are phenomenal. Very cold. Saw it in 70mm at the Uptown Theater in Wash DC. People were throwing up, and someone had an epileptic seizure, and they had to stop the movie. people were happy when it started back up. I thought, that is really good writing, compelling film making when an audience will stick thru all that because you want to know what happens. And of course when it was ending, credits rolling, people applauded. Another great video added to one of my playlists- best regards.
I was intrigued by ALIEN, seeing articles and photos in Fantastic Films, Starlog, Fangoria and other fan mags at the time. The commercial creeped me out and I hoped they would use that "scream" as the extraterrestrial S.O.S.
I always enjoy hearing Jerry Goldsmiths take on his opening title track. "It was just the most obvious thing and I knocked it out in five minutes. Everyone loved it, of course. I hated it.."
Great piece as always Rob and superbly interesting points about Jerry's score too re: the sound design elements. As there's music mentioned, I couldn't help myself! This title piece wasn't Jerry's original choice (well documented in the Future Tense chapter of the making of Alien) and the original opening cue was very lyrical (granted though the scene was much longer when he first scored it). Whilst great, when editing Scott and Terry Rawlings felt it didn't convey the senses you describe here, so they temped it with a different cue Jerry had written for a scene later in the move called The Passage (it actually shows up in the film when the sun comes up on the planet after Jones licks his paws) and subsequently got Jerry to re-write this opening cue in that style. Terry Rawlings was a superb music editor and i think was very respectful of Jerry when thinking about how he'd be represented in the final cut. It's subjective I guess but I feel using the pieces from Freud - which work really well regardless of how good his actual scored cues were for Acid Test and The Shaft - show just how versatile his music was. I mean....music from a film about a psychologist emotionally underpinning the tension of whether a spaceship's hull was compromised by unknown alien acid and hunting/being hunted in a claustrophobic tunnel by a merciless adversary working as well as it does in hindsight is a real testament to Goldsmith's craft (although I know he didn't see it that way at the time or later!) On the sound elements in this cue, you're spot on! The high pitched slightly wavering string note is also a feature for the alien itself as it shows up it the clips you've used here (it's quite prominent, esp in the Lambert/Parker scene when the alien rises up in front of her and also after the alien tries to grab Ripley in the shuttle) and also in Brett's death. This is a neat subliminal as tonally it has a similar timbre to the sound of the chains from the landing bay where Brett meets his fate. This sound from this environment - where we first see the adult alien and represented in that high pitch wavering when we see it from here on - is right here in the opening as you mentioned Rob...an aural foreshadow indeed! The use of delay and reverb are also crucial tonal factors to the overall success. The Echoplex - the standard (and fantastic!) tape delay system used at the time is all over this score, not only to heighten the dreamlike/sleepy atmospherics but also to stronger dramatic degrees, such as the first reveal of the Space Jockey. The Echoplex on the col legno strings (hitting the strings with the bow and a very common effect in orchestral film scores) and the sliding chords to the full jockey reveal are right on the money and it would be hard to imagine how that would be approached today to deliver the same sense of scale without the effect.... The wind effect, which is such a brilliant, unnerving and wholly "alien" sound, was an Indian conch which when blown into an endless reverb plate gave that amazing pitch and mood - completely associated with Alien now and it is a masterstroke by Rawlings and Scott in my opinion that they put in front/centre at the very start of the film. The "tone" is indeed set and similar to Fincher telling Eliot Goldenthal when he asked about the scoring approach to Alien 3 that he wanted the audience to feel they were "fucked" from the start, I think you know when you hear the conch in with the other elements Jerry used on the full title reveal, you FEEL you know how this is going to go! The percussion choices Jerry chose are also pivotal here. Reverb galore over muted wooden blocks and dulled drum percussion (he also incorporated hitting the sides of the timpani drums - the copper bases - in this score...very noticeable when Kane is dropped into the chamber) which when combined by the neatly obscured string scratches and tremolo notes, create a very unsettling tonal soup. It's from the introduction of the string chord en route to the crescendo towards the title reveal that it all really comes together to tell you this is a scary and important word. There's a tambourine shake there just at the crest of the reveal which is a little percussive masterstroke and shows that even though Jerry didn't want to re-score this opening, what he did with it when he did was completely genius and on the money! It's also interesting - as you point out Rob - that this musical foreshadowing and dark emotional reveal of elements of the alien itself - are set against the background of the place where the crew's horror...the alien...is waiting. Once the title is fully revealed and we move away into space, the colour palette is different - less alien and unusual because we see space as we've seen it countless times - and then the Nostromo and onward. One of the best opening titles - and as you've celebrated and dissected like Ash, Rob - one of the best films ever (to be) made on so many levels! Amazing work mate! Gaz PS...I've always felt that there's a comparison to the corporate "world" portrayed in Alien - the undercurrent of The Company as well as the tech shown in the ship etc - to that of the world shown in the movie Outland. Con AM and the whole grimy, every day-ness of working in space for the man...mining on IO in Outland's case. They all hate it from the opening scene... I mention this because Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant score for this film is also a distant cousin to his score for Alien. In particular is the conch-like instrument used on the opening title reveal, where not unlike Alien, it slowly emerges from the darkness of the slate, although there are many dark clusters and chord similarities too, with the music having a great character that always suggests time is running out for everyone - O'Niel (Connery's Marshal), Sheppard (Peter Boyle's nefarious Con AM Manager) and the people who take the deadly narcotic. Everyone who works there does a tour and clocks/clicking time readouts play a prominent role. An interesting film!
Absolute masterpiece opening sequence. Really sets the scene for the creepy "first act" of the movie. I LOVE the way the Alien title is simple Helvetica type that emerges from symmetrical lines. Goldsmith actually wrote the score in a huff because his intended lush and orchestral score was rejected by Scott. So Goldsmith gave him this "banal and predictable" score, which is actually superb.
Wow, how perceptions may vary! It's anything BUT predictable! And absolutely unique at that, I genuinely can't think of a similar movie score, while everything has been more or less the same generic zimmeresque orchestra for a while now!
@@Li_Tobler I agree with you! It's GOLDSMITH that called the score "banal and predictable". I love it. Goldsmith has a history of composing lush and rather themeless scores, having them rejected, and then going back to the studio and producing a masterpiece as a result. I also agree about recent film scores. I though the score to Dune really let the movie down. Very artsy and all that but totally lacking in emotive power.
@@martinharris5017 haha yes I understand, but was baffled nonetheless. But I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, as an artsy person myself, I also tend to devalue and tear down my works quite a lot, when other people really appreciate them! :) I'm also in love, the OST alone makes me salivate and want to rewatch the movie for the 4th time:)) Movie industry in general feels so regurgitative in the last years somehow! I keep getting suggested a video here on TH-cam - called "Who killed cinema?" or something like that. I guess I should finally watch it and hope that it has some answers for the uninspiredness and staleness of it all:)
@@Li_Tobler Moon channel has a fair bit on the downfall of modern cinema, maybe that's what you are being recommended? Moon puts out some great content. I'm an artist too and it is true. we are our own biggest critics. I'm guessing y your name you are a Giger fan:)
@martinharris5017 no no it's more of a movie critic channel, Patrick H Willems is the name, just checked:) Oh, are you a painter? I am! We should keep our inner critics in check though, because while too little will lead to arrogance, too much is discouraging 😞 Haha yeeeeesss the biggest, you're the second person ever to pick up on that! : )) I'm just so fascinated by their tragic and turbulent love story, it always stuck with me somehow. It might sound weird but I felt almost a weird spiritual connection to this girl, reading snippets about her and looking at her gorgeous photos. Really wish things would've turned out differently for her. Her beautiful and unique name was very hard NOT to steal :)
I completely agree that the Goldsmith music is extremely effective. Unfortunately most people I talk to don't seem to realise that it is the music that they are (primarily?) emotionally keying into. Instead they talk about the photography, lighting and the production design creating the mood, while they seem to subliminally absorb the music.
I loved the comment on how Goldsmith's scores transcend the barrier between music and sound effects. I also adore how the whole power of the score in general is brought up to light. Not enough credit has been given to it in general. That said, to me, Goldsmith's title score didn't invoke sleepiness or hypnosis... at all. it evoked fear and stress. A sense of sickness and doom. And the reasons are threefold: Firstly, the chords that Goldsmith used are very "dark" sounding. Secondly, the dynamics of the performances are very special - there is a slightly "trembling" quiality to the sound of the wind instruments, adding to the organic feel that Rob mentions but also giving a sense of weakness or sickness. Thirdly, behind the wind instruments there is something else which I can't really tell what it is - it's high-pitched tubular bells or something- that adds immense tension - like underneath the calmness there is something lurking, full of energy and tension ready to be released. I remember myself feeling scared at this scene even without having seen any person or any beast at all. Such is Alien.
Those high pitched sounds are a combination of a few stranger violin techniques. 1) playing behind the bridge as seen in this video th-cam.com/video/CLEnJAvjdL0/w-d-xo.html And col legno, which is basically hitting the strings with the back/wooden part of the bow making that little percussive effect. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_legno Edited to add: I'm almost certain all of the "sound effects" heard in this sequence are being created by the orchestra. Goldsmith had the instrumentalists do all kinds of crazy things. I forget where I got this info in my head tho. Many bits and bobs over the years.
Rob is one of the best content creators on TH-cam and quite possibly the most respectful to his audience as far as I know, as his videos have no woke ads, save for the ones he himself includes about his stuff, which are logical to include and welcome, but also because all of his videos are rich in information and straight to the point without stupid filler chitchat.
