On DVD, no-one can believe how good this film looks. (Alien (DVD))

Member Name: Brett Bligh

Product:	Alien (DVD)
Date:	21/06/01 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Top-quality transfer of the film in terms of both sound and vision, excellent range of extras including full Director’s Commentary, very impressively designed menus: impressive but not gaudy

Disadvantages: Well, erm, none, quite frankly

‘Alien’ is a well-known classic, a hybrid of suspense horror and science fiction which has thrilled audiences ever since its release in 1979. With the DVD release we can finally approximate the quality of the cinematic print in our own home and see the film in its full scope widescreen glory. And when the extras are considered too, what we have here is a very impressive DVD package indeed. Whether you buy the Alien DVD on its own, or as part of the ‘Alien Legacy’ boxset (which also contains ‘Aliens’, ‘Alien3’, and ‘Alien Resurrection’ as well as a bonus documentary disc) as I did, this is what you get…


THE FILM
The deep space mining vessel Nostromo is returning to Earth, its seven crew in hypersleep hibernation, when it intercepts a pulsating signal which could be a sign of intelligent life. In accordance with Company regulations the computer awakes the crew, who land on the stormy and inhospitable planet from which the signal is emanating. Whilst the rest of the crew remain behind to make repairs and monitor the situation, three of the crew decide to walk the 2km to the signal origin; once there, one of the crew is assailed by a strange lifeform which jumps from a pulsating egg and clamps itself to his face and neck. Back at the ship, surgery to remove the creature fails, but the creature eventually disappears by itself and dies. Unfortunately, the crewman has been impregnated with an alien, which explodes from his chest one meal time and escapes into the ship. Once there it expands considerably in size and stalks the ducts and tunnels of the ship, with humans as its prey…


THE DISC

· Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment [F1-SGB 01090DVD].
20th Century Fox DVDs are generally better than average, with a large number of them containing Director’s Commentaries and an interesting selection of extras. Thankfully, this particular release n
ot only lives up to those standards but surpasses them.

· Rating: 18.
This is hardly unexpected; this is a straight horror film, and while it may feature relatively little in the way of gore compared to certain others of its genre it still packs considerable cinematic punch. Consequently, not one the BBFC are likely to advise the kiddies to see.

· Region: 2 (PAL encoding).
Region 2 covers Europe and Japan; this disc should be suited to all UK DVD players, as well as any multi-region or region free player which can support PAL playback.

· Type and case: DVD9 with clear Amaray keepcase.
DVD9s have a single side with two data layers pressed to that side. The layer change during the film is not noticeable on my player.

· Running time: feature 112 minutes approx.
As even Ridley Scott points out (during his Director’s Commentary — see below), the film is relatively uneventful for the first 45 minutes. However, I actually think this a good thing and the suspense-building exercise a successful one. For those who become impatient, all I can say is thank the almighty for 4% PAL speedup, or you would have to be impatient for even longer!

· Picture format: 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.
Alien is a film to whom, even more than most, colours, shadows and the trade-off between the two are very important. Thankfully, the print included here is beautiful, and one simply cannot believe (with the possible exception of the computer displays) that this film was made as long ago as 1979. The shadows have a depth and a texture which would simply not have been possible even with the best VHS, the colours are superb — not bright and shiny, but then in this film they were never meant to be — and the fleshtones very faithfully reproduced. Quite simply, everything is well defined, and the anamorphic PAL transfer provides a terrific resolution for those with a widescreen TV. Ridley Scott, in his commentary,
suggests that the DVD release will finally allow this film to recapture visually some of what it possessed in the cinema and lost afterwards, and he is right!

· Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1.
The audio is similarly faultless: crisp and clear with the 6 discrete sound tracks of Dolby 5.1 each being used to full effect in a calculated and impressive manner. Often, the rear speakers are used to play music only whilst the voices emanate from the central front speakers, and this works excellently — of course, in an ideal world all audio tracks would conform to this ideal, but as anyone who buys DVDs regularly will attest, this is all too rarely the case. This is what you bought those surround sound speakers FOR.

· Subtitles: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Icelandic, English for the Hearing Impaired.

· Extras: Director’s Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Theatrical Trailers and US TV spots, Art and Photo Gallery, Isolated Audio Tracks, Outtakes.

