#Alien #Patriarchy #Halloween

Want to watch the perfect movie tonight for Halloween 2020? Try Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece “Alien”. Because while Alien is indeed a monster movie, the monster at the center of the film is patriarchy. 1/22

At the beginning of the film, we encounter an environment devoid of nature. The Nostromo is entirely industrial, the product of a powerful “Company”, an unseen father than uses the ship’s computer (named “Mother”) to control the crew, who are first presented as infants. 2/22

The crew is exploited and ultimately expendable for the sake of empowering their unseen father, the Company. And the Company wants them to bring back the alien xenomorph so its power and potential can be harnessed and harvested. 3/22

The key to the xenomorph’s power is that it is the polar opposite of what the Company has constructed. It represents unrestrained biology, especially female sexuality, that has never been subject to restrictions or impositions that curb its natural potential. 4/22

The Company sends its agents to penetrate the habitat of this life form for the sake of claiming and controlling it; implicitly, to press it into service the way it has pressed the crew of the Nostromo into service. 5/22

(We should note that while the crew is made up of men and women, there’s nothing about their conduct, or manner of dress, or values, or even their names, that suggests something natural or sexual in any way. They exist for only one purpose—to serve the Company’s interests.) 6/22

But the Company and its agents are not ready for what they find. It is genuinely *alien* to their experience and entire conceptual framework. 7/22

While the interior of the Nostromo is mechanical and sterile and artificial, the interior of the distressed ship on the planet surface is organic, ovular, moist – and lined with eggs. 8/22

This is a place where the features of female biology dominate, completely unrestrained. The company tries to violate and control it for their own benefit…but this alien lifeforce fights back. 9/22

First, in a reversal of roles, the alien lifeforce forces itself upon the man (John Hurt’s “Kane”) who penetrates its space, covering his face and erasing his identity as it (we soon discover) has penetrated HIM. 10/22

This event leaves Kane traumatized; when Kane regains consciousness, he cannot remember what has happened – a common side effect of sexual trauma. But that changes during the famous “chestburster” scene. 11/22

In this scene, it is clear that the alien “facehugger” has impregnated Kane, and he ultimately dies in “childbirth” as the tiny xenomorph emerges from his chest and disappears, leaving the crew shocked and horrified. 12/22

Of course, Sigourney Weaver’s “Ripley” rises to become the real hero of the film, the only person who manages to survive the dangerous xenomorph by standing up to it… 13/22

But not before Ian Holm’s Ash (who we learn is an android the Company has secretly placed in the crew) attempts to punish her for going against the Company’s interest in keeping the xenomorph alive to harness its power. 14/22

How does he “punish” her? By mimicking the facehugger’s own earlier assault on Kane: he rolls up a magazine and shoves it down her throat so she can experience the domination against which she has rebelled in attempting to kill the xenomorph. 15/22

Attempts to assert her own rights over her own body (i.e., surviving the xenomorph) cannot be tolerated. She, like the xenomorph, must be controlled for the sake of the Company’s interests. 16/22

There is so much more one could say about this brilliant film, but it is especially suited for this year’s Halloween so close to a potentially cataclysmic election where we are faced with the prospect of the current administration somehow remaining in power. 17/22

An administration with plenty of “Ashes” programmed to do the bidding of the Company… 18/22