He also doesn't give a crap what's currently relevant and covers what he wants to cover. Many youtubers like that Critical Drinker idiot only talk about Disney products even though they pretend they hate them, all for the sake of publicity, ofc.
for a long time I always thought the poster @0:10 showed empty cinema seats with the Alien egg on the screen not till years later when it came out on DVD I took a closer look at the film poster and realised it was completely off 😆
One of the best film intro's of all time. The combination of all these simple, subtle elements perfectly sets the scene for what is to come. Ominous yet hauntingly beautiful, and unsettling in the extreme. Brilliant stuff.
I love these subliminal analyses. A couple additional observations: (1) The way that the white bars appear and gradually become recognizable as letters has always suggested to me a process of deciphering alien hieroglyphics. The first vertical bar segments are like a set of monoliths (shades of 2001 again). As you note, the score shifts into a slightly more hopeful key just as the downward stroke of the A appears-- which is also the instant when most viewers experience a moment of recognition, an "ah ha" moment akin to cracking an alien code. Slowly we realize that these are the pieces of the title. This mirrors the way that the characters encounter the utterly baffling, "unreadable" ancient ruins of the alien ship but slowly make sense of what they are dealing with, viz. a parasitic killing machine, as the xenomorph's nature is revealed, one grotesque step at a time. It's funny that what the strange hieroglyphs finally spell out is the word "alien," since that's the very problem they initially pose for us, being too alien too read. It's as if archeologists were to discover that the standing stones at Stonehenge actually spell out a word, but that word is "mystery." (2) This is more of stretch but ... if the giant planet is an egg, couldn't the actors' names in white be seen as sperm? If so, it's interesting to note that the names of the two female cast members, Weaver and Cartwright, are shown just as the titles cross the threshold into the planet, like sperm penetrating an ovum. That the female names bear the sperm into the unearthly ovum may be subtly suggestive of the way Giger's xenomorph is a liminal and nightmarish confusion of human sexual processes and drives.
@@collativelearningI counted 11 additive dissolves for the main title. Maybe could stand for the 7 crew + Egg, Facehugger, Chestburster and finally.....ALIEN. may be a stretch though.
There was the whole deleted (conceived but not filmed) extra hour or so in the early drafts where they also find a huge alien pyramid on the planetoid and explore it, it explains more about the xenos and the relationship with the "Engineers" or whatever, or would have. None of that made it into the film, but the subtext is there, in the titles, and also in the graphics used in and on the surfaces of the Nostromo and uniforms, etc. and machinery.
@@thiscorrosion900 yeah I had this in mind too. O'Bannon's original script emphasized xeno-archeology a lot more, exploring the pyramid and learning about this alien civilization and their brutal caste-based life cycle through Egyptian-esque murals (which is directly lifted from Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness). Giger made some great paintings as concept art for these murals. (Which, yeah, Scott finally included a less interesting version of in Prometheus.)
I appreciate these impressions, very well thought out. The way the planet "flips" as it pans is, imo, a way to visually render the "rings" correctly on the other side, as if we are approaching from an angle above the equatorial plane. The title graphics are intriguing; for me there is a definite zen like symmetry, the spacing and design are meant to evoke the fear of the unknown with an almost "ancient high tech" hyroglyphic style...which together with the dreamlike score has the audience contemplate the meaning of the word A L I E N. Unsettling is an appropriate word. Fascinating, subscribed!
My interpretation was always that the letters were imperceptibly developing the way the organism develops inside the human body. The fact that it is a word suddenly dawns on you after your attention has already been subliminally "impregnated" with the concept of "alien".
After seeing Alien for the first time on TV in the mid-1980s, I went through a period of almost thirty years where I’d occasionally have dreams inspired by the film. At first they were set within the confines of a small spaceship where I knew the threat would eventually find me, but as the years went by, the ships became bigger and later expanded to becoming towns or cities. The final dreams were set in a city so big, with an almost endless maze of buildings, apartments and potential escape routes, that I knew I’d never be found. It’s strange how the brain works.
I saw the film young as a child and used to have bad dreams about the Alien until I saw Aliens. Knowing that firepower could mitigate the terror somehow helped subconsciously...lol
I just watched this for the first time with my kids on Saturday night. They loved it. Watching them almost jump out of their seats as the tension builds is magical. One of the many benefits of the actor's guild strike is that there's over a century of cinema to experience, and I hope people take the opportunity to do so.
@@MotoGreciaMarios The whole film. It's a great movie. Like most science fiction movies of the era, they assumed it would be a Star Wars clone and made toys and age-inappropriate merchandise. My thoughtless in-laws sent the new recasts of the toys to my kids a couple years ago. It's nice that they know what their toys are now.
@@100Servings It not just agreat movie -to me it's one of the greatest of all time. I just think it can be traumatising if viewed at a young age. I know of many people, including myself who have nightmares decades after the first viewing. That said, you know your kids better. Some kids have amazing resilience or the capability of detaching themselves from what they see, or they are just plain strong and avoid trauma altogether.
@@MotoGreciaMarios I've been able to teach my kids about a very strong line between fantasy and reality. When you see something terrifying that your brain can't process, it can be traumatic, but since we live in the internet age, you can pause a movie and show them that it's just a man in a costume. Being able to open one of Tom Savini's books and showing them how it was done helps too. I studied mythology and the occult for 35+ years and am a total denier of all things supernatural, so they also understand that there's no such thing as aliens, vampires, or ghosts. As such, we don't have much in the way of nightmares or fears around here. They also have a very stable home. I'm retired and a stay-at-home parent, and they have a safe and comfortable room in a good community. This is an interesting concept to analyze. I grew up in an abusive household with alcoholic parents and daily beatings. We were poor and grew up in brutal communities of cruel and ignorant people, and we moved around every four years or so. I never had anyone I could look to for wisdom and guidance, and I have no friends. As a result, I grew up constantly scared, rebellious, and violent, ran away from home at 16 to live on the streets, then joined the military as soon as I could, where I continued to live a brutal and violent existence. I'm still plagued with nightmares. I retired and became a cop in a major city, where fighting and violence continued to take a toll on me physically in middle age. I still long to fight others, despite the fact that I'm basically a house pet these days. There's probably a complex case study to be written here by someone far more intelligent than myself.
Goldsmith’s score is drifting and ethereal. One of my all time favorite musical scores. Having said that, it is undeniably derived from Holst’s Saturn movement. th-cam.com/video/nHX6VXQUJM4/w-d-xo.html
Great analysis. A few observations of my own: 1) the I that appears first looks much like the third monolith in 2001, right before Dave is sent into the great beyond. The positioning is instead a vertical white rectangle instead of black (the whole plot of Alien is precipitated by a company lie). The word LIE is in the center of the title sequence. 2) Ian Holms credit ushers in the A, spelling AI (cuz Ash is a goddamn robot) 3) the scene where Dallas is in the air ducts sounds very similar to the fatherly love scene in the shining, which premiered the year following Aliens release.)
I know it's ridiculously simple symbolism, but I've never made the connection of the lines in the letters being fangs or teeth. Seeing it now, it's bleeding obvious. Learning from dream analysis, symbolism in dreams doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
Having been a graphic designer..I am absolutely certain that there has never been a better title sequence. The artist saw the symmetry of the word. It was pure genious how they used all the virtical planes to create the format. A+. Hope they got an award for this. And the music carefully timed with the revelation and unfolding of what thes lines were. Can't say enough . Great work. Thanks for featuring this.
you really need to see a lot more film this is very serviceable for this film but there are seriously better title sequences ... a lot better just simply google best title sequences in film and see how many you have likely not seen or even heard about if you think this is best
The planet in the opening sequence is indeed a gas giant, known as Calpamos and orbited by 3 moons in the Zeta II Reticuli System, one of which later becomes LV-426.
Funny what you said about listening to the soundtrack. In 8th grade I was really into soundtrack recordings. I bought the Alien cassette. Loved it. Listened to it many times.
Just looking at this presentation I have to say there were a number of points I disagreed with. I was a bright eyed bushy tailed high schooler when I went to see this movie and knowing the title I immediately understood what was unfolding on the screen. The movie's title was ALIEN what else would be coming up. As for the suggestion of sleep tinged with terror and helplessness, the ship is full of sleepers who are about to be rudely awoken. Except for one of course who knew the story and didn't really need sleep. I rather think you do your audience a disservice in assuming they can't pick up on stuff in the movie. Especially since they entered the cinema in the full knowledge that this was a horror story about a clash with an Alien of unknown origin. Finally, what is with the switch from the commentary and imagery on the score and opening sequences to almost the last part of the movie? The sound track at that point is the noise of the ship preparing to self destruct and then the realisation that the Alien knew this too. Basically the movie was so good because the director was running on a B movie budget and produced an iconic story of fear, threat and ever increasing crisis, plus the unexpected shocks of certain events. The imagery of the beginning pretty quickly explains itself with the realisation that the crew are awoken early in their homeward bound trip because of the planet in the picture. So I think you missed a few points here.
I don’t think the rings are reversed or a mistake. I think it’s a question of perspective. What appears to rise or fall may not be actually happening, we’re just too close to see their true pathways. I think the rings meet at what would appear to be a lopsided angle if viewed from afar as Saturn is often portrayed.
I find the slow reveal of the word "Alien" by lines to mimic what it feels like to transition between "not knowing what you're looking at" to "knowing what you're looking at", i find this in between period to feel like terror or fear, and uneasiness. It's like what it would feel like to lose object permanence and look at objects in the world, i achieved this once while i was practicing meditation(continually to achieve this effect) and i felt great sense of both awe and terror. it only lasted 10 seconds, it's not sustainable to trick yourself into losing object permanence. I wouldn't even understand what an alien is if i was looking at it...