The Director’s Commentary features Ridley Scott reminiscing about the filming of the project and explaining the finer points of the film. Scott seems to go out of his way to praise both the cast and the crew on the project, congratulating many of them by name during the course of the film, especially the composer Jerry Goldsmith whose work Scott clearly loves. Scott also takes the time to cite his admiration for Kubrick’s ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, stating that despite his attempts not to be overly influenced by that film he inevitably was, and draws parallels between the megacorporations operating behind the scenes in both this film and the director’s own ‘Blade Runner’, stating his view that this interpretation of how the future will be configured, which was largely speculative at the time, now looks to be largely coming to pass. Generally, this is an interesting commentary and the time passes quic
kly whilst watching it, but for those who cannot be bothered to view the entire thing the DVD producers have kindly provided a commentary scene selection as well.

10 Deleted Scenes are included on the disc as follows: Alien Transmission, Lambert confronts Ripley, Kane’s Condition, Ripley and Parker, Planning the Search, A Quick Glimpse, Ripley Reassures Lambert, Airlock Sequence parts 1 and 2, and the Cocoon Sequence. All of these are presented in 2.35:1 letterbox widescreen, in prints which are considerably less attractive than that used for the film itself (inevitably, I suppose) but which are nonetheless very adequate. In most cases, one can see quite easily why the sequence was not used, the major exception in my opinion being the Cocoon Sequence in which Ripley, about to flee the Nostromo, comes across Dallas and Brett encased in a cocoon structure in the ship wall. Brett is clearly dead, but Dallas is still alive and begs to be killed as an act of mercy; Ripley complies with his request, torching the structure with her flamethrower.

There are two theatrical trailers presented here. The first is a short teaser trailer showing a starscape followed by a rocky planet surface followed by the film’s famous catchphrase “in space, no-one can hear you scream.” The second starts in similar style but then includes a selection of clips from the film. Both are presented in 4:3 aspect ratio, although the first trailer jumps to approximately 14:9 a couple of times during its duration. The prints are, as per usual with trailers, rather scratched and in need of a bit of TLC. There are two TV spots included, of similar format, style and condition to the theatrical trailers but with voiceovers proclaiming “Alien … rated R”.

The Art and Photo Gallery is extremely extensive. It features conceptual artwork from HR Giger, Ron Cobb, Jean “Moebius” Giraud and Chris Foss, each of whom has their own dedicat
ed section, Ridley Scott’s full storyboard for the film which was responsible for increasing the film’s budget from $4.5m to $8.5m, and separate section for Production Photos and Promotional Art and Photos.

The Outtakes are not in the ‘Auntie’s Bloomers’ tradition but are instead shots unused in the film. There are two such outtakes: Rise and Shine, in which Kane enters the mess shortly after awaking from hypersleep; and Alien Attacks Lambert, whose title is self-explanatory — this shot was not used simply because Ridley Scott thought the Alien looked too much like a man in a suit. Like the Deleted Scenes, these shots are presented in 2.35:1 letterbox widescreen.

· Menus: this was obviously a prestige project for 20th Century Fox, and no expense has been spared on the menus. The main menu appears with a flourish, involving the use of impressive computer animation, and most of the sub-menus are animated too. The menus are designed according to the dark, dirtily technological look of the film itself, and feature corridors or, in the case of the main menu, a central room with some kind of force field being projected in the centre. Most of the menus are accompanied by spaceship style background noise, humming sounds interspersed with janglings, whirrs and beeps such as those found in the film. Top rate work.


CONCLUSION
There can be no doubt that the Alien DVD is a very impressive product indeed. It features an extremely impressive range of extras, including trailers, a very extensive photo gallery and that favourite of all film buffs, the Director’s Commentary. In fact, it is actually rather difficult to imagine what else could have reasonably been included on the disc that would have added to its value.

Even more important than this, of course, is the presentation of the film itself, and in this aspect the DVD is faultless. An anamorphic PAL transfer of the film in its original exhib
ition aspect ratio is exactly what the doctor ordered, and this particular transfer has obviously been done at considerable effort and expense, and the results are impressive, as are, similarly, the results with the soundtrack presented in full 5.2 glory.

Essentially, very little criticism can be made of this product at all, and one can only hope that other DVD producers take note of this release, and that 20th Century Fox remember the lesson they have themselves produced. For this is how a DVD should be done.

Summary: