The title for this in-depth
documentary couldn’t be more apt. Is there anyone who can’t remember the impact
the famous chest buster scene had on them when it first burst (pun intended)
onto the screen in Ridley Scott’s 1979 Alien
before those indelible images became etched into cinema folklore? I doubt
it.
We all know that this
is the key scene and idea that one takes away from Alien and the premise of which literally got the film green light to
go into production. However, although MEMORY:
The Origins of Alien spends a great deal of time dissecting this scene,
it’s the back stories that fascinate, especially those regarding the film’s
original writer Dan O’Bannon. O’Bannon has been the subject of several reappraisals
of late regarding the franchise, especially in regard to how much he
contributed to the style of the film. The look is total Ridley Scott but the
words on which Scott based his visuals are those of the onetime John Carpenter
collaborator.Of that, the documentary
proves, there is no doubt (at least in the opinion of this writer). O’Bannon’s
involvement on the unfinished Jodorowsky version of Dune is explored in this highly academic documentary. The film
looks at the lyrical inspirations that made Alien
such a classic; from Lovecraft to Shakespeare, from Francis Bacon to the
inimitable H.R. Giger, whose Necronomicon book read like a storyboard for Alien and served as an inspiration for
the movie’s young, visionary director.
The documentary’s
pacing matches that of the initial films and mirrors the fact that we have
taken time to get to know these characters and what makes them tick before they
embark into the unknown. Scott is seen memorably, albeit briefly, as the artist
but its O’Bannon and Giger who come across as the poets of the piece.My one complaint, which could also be taken
as a compliment, is that the film seems to end all too abruptly after the in-depth
coverage of the said chest buster scene. I’d really have liked to have seen
more regarding this scene both in front of and behind the camera. This detailed
examination of a specific scene is obviously director Alexandre O. Philippe’s strong
point, as evidenced in his excellent film 78/52:
Hitchcock’s Shower Scene. But I’d really have liked to have seen more on
what the chest buster evolved into; a creature that took its place in the upper
echelons of horror along with the likes of Frankenstein. Saying that, however,
it’s hard to fault this documentary as it brings new pathos to the Alien franchise and shows us all that Alien, both the creature and the film,
is the sum of many parts. The film has always held a special place in my heart
as it was the first X cert I saw at the cinema (underage and overexcited after
seeing the film’s amazing teaser trailer a few months before). To have such an
in-depth and concise documentary on this milestone is like being handed the
missing piece from the jigsaw that took so long to build but was left on a
shelf until the full picture could be seen. Anyone who is a fan of the
franchise should see this, as should any serious scholar of the art of the
moving image. I’ve always said that the original Alien was more of a ghost train ride than an out and out horror or
science fiction movie but this film shows just how much work goes into setting
that ride up. This really is a treasure chest(buster) of a documentary that all
fans should see.
(MEMORY: The Origins of Alien arrives in UK cinemas on 30 August and
on-demand 2 September.)