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One of the best title sequence ever. It sucks you into space! Jerry Goldsmiths score is phenomenal! Sad he didn't get an Oscar for it.
the light beams aren't a mistake. they appear to be rings on a tilted axis. with that perspective, they would be lower on the left and higher on the right.
Nice analysis. But you are aware that many cues from Goldsmith’s score for FREUD wound up in ALIEN, and not re-recorded either. No coincidence they borrowed from the FREUD score, no doubt given Giger’s design. 😂
Editor Terry Rawlings has said to myself and many others that he chose that score for the Dallas air tunnel scenes for the purpose of continuity in editing and then Rawlings convinced Scott it worked better than what Goldsmith purposely wrote.
@@UFO_computersSure. Was just being cheeky. But hard to ignore the Freudian elements in ALIEN. Btw, if you have a way of contacting Rawlings I’d like him to confirm something just out of curiosity. I saw the film at the Egyptian theater first showing opening day. My friends and I went back the next eve and saw it again. In that time they’d made significant cuts in the beginning of the second act. I’m sure of this. (Also saw the same thing with The Shining.) It sped up the story ever so slightly to change the reduce the mysterious aspects of the story and brought on the kinetic portion quicker. Gotta say I liked the prolonged haunted house vibe. Anyway, if you know how to get to him I’m curious if he remembers that. Cheers
@@UFO_computersI wish the film kept Jerry’s original music for the death of Dallas, as well as the original cue for the crew awakening from hypersleep (which could have given the ”romantic theme” a more proper intro within the musical architecture of the score, instead of it just dropping in here and there). I also prefer his end titles (scored with that romantic theme) over the dropped-in excerpt of the Hanson symphony
The opening sequence for Alien has always been one of my favorite parts of the movie and I usually replay it three or four times when watching it. Dare I say that the score for it contributed to the movie as much a John Williams score contributed to Jaws.
I would add that Elliot Goldenthal brought back that eerie, unnerving tension that was absent from Horners score in Alien 3 (though that was effective in its own way). Despite being more experimental and jarring (discarding the romantic sounds from Goldsmith's compositions), it had moments of levity and hope. Just such a wonderful, varied collection of music across all three films.
I've actually listened to the alien soundtrack casually many times. I've listened to it even before going to sleep before, so I guess I'm just a scary guy lol
Cheers. I started watching the assembly cut and it still did nothing for me. I don't like Alien 3 at all and I can't see how a re-edit can fix what was a terrible story to begin with. It was the franchise ruiner. Sorry, but it's not my thing :)
@@collativelearning I think the film has multiple layers of analysis, and genius, hidden within it, like every movie you watch but your opinion stops you from digging any deeper. Fair enough man, but as I said it pains me. If I could ever pin you down for a record chat about your thoughts on it, that would be a productive talk. Anyway keep up the great work!
This title is the most memorable I know. A stunning original idea with that revealing letters, the background and of course the music, so unique. All these elements makes it a total unmatched experience. Goldsmith made history here. Everytime I listen to the CD, I'm stunned how deep this music goes into me. -- I saw that film with a friend from my neighborhood, I was maybe 12 yo (too young!), and when the movie finished, I had to walk back to my place, at night, passing through an underground badly lit corridor with corners. Jeeze, 1 night of nightmares. Still one of ma greatest movie of all time, even after discovering the french classics like "Daybreak" and some of the best film ever from that era, un-hollywoodizing me. -- ROB: Are you interested of exploring theses classics, like Marcel Carné's "Daybreak" (1939, with one of the most incredible introduction scene), Jean Gremillon's "Remorques" (1941, another amazing introduction scene), both starring the immense Jean Gabin; or Sydney's Lumet "Fail Safe" (1964, one of the most powerful one-room film ever made), tons of visual, storytelling and acting matter to analyse. These old films are absolute gems.
The symbolism of the title typography is obvious and intuitively grasped: It foremost resembles the alien developing in stages to its final, invincible form. And this happens excruciatingly slowly and steadily, evoking a sense of helplessness, inevitability and doom which is what the movie is all about. Masterfully done IMHO.
for my money, nobody on YT comes close to the way Rob does what he does...its not a matter of agreeing or he alone has "figured it out" its more..... its just so well thought out and presented...if you haven't picked up anything from his website and you like this type of content its well worth the time and maybe more so the reasonable rates...SALUT!!!!
Hope you're having a good summer Mr. Ager. Thank you for all your hard work and all the recent uploads. The Jung video was great (wouldn't mind a Nietsche analysis ) and the all the rest have been analysis of the best iconic 80s films
The deep sense of threat and sinister foreboding in this "scene' is one of _the_ absolute *masterpieces* of cinema, period. I'll never forget the first time I saw this film Thanks for making this the subject of a video, Rob - much appreciated and enjoyed 🙏🏻❤🍻
EVEN THE INTRO IS UNSETTLING, UNNERVING, DISCOMBOBULATING, DARK, MYSTERIOUS, OMINOUS, FOREBODING, EERIE, CREEPY & DISTURBING ! ! ! I LOVE IT ! ! !👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Many people thought the titles were going to spell ALAN when they watched the film in cinemas back in '79. "Do they mean Alan Parsons? Why would Alan Parsons be on a giant spaceship massacring people? Maybe it's Alan Bennett, or Arkin...."
What is annoying about Goldsmith, is that he nicks too much music from well-known composers. I repeatedly lost touch with the movie experience of Alien when I heard and found myself instead listening to outright Shostakovitch pieces, among others; and of course Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question, which dominates the title sequence music track. But Goldsmith was indeed a master at stealing and transforming classical pieces into fitting film music. Sort of like Andrew Lloyd Webber. The architecture and erection of the title is arguably the best title presentation in movie history.
I saw ALIEN on its release in 1979 and was drawn into the film immediately as I watched the title sequence unfold, I enjoyed the film so much I went home and then took my mum and dad to watch it, and it scared the crap out of my mum. From that afternoon showing when I first watched it ALIEN has remained my number 1 sci-fi film of all time. As for the score by Jerry Goldsmith I can listen to it's eeriness in the dead of night and enjoy it... then again I'm a bit weird.
Great video. This music reminds me of Jerry Goldsmiths earlier music he wrote for Planet of the Apes (1968). It also makes use of sound effects and hypnotic soundscapes - it is a great soundtrack from a younger Jerry Goldsmith.
I'm a little surprised by no mention being made of the typography. Ariel/Helvetica and other similar "stripped" fonts were pretty rare in the 70s - mainly being used when there was a need for very stark visual messaging - airport signage for example. Similarly, the way that the main title is spaced across the screen was unusual. Both set a real trend for the eighties.
Keep 'em coming mate..you soothe me. I was a teenager when I saw this as a Promo having got tickets from a girl who worked for the production company, Champers buffet etc. The movie BLEW ME AWAY in 197blur 1979 ? I ws 18.
I consider the opening titles to include the shots of the set, innocent yet menacing. The crew awakening from their peaceful organic dreams juxtaposed with the harsh, mechanical electronics and machinery of the flight deck computers awakening. Hands down the best movie opening.
The title screen always felt to me like the 'I' is trapped as the outer letters start to reveal themselves. And now they look like bars. "I" us trapped, therefore I as the viewer is trapped
Great analysis but I don't understand the problem you see with the planetary ring. A diagonal slash from bottom left to upper right looks like a correct planetary ring to my eye.
If you look at any full shot of Saturn's rings. It doesn't arc down on one side and up on the other. The first ring shot has been rotated 90 degrees for the other side. The star positions match in that respect.
I don't think this opening track is on the album unfortunately. The 'main title' that is, comes after this in the movie, so the only way to listen to this is via the movie itself.
This film is an absolute masterwork. There is nothing that compares. While Aliens is a different type of film finding its own tone, it was equally successful in its effect. I have always placed Alien and Aliens as my two favorite films ever made and can’t pick a #1 between the two.
Ah yeah . let me guess? You Never talked to any of the musicians who worked with the director and producer of these films? No you didn't .. Well I did. And your analysis is overblown. The music was crafted as emotional art .. and conflating it with some kind of intelligence is erroneous. The musicians expressed them selves - and the directors/producers could not stop it. Because Human tradition cannot be faked - and fake trad does to get paid for at the "box office" . which is not an obsolete measure of art ;) time to start thinking again?>>? (if you not too old to do that ;) )
I've no doubt that any musician who plays on film music wouldn't be invested in their performance and contribution, but the London Symphony Orchestra was then and is now an orchestra for hire. Granted the members are of the highest standard - any composer who uses them would agree and both Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams made the LSO their gold standard orchestras of choice - but they play in the way they are conducted. In this case, how Lionel Newman determined tempo via the baton, expression via gesture and so on. Both Newman as Goldsmith's default conductor of choice and the LSO would intuitively know how to represent his music emotionally and technically because they have played it many times. This would have been no different on Alien. If you know the musicians, then you'll know that too I guess. Composers and their scores quite often get replaced by directors and producers, and this has happened to Goldsmith several times - Alien Nation, Two Days In The Valley and his last score Timeline - and whilst the emotional content may play a part in terms of composition and director's vision, it won't be determined by how the musician's play a composers music that way. With Alien, Scott loved it but just wanted the music to work differently in places. With respect to the LSO playing it, they don't have a say... I think Rob's analysis and breakdown are spot on and especially when it comes to how the music works with what you see in the titles and the subliminal suggestions it offers.... And take it a stage further....the reasons the title sequence was designed, the detail in that and the relation to the emotional clues in the music. All of that was directed with purpose, so to imply there's no intelligence involved would be wrong... And all of the people who've commented on exactly why it is the way Rob suggests it is in his own breakdown would also be wrong... Still a great piece Rob....
The opening music really sets the stage. Goldsmith deliberately alternates between discordant and semi-harmonic-the first chord is C,B. It's a calculated combination of lethargy and uneasiness. The echoed effects, on the other hand, were, to me at least, specifically horror-inducing. No sound except something dissonant echoing into the void. There's a piece of unused score intended for the scene up to and including the facehugger's attack from the egg. It's something straight out of the electroacoustic era, with that signature echo punctuating the effect. To me, it's like Goldsmith is saying: This man is _insane_ for continuing to closely investigate this egg after all the warning signs, so here's a score that reflects this. It's a shame I can't link it.
The greatest horror film imo, nothing since 79 has surpassed it. In terms of title sequence sucking you in and the movie never letting you go, it is up there with Exorcist, Carpenters The Thing, Jaws and i give a nod to Saw but only a small one. Ridley Scott had no idea how big the legacy Alien would leave.
Factual error: The planet in the title sequence is a ringed gas giant called Calpamos and these types of planets do not have continents or seas like rocky planets with atmospheres. Also it is not the "egg planet" as you called it, the eggs are found inside the Promethean ship on LV-426 which is a moon that orbits the gas giant Calpamos. Poor research by Ager!
Lol, comment error. I know it's a gas giant. It is an egg shaped planet subliminally - camera passes the first curve into full darkness and far too quickly emerges from the other side, giving the impression of an egg shape. Also see the movie poster, which shows an alien egg floating in the void like a moon or planet.
I think the planet is not an egg, I think the rings seem to resemble legs, like it's a Hugger. The darkness of the planet is what you're likely to see if stuck with one on you. The shift in music is a mimic of the nightmares that Kane had while having the hugger on him. The title itself, is a timeline of gestation of the Xenomorph. The score has a brief heartbeat, as if to say the Xeno is alive. The final ending score is the gestated Xeno, formed.
What about your take on the fact that the planet could be considered a foreshadowing of the egg shape? If you take stills of the in out points and the traverse time of the pan, there is no way it could be a circular planet. Could be a simple fudge to make the title sequence fit the time allotted, or an intentional "tell"...?
I see a facehugger in the intro. The darkness is the sight/view of a person attacked by a facehugger. The "rings" is the legs. The trance is the state you are put in after the attachment, ie a coma induced trance, total darkness. Just a thought...
I'm a bit reserved on Goldsmith. Took a lot of "inspiration" from Holst's "Planets", if you catch my drift. But, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I guess?
@@CROMA1927 "We all copy/steal from time to time, only the good ones don't get caught". John Williams Bill Conti plagiarized the hell out of Holst and won an Academy Award for Best Score.
This is a bit separate from this specific video but still. Just wanted to say thanks for these great analyses, Rob. I'm subbed to both this and your other channel, and was pleased to see that a lot of your more personal or political opinions differ from my own. It's so nice to challenge my own thoughts in a sort of open forum, considering you're able to post your thoughts on this or that with complete freedom to be honest and such. As nice as it is to have an opinion and have others agree with you, it's wonderful to challenge my thoughts knowing that to do so only benefits my ability to critically analyze. That tomorrow, my thoughts will be further along and more well-considered than today. Valuing your analyses as I do, it challenges me to consider how deeply I've thought about my own opinions or at least analyze them more carefully and, ultimately, become less connected or defensive of them and see them in a clearer light, so to speak. Sure, I have my beliefs and opinions for whatever reason, but what do they matter if I take them off the shelf, dust 'em off, and see how they hold up? Coming back to this video, each post of yours on Alien specifically is both incredibly enjoyable and humbling for me. I've seen this movie so many times--favorite horror movie by a mile--and each analysis of yours I watch presents me with new information somehow. And I mean, I have a degree in literature so over-analyzing things is not exactly new to me. So whether it's helping me to see a movie I love from a new perspective, or allowing me to do the same with foundational opinions I have, I respect and appreciate you sharing your quite valuable thoughts with us all. Well done as always, and thank you for giving my brain a good workout, mate. :)
They flipped the first shot around 180 desgrees for the passing of the other side ... and the lack of a large gap between makes the planet seem egg shaped !!!
Alien has been my favorite movie since I was little, first R movie I saw. I took the heartbeat score and stomach gurgling to represent what the chest burster hears after it's been implanted vs a baby in the womb fwiw. If you're interested, check out my last Shorts video where I scored a scene using sounds from the original soundtrack for Alien (4/26) day.
I turn a young spry 49 this year, when this was released I remember this title opening the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced up to that point
It’s funny that Goldsmith hated the music Ridley ended up using for the opening title. Goldsmith had written much more melodic and grandeur opening but Ridley wanted more scary minimal atmosphere.
Rob, hope you're well. I reached out to you a while back as a fan and a man struggling with depression. You were kind enough to reply and give me advice and I want to say I took your advice on board and I'm much better now. Thank you so much. And I'm glad to be here watching new content. All the best, and I look forward to more new content.
One thing I always noticed is that after the initial "I" appears the titles do not then fill out from the middle, expanding to spell the whole word. Rather the next two bits to appear are the furthest left and furthest right thus bracketing the title. It sets the boundaries. Always made me think of containment or confinement. The "I" is now trapped.
Ooooh.. good observation! Well done ❤
@@iamV10010 HA! I literally said OOOOOOOO at that last sentence as well!
Well done! Rob should read this post.
"I" somewhat begins standalone in the middle and slowly becomes encompassed/surrounded the other two and further by the angled lines. Very claustrophobic!
I think you mean 'farthest' mean you write 'furthest' but other than that, solid comment.
The rings coming out upwards isn't a continuity error, it's how the rings should go around since they are tilted sideways. Albeit the rings should've been a bit higher in the frame, as they should've gone up a little behind the planet.
The title sequence definitely stirs up a sense of foreboding doom. This is horror done right; the entire movie right from the start takes it's time and hides in the shadows, waiting for you, giving away small glimpses of unknown terror throughout the movie which is much scarier because the dread and pressure is always there and always building. The letters emerging slowly from where they've been hiding in the darkness during the title sequence is scary and as Rob says, great foreshadowing starting before any action has even happened on screen.
The creativity in the title apparition is amazing: first the symmetrical traits immerge, then the rest
Well said.
The lost art of subtlety in horror.
Arguably the best title sequence in movie history.
From a time when movie directors were very professional
Back then they use to put so much love and care into their projects
I'm still fond of the credits for Dr. Strangelove.
Saul Bass would argue with you. It is very good and perfect for the film.
Star Wars, The Omen, Superman.
@@drbuckley1I'm a big fan of the title sequence (especially font) for Cameron's Avatar.
I saw this movie as a kid (9 years old) in 1979 and it scared the living shit out of me, even today I still have nightmares about it and it's aliens.
Would you believe that just the title sequence is enough to scare me 40 years later?
One of the best films ever made.
A couple of days ago I had another nightmare, after a few years of inactivity. They get more and more scarce but evidently the beast always keeps lurking in our minds. I'm 46, saw it at 12 years of age.
I have the same experience 😁 The impact it made is probably the reason it's my favorite movie ever (followed by Bladrunner als because of the score)
Yeah I've seen Aliens probably 40 times and I still feel dread when they land the drop-ship at Hadley's Hope
Me too. This and star wars made a huge impression on me.
No we wouldn’t believe it
our teacher in publishing showed us the opening of Alien in class to show us how creative we can be with fonts. It's cleverly done and somewhat it looks simple.
Seeing this the first time in the theater, these titles stuck me in a way that generated a kind of fear I'd never had before. For me, Alien made a huge impact on my appreciation of film making. I had a subscription to Heavy Metal magazine, articles about HR Giger, concept art Mobius had done. And how Pinewood was sealed/ off limits. But the trailer that ran on TV, with the egg cracking and the light coming out, with the screams. "in space no one can hear you scream" (Dan O'Bannon). Jerry Goldsmith score is really amazing. (Goldsmith also scored Logans Run in 1976). If Im not mistaken, it took him 3 weeks to compose for Alien. My step dad was a jazz pianist and took me to see Alien because he liked Lionel Newman the orchestra conductor who conducted the orchestra. The sounds in the (title) music are phenomenal. Very cold.
Saw it in 70mm at the Uptown Theater in Wash DC. People were throwing up, and someone had an epileptic seizure, and they had to stop the movie. people were happy when it started back up. I thought, that is really good writing, compelling film making when an audience will stick thru all that because you want to know what happens. And of course when it was ending, credits rolling, people applauded.
Another great video added to one of my playlists- best regards.
I was intrigued by ALIEN, seeing articles and photos in Fantastic Films, Starlog, Fangoria and other fan mags at the time. The commercial creeped me out and I hoped they would use that "scream" as the extraterrestrial S.O.S.
I saw it at the Uptown as well. You had to peel me off the seat when it was over.
@@saberdogface The Uptown is still there I think.. I left DC in 2019. Best regards Paint Branch HS Silver Spring MD June1983
I always enjoy hearing Jerry Goldsmiths take on his opening title track. "It was just the most obvious thing and I knocked it out in five minutes. Everyone loved it, of course. I hated it.."
Great piece as always Rob and superbly interesting points about Jerry's score too re: the sound design elements. As there's music mentioned, I couldn't help myself!
This title piece wasn't Jerry's original choice (well documented in the Future Tense chapter of the making of Alien) and the original opening cue was very lyrical (granted though the scene was much longer when he first scored it). Whilst great, when editing Scott and Terry Rawlings felt it didn't convey the senses you describe here, so they temped it with a different cue Jerry had written for a scene later in the move called The Passage (it actually shows up in the film when the sun comes up on the planet after Jones licks his paws) and subsequently got Jerry to re-write this opening cue in that style.
Terry Rawlings was a superb music editor and i think was very respectful of Jerry when thinking about how he'd be represented in the final cut. It's subjective I guess but I feel using the pieces from Freud - which work really well regardless of how good his actual scored cues were for Acid Test and The Shaft - show just how versatile his music was. I mean....music from a film about a psychologist emotionally underpinning the tension of whether a spaceship's hull was compromised by unknown alien acid and hunting/being hunted in a claustrophobic tunnel by a merciless adversary working as well as it does in hindsight is a real testament to Goldsmith's craft (although I know he didn't see it that way at the time or later!)
On the sound elements in this cue, you're spot on! The high pitched slightly wavering string note is also a feature for the alien itself as it shows up it the clips you've used here (it's quite prominent, esp in the Lambert/Parker scene when the alien rises up in front of her and also after the alien tries to grab Ripley in the shuttle) and also in Brett's death. This is a neat subliminal as tonally it has a similar timbre to the sound of the chains from the landing bay where Brett meets his fate. This sound from this environment - where we first see the adult alien and represented in that high pitch wavering when we see it from here on - is right here in the opening as you mentioned Rob...an aural foreshadow indeed!
The use of delay and reverb are also crucial tonal factors to the overall success. The Echoplex - the standard (and fantastic!) tape delay system used at the time is all over this score, not only to heighten the dreamlike/sleepy atmospherics but also to stronger dramatic degrees, such as the first reveal of the Space Jockey. The Echoplex on the col legno strings (hitting the strings with the bow and a very common effect in orchestral film scores) and the sliding chords to the full jockey reveal are right on the money and it would be hard to imagine how that would be approached today to deliver the same sense of scale without the effect....
The wind effect, which is such a brilliant, unnerving and wholly "alien" sound, was an Indian conch which when blown into an endless reverb plate gave that amazing pitch and mood - completely associated with Alien now and it is a masterstroke by Rawlings and Scott in my opinion that they put in front/centre at the very start of the film. The "tone" is indeed set and similar to Fincher telling Eliot Goldenthal when he asked about the scoring approach to Alien 3 that he wanted the audience to feel they were "fucked" from the start, I think you know when you hear the conch in with the other elements Jerry used on the full title reveal, you FEEL you know how this is going to go!
The percussion choices Jerry chose are also pivotal here. Reverb galore over muted wooden blocks and dulled drum percussion (he also incorporated hitting the sides of the timpani drums - the copper bases - in this score...very noticeable when Kane is dropped into the chamber) which when combined by the neatly obscured string scratches and tremolo notes, create a very unsettling tonal soup.
It's from the introduction of the string chord en route to the crescendo towards the title reveal that it all really comes together to tell you this is a scary and important word. There's a tambourine shake there just at the crest of the reveal which is a little percussive masterstroke and shows that even though Jerry didn't want to re-score this opening, what he did with it when he did was completely genius and on the money!
It's also interesting - as you point out Rob - that this musical foreshadowing and dark emotional reveal of elements of the alien itself - are set against the background of the place where the crew's horror...the alien...is waiting. Once the title is fully revealed and we move away into space, the colour palette is different - less alien and unusual because we see space as we've seen it countless times - and then the Nostromo and onward.
One of the best opening titles - and as you've celebrated and dissected like Ash, Rob - one of the best films ever (to be) made on so many levels!
Amazing work mate!
Gaz
PS...I've always felt that there's a comparison to the corporate "world" portrayed in Alien - the undercurrent of The Company as well as the tech shown in the ship etc - to that of the world shown in the movie Outland. Con AM and the whole grimy, every day-ness of working in space for the man...mining on IO in Outland's case. They all hate it from the opening scene...
I mention this because Jerry Goldsmith's brilliant score for this film is also a distant cousin to his score for Alien. In particular is the conch-like instrument used on the opening title reveal, where not unlike Alien, it slowly emerges from the darkness of the slate, although there are many dark clusters and chord similarities too, with the music having a great character that always suggests time is running out for everyone - O'Niel (Connery's Marshal), Sheppard (Peter Boyle's nefarious Con AM Manager) and the people who take the deadly narcotic. Everyone who works there does a tour and clocks/clicking time readouts play a prominent role. An interesting film!
Awesome breakdown, thanks for the details on the instruments used.
Absolute masterpiece opening sequence. Really sets the scene for the creepy "first act" of the movie. I LOVE the way the Alien title is simple Helvetica type that emerges from symmetrical lines.
Goldsmith actually wrote the score in a huff because his intended lush and orchestral score was rejected by Scott. So Goldsmith gave him this "banal and predictable" score, which is actually superb.
Wow, how perceptions may vary! It's anything BUT predictable! And absolutely unique at that, I genuinely can't think of a similar movie score, while everything has been more or less the same generic zimmeresque orchestra for a while now!
@@Li_Tobler I agree with you! It's GOLDSMITH that called the score "banal and predictable". I love it.
Goldsmith has a history of composing lush and rather themeless scores, having them rejected, and then going back to the studio and producing a masterpiece as a result.
I also agree about recent film scores. I though the score to Dune really let the movie down. Very artsy and all that but totally lacking in emotive power.
@@martinharris5017 haha yes I understand, but was baffled nonetheless. But I guess I shouldn't be so surprised, as an artsy person myself, I also tend to devalue and tear down my works quite a lot, when other people really appreciate them! :)
I'm also in love, the OST alone makes me salivate and want to rewatch the movie for the 4th time:))
Movie industry in general feels so regurgitative in the last years somehow! I keep getting suggested a video here on TH-cam - called "Who killed cinema?" or something like that. I guess I should finally watch it and hope that it has some answers for the uninspiredness and staleness of it all:)
@@Li_Tobler Moon channel has a fair bit on the downfall of modern cinema, maybe that's what you are being recommended? Moon puts out some great content.
I'm an artist too and it is true. we are our own biggest critics.
I'm guessing y your name you are a Giger fan:)
@martinharris5017 no no it's more of a movie critic channel, Patrick H Willems is the name, just checked:)
Oh, are you a painter? I am! We should keep our inner critics in check though, because while too little will lead to arrogance, too much is discouraging 😞
Haha yeeeeesss the biggest, you're the second person ever to pick up on that! : )) I'm just so fascinated by their tragic and turbulent love story, it always stuck with me somehow. It might sound weird but I felt almost a weird spiritual connection to this girl, reading snippets about her and looking at her gorgeous photos. Really wish things would've turned out differently for her. Her beautiful and unique name was very hard NOT to steal :)
I completely agree that the Goldsmith music is extremely effective. Unfortunately most people I talk to don't seem to realise that it is the music that they are (primarily?) emotionally keying into. Instead they talk about the photography, lighting and the production design creating the mood, while they seem to subliminally absorb the music.
I loved the comment on how Goldsmith's scores transcend the barrier between music and sound effects. I also adore how the whole power of the score in general is brought up to light. Not enough credit has been given to it in general.
That said, to me, Goldsmith's title score didn't invoke sleepiness or hypnosis... at all. it evoked fear and stress. A sense of sickness and doom. And the reasons are threefold: Firstly, the chords that Goldsmith used are very "dark" sounding. Secondly, the dynamics of the performances are very special - there is a slightly "trembling" quiality to the sound of the wind instruments, adding to the organic feel that Rob mentions but also giving a sense of weakness or sickness. Thirdly, behind the wind instruments there is something else which I can't really tell what it is - it's high-pitched tubular bells or something- that adds immense tension - like underneath the calmness there is something lurking, full of energy and tension ready to be released. I remember myself feeling scared at this scene even without having seen any person or any beast at all.
Such is Alien.
Goldenthals score for Alien 3 was very similar with the sound effect score blend and is, imo the best score of the films
Those high pitched sounds are a combination of a few stranger violin techniques. 1) playing behind the bridge as seen in this video th-cam.com/video/CLEnJAvjdL0/w-d-xo.html
And col legno, which is basically hitting the strings with the back/wooden part of the bow making that little percussive effect. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Col_legno
Edited to add:
I'm almost certain all of the "sound effects" heard in this sequence are being created by the orchestra. Goldsmith had the instrumentalists do all kinds of crazy things. I forget where I got this info in my head tho. Many bits and bobs over the years.
@@lukeswain3630 Wow, thanks!
Rob is one of the best content creators on TH-cam and quite possibly the most respectful to his audience as far as I know, as his videos have no woke ads, save for the ones he himself includes about his stuff, which are logical to include and welcome, but also because all of his videos are rich in information and straight to the point without stupid filler chitchat.
He also doesn't give a crap what's currently relevant and covers what he wants to cover. Many youtubers like that Critical Drinker idiot only talk about Disney products even though they pretend they hate them, all for the sake of publicity, ofc.
His pay material is well worth it too.
for a long time I always thought the poster @0:10 showed empty cinema seats with the Alien egg on the screen not till years later when it came out on DVD I took a closer look at the film poster and realised it was completely off 😆
One of the best film intro's of all time. The combination of all these simple, subtle elements perfectly sets the scene for what is to come. Ominous yet hauntingly beautiful, and unsettling in the extreme. Brilliant stuff.
Sometimes I just watch the opening titles of Alien because it's genius. Sublime.
I love these subliminal analyses. A couple additional observations:
(1) The way that the white bars appear and gradually become recognizable as letters has always suggested to me a process of deciphering alien hieroglyphics. The first vertical bar segments are like a set of monoliths (shades of 2001 again). As you note, the score shifts into a slightly more hopeful key just as the downward stroke of the A appears-- which is also the instant when most viewers experience a moment of recognition, an "ah ha" moment akin to cracking an alien code. Slowly we realize that these are the pieces of the title. This mirrors the way that the characters encounter the utterly baffling, "unreadable" ancient ruins of the alien ship but slowly make sense of what they are dealing with, viz. a parasitic killing machine, as the xenomorph's nature is revealed, one grotesque step at a time. It's funny that what the strange hieroglyphs finally spell out is the word "alien," since that's the very problem they initially pose for us, being too alien too read. It's as if archeologists were to discover that the standing stones at Stonehenge actually spell out a word, but that word is "mystery."
(2) This is more of stretch but ... if the giant planet is an egg, couldn't the actors' names in white be seen as sperm? If so, it's interesting to note that the names of the two female cast members, Weaver and Cartwright, are shown just as the titles cross the threshold into the planet, like sperm penetrating an ovum. That the female names bear the sperm into the unearthly ovum may be subtly suggestive of the way Giger's xenomorph is a liminal and nightmarish confusion of human sexual processes and drives.
That's a great point about the hieropglyphics. I felt that impression to but didn't verbalize it.
@@collativelearningI counted 11 additive dissolves for the main title. Maybe could stand for the 7 crew + Egg, Facehugger, Chestburster and finally.....ALIEN. may be a stretch though.
There was the whole deleted (conceived but not filmed) extra hour or so in the early drafts where they also find a huge alien pyramid on the planetoid and explore it, it explains more about the xenos and the relationship with the "Engineers" or whatever, or would have. None of that made it into the film, but the subtext is there, in the titles, and also in the graphics used in and on the surfaces of the Nostromo and uniforms, etc. and machinery.
@@thiscorrosion900 yeah I had this in mind too. O'Bannon's original script emphasized xeno-archeology a lot more, exploring the pyramid and learning about this alien civilization and their brutal caste-based life cycle through Egyptian-esque murals (which is directly lifted from Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness). Giger made some great paintings as concept art for these murals. (Which, yeah, Scott finally included a less interesting version of in Prometheus.)
Saw it in a Manhattan theatre 44 years ago and the title sequence is still vivid in my memory.
The Pest 1997 has a subliminal opening scene. Nothing can beat it.
I’m in the mood to scam
Simply because I can
Total kino
1 stinky dinky!
I appreciate these impressions, very well thought out.
The way the planet "flips" as it pans is, imo, a way to visually render the "rings" correctly on the other side, as if we are approaching from an angle above the equatorial plane.
The title graphics are intriguing; for me there is a definite zen like symmetry, the spacing and design are meant to evoke the fear of the unknown with an almost "ancient high tech" hyroglyphic style...which together with the dreamlike score has the audience contemplate the meaning of the word A L I E N. Unsettling is an appropriate word.
Fascinating, subscribed!
My interpretation was always that the letters were imperceptibly developing the way the organism develops inside the human body. The fact that it is a word suddenly dawns on you after your attention has already been subliminally "impregnated" with the concept of "alien".
After seeing Alien for the first time on TV in the mid-1980s, I went through a period of almost thirty years where I’d occasionally have dreams inspired by the film. At first they were set within the confines of a small spaceship where I knew the threat would eventually find me, but as the years went by, the ships became bigger and later expanded to becoming towns or cities. The final dreams were set in a city so big, with an almost endless maze of buildings, apartments and potential escape routes, that I knew I’d never be found. It’s strange how the brain works.
I saw the film young as a child and used to have bad dreams about the Alien until I saw Aliens. Knowing that firepower could mitigate the terror somehow helped subconsciously...lol
I just watched this for the first time with my kids on Saturday night. They loved it. Watching them almost jump out of their seats as the tension builds is magical.
One of the many benefits of the actor's guild strike is that there's over a century of cinema to experience, and I hope people take the opportunity to do so.
By "This" you mean the title sequence or the entire film?
@@MotoGreciaMarios The whole film. It's a great movie. Like most science fiction movies of the era, they assumed it would be a Star Wars clone and made toys and age-inappropriate merchandise. My thoughtless in-laws sent the new recasts of the toys to my kids a couple years ago. It's nice that they know what their toys are now.
@@100Servingslmao I was going go say it might be an inappropriate movie for kids to watch but I forgot all the 90s toys of R rated movies there were.
@@100Servings It not just agreat movie -to me it's one of the greatest of all time. I just think it can be traumatising if viewed at a young age. I know of many people, including myself who have nightmares decades after the first viewing.
That said, you know your kids better. Some kids have amazing resilience or the capability of detaching themselves from what they see, or they are just plain strong and avoid trauma altogether.
@@MotoGreciaMarios I've been able to teach my kids about a very strong line between fantasy and reality. When you see something terrifying that your brain can't process, it can be traumatic, but since we live in the internet age, you can pause a movie and show them that it's just a man in a costume. Being able to open one of Tom Savini's books and showing them how it was done helps too. I studied mythology and the occult for 35+ years and am a total denier of all things supernatural, so they also understand that there's no such thing as aliens, vampires, or ghosts. As such, we don't have much in the way of nightmares or fears around here. They also have a very stable home. I'm retired and a stay-at-home parent, and they have a safe and comfortable room in a good community.
This is an interesting concept to analyze. I grew up in an abusive household with alcoholic parents and daily beatings. We were poor and grew up in brutal communities of cruel and ignorant people, and we moved around every four years or so. I never had anyone I could look to for wisdom and guidance, and I have no friends. As a result, I grew up constantly scared, rebellious, and violent, ran away from home at 16 to live on the streets, then joined the military as soon as I could, where I continued to live a brutal and violent existence. I'm still plagued with nightmares. I retired and became a cop in a major city, where fighting and violence continued to take a toll on me physically in middle age. I still long to fight others, despite the fact that I'm basically a house pet these days.
There's probably a complex case study to be written here by someone far more intelligent than myself.
Goldsmith’s score is drifting and ethereal. One of my all time favorite musical scores. Having said that, it is undeniably derived from Holst’s Saturn movement.
th-cam.com/video/nHX6VXQUJM4/w-d-xo.html
Great analysis. A few observations of my own:
1) the I that appears first looks much like the third monolith in 2001, right before Dave is sent into the great beyond. The positioning is instead a vertical white rectangle instead of black (the whole plot of Alien is precipitated by a company lie). The word LIE is in the center of the title sequence.
2) Ian Holms credit ushers in the A, spelling AI (cuz Ash is a goddamn robot)
3) the scene where Dallas is in the air ducts sounds very similar to the fatherly love scene in the shining, which premiered the year following Aliens release.)
Good to see someone else clocking the 'LIE' hint. Only a serendipitous cropping of the screen hipped me to this.
I know it's ridiculously simple symbolism, but I've never made the connection of the lines in the letters being fangs or teeth. Seeing it now, it's bleeding obvious. Learning from dream analysis, symbolism in dreams doesn't have to be more complicated than that.
I learned is a marketing section of a psych class that vertical lines also generally communicate tension or unease for some reason
Having been a graphic designer..I am absolutely certain that there has never been a better title sequence. The artist saw the symmetry of the word. It was pure genious how they used all the virtical planes to create the format. A+. Hope they got an award for this. And the music carefully timed with the revelation and unfolding of what thes lines were. Can't say enough . Great work. Thanks for featuring this.
you really need to see a lot more film
this is very serviceable for this film but there are seriously better title sequences ... a lot better
just simply google best title sequences in film and see how many you have likely not seen or even heard about if you think this is best
Its atmospheric perfection is matched only by its simplicity.
Watch more films then. You never watched Total Recall?
Always loved that opening sequence. Gives the impression of being a long, long way from home... so well done
The planet in the opening sequence is indeed a gas giant, known as Calpamos and orbited by 3 moons in the Zeta II Reticuli System, one of which later becomes LV-426.
Funny what you said about listening to the soundtrack. In 8th grade I was really into soundtrack recordings. I bought the Alien cassette. Loved it. Listened to it many times.
I did the same except on LP and CD. I have it in my music library on my phone right now.
@@NotMorganFreeman. Well there were no cds when I got it in 1979 lol
@@chrisbergmanniii59 I get that. I was just saying that I bought it too once one type of media gave way for another.
Just looking at this presentation I have to say there were a number of points I disagreed with. I was a bright eyed bushy tailed high schooler when I went to see this movie and knowing the title I immediately understood what was unfolding on the screen. The movie's title was ALIEN what else would be coming up. As for the suggestion of sleep tinged with terror and helplessness, the ship is full of sleepers who are about to be rudely awoken. Except for one of course who knew the story and didn't really need sleep. I rather think you do your audience a disservice in assuming they can't pick up on stuff in the movie. Especially since they entered the cinema in the full knowledge that this was a horror story about a clash with an Alien of unknown origin.
Finally, what is with the switch from the commentary and imagery on the score and opening sequences to almost the last part of the movie? The sound track at that point is the noise of the ship preparing to self destruct and then the realisation that the Alien knew this too. Basically the movie was so good because the director was running on a B movie budget and produced an iconic story of fear, threat and ever increasing crisis, plus the unexpected shocks of certain events. The imagery of the beginning pretty quickly explains itself with the realisation that the crew are awoken early in their homeward bound trip because of the planet in the picture. So I think you missed a few points here.
I don’t think the rings are reversed or a mistake. I think it’s a question of perspective. What appears to rise or fall may not be actually happening, we’re just too close to see their true pathways. I think the rings meet at what would appear to be a lopsided angle if viewed from afar as Saturn is often portrayed.
I find the slow reveal of the word "Alien" by lines to mimic what it feels like to transition between "not knowing what you're looking at" to "knowing what you're looking at", i find this in between period to feel like terror or fear, and uneasiness.
It's like what it would feel like to lose object permanence and look at objects in the world, i achieved this once while i was practicing meditation(continually to achieve this effect) and i felt great sense of both awe and terror. it only lasted 10 seconds, it's not sustainable to trick yourself into losing object permanence. I wouldn't even understand what an alien is if i was looking at it...
One of the best title sequence ever. It sucks you into space! Jerry Goldsmiths score is phenomenal! Sad he didn't get an Oscar for it.
the light beams aren't a mistake. they appear to be rings on a tilted axis. with that perspective, they would be lower on the left and higher on the right.
Agreed, it looks like proper elliptical placement.
Nice analysis. But you are aware that many cues from Goldsmith’s score for FREUD wound up in ALIEN, and not re-recorded either. No coincidence they borrowed from the FREUD score, no doubt given Giger’s design. 😂
Interesting.
Editor Terry Rawlings has said to myself and many others that he chose that score for the Dallas air tunnel scenes for the purpose of continuity in editing and then Rawlings convinced Scott it worked better than what Goldsmith purposely wrote.
@@collativelearning th-cam.com/video/JtFzzvqrL9c/w-d-xo.html
@@UFO_computersSure. Was just being cheeky. But hard to ignore the Freudian elements in ALIEN. Btw, if you have a way of contacting Rawlings I’d like him to confirm something just out of curiosity. I saw the film at the Egyptian theater first showing opening day. My friends and I went back the next eve and saw it again. In that time they’d made significant cuts in the beginning of the second act. I’m sure of this. (Also saw the same thing with The Shining.) It sped up the story ever so slightly to change the reduce the mysterious aspects of the story and brought on the kinetic portion quicker. Gotta say I liked the prolonged haunted house vibe. Anyway, if you know how to get to him I’m curious if he remembers that. Cheers
@@UFO_computersI wish the film kept Jerry’s original music for the death of Dallas, as well as the original cue for the crew awakening from hypersleep (which could have given the ”romantic theme” a more proper intro within the musical architecture of the score, instead of it just dropping in here and there). I also prefer his end titles (scored with that romantic theme) over the dropped-in excerpt of the Hanson symphony
The opening sequence for Alien has always been one of my favorite parts of the movie and I usually replay it three or four times when watching it. Dare I say that the score for it contributed to the movie as much a John Williams score contributed to Jaws.
I would add that Elliot Goldenthal brought back that eerie, unnerving tension that was absent from Horners score in Alien 3 (though that was effective in its own way). Despite being more experimental and jarring (discarding the romantic sounds from Goldsmith's compositions), it had moments of levity and hope. Just such a wonderful, varied collection of music across all three films.
Goldenthal's Alien 3 soundtrack is gorgeous.
I've actually listened to the alien soundtrack casually many times. I've listened to it even before going to sleep before, so I guess I'm just a scary guy lol
when I was a kid my dad put me to sleep with metallica albums bro same
You secure that shit, Hudson!
Brilliant video. Always welcome alien content from you.
But I must say it pains me that Rob hasn't dived into analysis of Alien 3 (Assembly Cut).
Cheers. I started watching the assembly cut and it still did nothing for me. I don't like Alien 3 at all and I can't see how a re-edit can fix what was a terrible story to begin with. It was the franchise ruiner. Sorry, but it's not my thing :)
@@collativelearning I think the film has multiple layers of analysis,
and genius, hidden within it, like every movie you watch but your opinion stops you from digging any deeper.
Fair enough man, but as I said it pains me. If I could ever pin you down for a record chat about your thoughts on it, that would be a productive talk. Anyway keep up the great work!
This title is the most memorable I know. A stunning original idea with that revealing letters, the background and of course the music, so unique. All these elements makes it a total unmatched experience. Goldsmith made history here. Everytime I listen to the CD, I'm stunned how deep this music goes into me.
-- I saw that film with a friend from my neighborhood, I was maybe 12 yo (too young!), and when the movie finished, I had to walk back to my place, at night, passing through an underground badly lit corridor with corners. Jeeze, 1 night of nightmares. Still one of ma greatest movie of all time, even after discovering the french classics like "Daybreak" and some of the best film ever from that era, un-hollywoodizing me.
-- ROB:
Are you interested of exploring theses classics, like Marcel Carné's "Daybreak" (1939, with one of the most incredible introduction scene), Jean Gremillon's "Remorques" (1941, another amazing introduction scene), both starring the immense Jean Gabin; or Sydney's Lumet "Fail Safe" (1964, one of the most powerful one-room film ever made), tons of visual, storytelling and acting matter to analyse. These old films are absolute gems.
For me......... it is that 'Chilling Wind' sound...that blowing wind, you hear it quite often in the movie.
Especially on the planet searching for the signal source.Brilliantly done.
I just realized cane was the first face hugger victim. So the xenomorph is literally the child of cane. Like in the bible
He wasn’t Abel to fight it off.
The symbolism of the title typography is obvious and intuitively grasped: It foremost resembles the alien developing in stages to its final, invincible form. And this happens excruciatingly slowly and steadily, evoking a sense of helplessness, inevitability and doom which is what the movie is all about. Masterfully done IMHO.
for my money, nobody on YT comes close to the way Rob does what he does...its not a matter of agreeing or he alone has "figured it out" its more..... its just so well thought out and presented...if you haven't picked up anything from his website and you like this type of content its well worth the time and maybe more so the reasonable rates...SALUT!!!!
True,i think the reason is that guy is fkin smart,and has much bigger i.q. than 90% of these guys making film analysis vids...
Hope you're having a good summer Mr. Ager. Thank you for all your hard work and all the recent uploads. The Jung video was great (wouldn't mind a Nietsche analysis ) and the all the rest have been analysis of the best iconic 80s films
The deep sense of threat and sinister foreboding in this "scene' is one of _the_ absolute *masterpieces* of cinema, period.
I'll never forget the first time I saw this film
Thanks for making this the subject of a video, Rob - much appreciated and enjoyed
🙏🏻❤🍻
EVEN THE INTRO IS UNSETTLING, UNNERVING, DISCOMBOBULATING, DARK, MYSTERIOUS, OMINOUS, FOREBODING, EERIE, CREEPY & DISTURBING ! ! ! I LOVE IT ! ! !👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Many people thought the titles were going to spell ALAN when they watched the film in cinemas back in '79. "Do they mean Alan Parsons? Why would Alan Parsons be on a giant spaceship massacring people? Maybe it's Alan Bennett, or Arkin...."
What is annoying about Goldsmith, is that he nicks too much music from well-known composers. I repeatedly lost touch with the movie experience of Alien when I heard and found myself instead listening to outright Shostakovitch pieces, among others; and of course Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question, which dominates the title sequence music track. But Goldsmith was indeed a master at stealing and transforming classical pieces into fitting film music. Sort of like Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The architecture and erection of the title is arguably the best title presentation in movie history.
I saw ALIEN on its release in 1979 and was drawn into the film immediately as I watched the title sequence unfold, I enjoyed the film so much I went home and then took my mum and dad to watch it, and it scared the crap out of my mum. From that afternoon showing when I first watched it ALIEN has remained my number 1 sci-fi film of all time. As for the score by Jerry Goldsmith I can listen to it's eeriness in the dead of night and enjoy it... then again I'm a bit weird.
I listen to it casually all the time. I find it beautiful and eerie.
Even the tense parts?
Great video. This music reminds me of Jerry Goldsmiths earlier music he wrote for Planet of the Apes (1968). It also makes use of sound effects and hypnotic soundscapes - it is a great soundtrack from a younger Jerry Goldsmith.
With the extreme kerning on the title it's easy to start to see hidden meanings contained within the word "ALIEN". Specifically "A LIE"
I'm a little surprised by no mention being made of the typography. Ariel/Helvetica and other similar "stripped" fonts were pretty rare in the 70s - mainly being used when there was a need for very stark visual messaging - airport signage for example. Similarly, the way that the main title is spaced across the screen was unusual. Both set a real trend for the eighties.
Great deconstruction as always
I repeat, all other priorities secondary.
CREW EXPENDABLE
I felt this opening sequence was very reminiscent of his Planet of the Apes opening sequence. I felt some callbacks there.
Keep 'em coming mate..you soothe me. I was a teenager when I saw this as a Promo having got tickets from a girl who worked for the production company, Champers buffet etc. The movie BLEW ME AWAY in 197blur 1979 ? I ws 18.
John Hurt was an amazing actor but in that last Indiana Jones film they made him look like a complete and utter idiot 😮😮
I saw this movie as a kid in the theater, back in 1979. Just seeing the title sequence, alone, I knew this was going to be a great movie
I consider the opening titles to include the shots of the set, innocent yet menacing. The crew awakening from their peaceful organic dreams juxtaposed with the harsh, mechanical electronics and machinery of the flight deck computers awakening. Hands down the best movie opening.
Goldsmith listened a lot to "The Planets" by Gustav Holst when he wrote the Alien score, especially the Venus part 😁
I love your work on this. When I was a kid, I collected movie soundtracks, and this one was one of my favorites. So atmospheric.
Excellent analysis. ALIEN is still one of the best science fiction/horror movies ever made.
The title screen always felt to me like the 'I' is trapped as the outer letters start to reveal themselves. And now they look like bars.
"I" us trapped, therefore I as the viewer is trapped
Great analysis but I don't understand the problem you see with the planetary ring. A diagonal slash from bottom left to upper right looks like a correct planetary ring to my eye.
If you look at any full shot of Saturn's rings. It doesn't arc down on one side and up on the other. The first ring shot has been rotated 90 degrees for the other side. The star positions match in that respect.
@@collativelearning Thanks. I get it now.
I've been using the Alien soundtrack to go to sleep to for over a year now.
Makes for interesting dreams 🤔
I don't think this opening track is on the album unfortunately. The 'main title' that is, comes after this in the movie, so the only way to listen to this is via the movie itself.
"But it's just not something you want to listen to casually. It's just too scary." Don't threaten me with a good time. 😂
Alien opening scene is good but nothing beats 2001 or Blade Runner openings those are spectacular.
The chest buster scene had me go to the bathroom and almost hurl. Everything looked so real and biological.
I’d always thought of this opening as very effective at setting the mood of the film but I have a new appreciation for it now
This film is an absolute masterwork. There is nothing that compares. While Aliens is a different type of film finding its own tone, it was equally successful in its effect. I have always placed Alien and Aliens as my two favorite films ever made and can’t pick a #1 between the two.
I’ll pick for you - it’s Alien.
Now you can be at peace 😄
Ah yeah . let me guess?
You Never talked to any of the musicians who worked with the director and producer of these films?
No you didn't .. Well I did.
And your analysis is overblown.
The music was crafted as emotional art .. and conflating it with some kind of intelligence is erroneous. The musicians expressed them selves - and the directors/producers could not stop it. Because Human tradition cannot be faked - and fake trad does to get paid for at the "box office" . which is not an obsolete measure of art ;) time to start thinking again?>>? (if you not too old to do that ;) )
I've no doubt that any musician who plays on film music wouldn't be invested in their performance and contribution, but the London Symphony Orchestra was then and is now an orchestra for hire. Granted the members are of the highest standard - any composer who uses them would agree and both Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams made the LSO their gold standard orchestras of choice - but they play in the way they are conducted. In this case, how Lionel Newman determined tempo via the baton, expression via gesture and so on. Both Newman as Goldsmith's default conductor of choice and the LSO would intuitively know how to represent his music emotionally and technically because they have played it many times. This would have been no different on Alien. If you know the musicians, then you'll know that too I guess.
Composers and their scores quite often get replaced by directors and producers, and this has happened to Goldsmith several times - Alien Nation, Two Days In The Valley and his last score Timeline - and whilst the emotional content may play a part in terms of composition and director's vision, it won't be determined by how the musician's play a composers music that way. With Alien, Scott loved it but just wanted the music to work differently in places. With respect to the LSO playing it, they don't have a say...
I think Rob's analysis and breakdown are spot on and especially when it comes to how the music works with what you see in the titles and the subliminal suggestions it offers....
And take it a stage further....the reasons the title sequence was designed, the detail in that and the relation to the emotional clues in the music. All of that was directed with purpose, so to imply there's no intelligence involved would be wrong...
And all of the people who've commented on exactly why it is the way Rob suggests it is in his own breakdown would also be wrong...
Still a great piece Rob....
The opening music really sets the stage. Goldsmith deliberately alternates between discordant and semi-harmonic-the first chord is C,B. It's a calculated combination of lethargy and uneasiness. The echoed effects, on the other hand, were, to me at least, specifically horror-inducing. No sound except something dissonant echoing into the void. There's a piece of unused score intended for the scene up to and including the facehugger's attack from the egg. It's something straight out of the electroacoustic era, with that signature echo punctuating the effect. To me, it's like Goldsmith is saying: This man is _insane_ for continuing to closely investigate this egg after all the warning signs, so here's a score that reflects this. It's a shame I can't link it.
I was hypnotised by the film and unconscious of the score which is exactly as should be.Genius film making.
Everything about this movie is cinematic perfection.
Will you cover alien 3 at some point? Would like to hear your analysis.
The greatest horror film imo, nothing since 79 has surpassed it. In terms of title sequence sucking you in and the movie never letting you go, it is up there with Exorcist, Carpenters The Thing, Jaws and i give a nod to Saw but only a small one. Ridley Scott had no idea how big the legacy Alien would leave.
I’d argue possibly the greatest film of all time - of any genre.
Lightning in a bottle,impossible to replicate.
i think this is one of the best pieces of graphic design in film ever.
Ridley Scott in his beginnings man. Blade Runner and Alien.
I agree, this is one of the most intriguing and mysterious title sequences ever.
"Alien Planet" is one of the eeriest pieces of film music ever composed.
Factual error: The planet in the title sequence is a ringed gas giant called Calpamos and these types of planets do not have continents or seas like rocky planets with atmospheres. Also it is not the "egg planet" as you called it, the eggs are found inside the Promethean ship on LV-426 which is a moon that orbits the gas giant Calpamos. Poor research by Ager!
Lol, comment error. I know it's a gas giant. It is an egg shaped planet subliminally - camera passes the first curve into full darkness and far too quickly emerges from the other side, giving the impression of an egg shape. Also see the movie poster, which shows an alien egg floating in the void like a moon or planet.
I think the planet is not an egg, I think the rings seem to resemble legs, like it's a Hugger. The darkness of the planet is what you're likely to see if stuck with one on you.
The shift in music is a mimic of the nightmares that Kane had while having the hugger on him.
The title itself, is a timeline of gestation of the Xenomorph. The score has a brief heartbeat, as if to say the Xeno is alive. The final ending score is the gestated Xeno, formed.
What about your take on the fact that the planet could be considered a foreshadowing of the egg shape? If you take stills of the in out points and the traverse time of the pan, there is no way it could be a circular planet. Could be a simple fudge to make the title sequence fit the time allotted, or an intentional "tell"...?
Yeah that's in another vid I made on it and didn't want to repeat across the two vids.
@@collativelearning Ahh, missed that one..oops. 🙄
@@RobBon12 Alien - the Machinery of Existence. 90 min vid on my site gets into all the reproduction trauma stuff.
I see a facehugger in the intro. The darkness is the sight/view of a person attacked by a facehugger. The "rings" is the legs. The trance is the state you are put in after the attachment, ie a coma induced trance, total darkness. Just a thought...
Ughhhh!
Thanks for giving Jerry Goldsmith his due. Only Williams and Herrmann have influenced film more with their scores.
Also Morricone and John Barry.
Without James Horner, how would we know when we're in love?
@@angryengine9616 🙂 Without Herrmann, how would we know when to scream?
I'm a bit reserved on Goldsmith. Took a lot of "inspiration" from Holst's "Planets", if you catch my drift. But, imitation is the greatest form of flattery, I guess?
@@CROMA1927 "We all copy/steal from time to time, only the good ones don't get caught". John Williams
Bill Conti plagiarized the hell out of Holst and won an Academy Award for Best Score.
I love how the opening credits give a sense of foreboding.
Brilliant analysis of a moment in the film that does not get enough attention.
Every fkng second of this movie is a masterpiese
This is a bit separate from this specific video but still.
Just wanted to say thanks for these great analyses, Rob. I'm subbed to both this and your other channel, and was pleased to see that a lot of your more personal or political opinions differ from my own. It's so nice to challenge my own thoughts in a sort of open forum, considering you're able to post your thoughts on this or that with complete freedom to be honest and such. As nice as it is to have an opinion and have others agree with you, it's wonderful to challenge my thoughts knowing that to do so only benefits my ability to critically analyze. That tomorrow, my thoughts will be further along and more well-considered than today.
Valuing your analyses as I do, it challenges me to consider how deeply I've thought about my own opinions or at least analyze them more carefully and, ultimately, become less connected or defensive of them and see them in a clearer light, so to speak. Sure, I have my beliefs and opinions for whatever reason, but what do they matter if I take them off the shelf, dust 'em off, and see how they hold up?
Coming back to this video, each post of yours on Alien specifically is both incredibly enjoyable and humbling for me. I've seen this movie so many times--favorite horror movie by a mile--and each analysis of yours I watch presents me with new information somehow. And I mean, I have a degree in literature so over-analyzing things is not exactly new to me. So whether it's helping me to see a movie I love from a new perspective, or allowing me to do the same with foundational opinions I have, I respect and appreciate you sharing your quite valuable thoughts with us all.
Well done as always, and thank you for giving my brain a good workout, mate. :)
That's a much appreciated bit of feedback. Thanks for taking the time :)
The light rings indicate to me that the planet is slightly tilted or the view is.
They flipped the first shot around 180 desgrees for the passing of the other side ... and the lack of a large gap between makes the planet seem egg shaped !!!
@@collativelearning Ah ok, gotcha now.
In my opinion, the only perfect film...
The planet looks like an egg. So do shapes of the letters.
Alien has been my favorite movie since I was little, first R movie I saw. I took the heartbeat score and stomach gurgling to represent what the chest burster hears after it's been implanted vs a baby in the womb fwiw. If you're interested, check out my last Shorts video where I scored a scene using sounds from the original soundtrack for Alien (4/26) day.
I turn a young spry 49 this year, when this was released I remember this title opening the most frightening thing I’ve ever experienced up to that point
One of the best music scores for sure. Excellently intertwined in the opening.
It’s funny that Goldsmith hated the music Ridley ended up using for the opening title. Goldsmith had written much more melodic and grandeur opening but Ridley wanted more scary minimal atmosphere.
Scott was right on this occasion.
@@redpillnibbler4423for sure