😳
I think the groundbreaking part was Dan O’Bannon’s note in the Alien script that gave us more amazing characters in Aliens.
“At the start of Dan O’Bannon’s script for Alien, there’s a note that few other screenplays contain: “The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.” It’s a line that fundamentally altered the nature of the film, affecting everything from the presentation of its characters to the way Ridley Scott and his team approached casting, and it was certainly for the best.”
Haha I read that originally as “they be robots and have removable arms and legs that fit erybody else.”
That’s fascinating though. I must say I like Aliens much better. I rarely revisit Alien but I might do in the near future.
Imho, they are different genres altogether.
Alien is a real horror-movie, while Aliens leans more towards the action-movie genre, of course retaining horror elements, but it doesn’t quite play on the body-horror and fear of the unknown as much as the first part does.
Alien is art. Aliens is a schlocky action movie (nothing wrong with schlocky action movies, but it’s just a completely different thing)
I’ve watched Alien in the background dozens of times, had forgotten how it really went. My wife had never seen it, no clue.
She sat like this, edge of the couch, glued to the screen the whole time. And I came away with my view of the movie totally refreshed. A work of art indeed!
Cheers to your wife.
Looks like she enjoyed herself. 😆
I feel the same way about the first and second Terminators, and the first Rambo and its sequels.
So you’re saying that one’s a bug-hunt, and the other’s a stand-up fight?
Yes. As a child Alien was too scarey for me but I was able to watch Aliens. As an adult I don’t usually wade into horror, except on a Super Eyepatch Wolf tangent, but still love action sci-fi.
I find it interesting how a trilogy (then… However many there are now…) can wander from one genre to the other. It’s risky because you make a sequel partly because the the financial security you get from your fan base. Not sticking to that fanbases tastes is risky but also introduces people to new things in a more comfortable way.
I think it’s kind of a natural evolution. The fear of the unknown effect of Alien wears off for the viewer, once the creature has been revealed and defeated in the first part. So a sequel in the same vein woulndn’t really work, but recycling the creature as a fearsome enemy in an action flick surely does.
I also don’t really gravitate towards horror movies as I find most of them to be pretty cheesy or tryhard edgy. Alien is the exception. This one is a work of art.
It might not seem like it now but Vasquez was a groundbreaking character at the time.
Expand on that
Badass female grunt soldier treated by her fellow soldiers as a soldier first and foremost.
She has the most iconic line from my youth.
Some soldier, saying to Vasquez who’s doing pull-ups: hey Vasquez, you ever been mistaken for a man To which she replies: no, have you?
Also the way
she
dies is bad ass.
I mean next to Ripley, the android and the little girl, she’s the most memorable character in that movie.
“Game over man!” makes Bill Paxton as memorable.
Both Paxton and Rodriguez were the highlights of the rest of the cast. Paxton is the guy showing us how we ought to feel, that this is indeed terrifying and fucked up. “Game over man!” is definitely one of the most memorable lines from the film, but a film having two absolutely badass women in Ripley and Vasquez that stood out because they were badasses, and not because they were specifically planted as women to have women be badasses, was great writing - probably thanks to the script being written for “unisex” characters.
She has the most iconic line from my youth.
I got gifted a 4K Blu-ray player for Christmas. Immediately bought Aliens (my favourite movie of all time) then sat down with my older kids to watch it with popcorn etc.
There was such a buzz in the room when she delivered that line.
Have to recommend the 4K Blu-ray experience if you’re a fan. The detail honestly shocked me.
Edit:
I mean next to Ripley, the android and the little girl, she’s the most memorable character in that movie.
The casting is great.
I think Paul Riser did a great job as the slimy company man Burke. He was very believable.
Michael Bien was great as
HudsonHicks too. The exchange between himself, Ripley and Burke about nuking the site was great.I recall an interview in which Paul Reiser said his mom was cheering his on screen death at the premier
Hahaha. That’s a great little nugget.
Bill Paxton played Hudson. Michael Bien played Hicks. Game over man.
Yes! My mistake!
Can’t believe I pulled a Gorman. Edited previous post.
Aliens in my favorite movie of all time too. (⌐■_■)
My friends think I’m crazy that I still buy blu-rays sometimes (including 4k), but for some movies, on an OLED screen… it’s just next level.
The new Dune films, for example…
I honestly have been blown away by how cinematic the 4K Blu-ray experience is. The new Dune ones are on the list to get. I’d say they’re great. Lord of the rings too.
I’m up to 7 in my collection now and definitely will be continuing to add to it.
No OLED here yet but next TV I will definitely pony up the extra for it.
No OLED here yet but next TV I will definitely pony up the extra for it.
Do it… I might even say that I’d rather watch a regular blu-ray on OLED, than a 4k on LCD… but that might be a stretch. Once you get OLED though, it’s hard to go back.
I only have a few 4k, most of my blu-rays are regular (I’ve been collecting Criterion Collection films. Criterion blu-rays used to go on sale regularly for under $20 on Amazon until recently).
I do have the Criterion Collection Citizen Kane 4k blu-ray (sounds kind of silly, I know, but it was on sale and man it looks outstanding).
“You always were an asshole, Gorman.”
I definitely found the alien the most memorable character. She visitied me in my nightmares…
Seriously? Spoiler tags?
The movie is just shy of 40 years old. lol
So? Just because it’s old doesn’t mean that everyone has seen it, nor that people don’t deserve to experience the movie the way we did.
Anyone reading a movie trivia thread regarding a 40-yo movie should expect spoilers. C’mon.
How dare you be considerate of people!
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Aliens didn’t exactly break new ground in strong female characters (except perhaps with Ripley as lead), but it was an early very popular movie that had strong female characters who weren’t dependent upon men to save them so it was pretty good for representing women as something other than Hollywood’s standard of the time. Not great mind you because the only way either of them managed to achieve that is by making both of them (especially Vasquez, Ripley at least had some nuance) act like traditional male characters, but it was a big step.
Have you seen the movie?
(Edit: apparently not.)
I knew I made this for a reason
Most people are assuming that her default skin tone is that of the foster mother. Pretty sure with enough makeup and studio lighting you canake a naturally tanned person look pretty pale.
You .mixed up the movies
Small correction: she was John Connor’s foster mother in Terminator 2 not step mother
Correction: his foster parents are dead.
Damn, they really shoulda gone with Arnie if they wanted to live
I see from the comments that apparently it was makeup. I wonder to what extent this is makeup, since after all, ALL actors on set wear make up. I have a similar skin complexion and if I sunbathe for a week I’ll look like Vasquez too.
If an actor loses weight or works out to be more muscular, that’s commitment to their craft.
If they lay out in the sun, that’s cheating!
[jk]
Well, to be fair, blackface is also a type of makeup
The fact that they tanned her is not the issue. The fact that they tanned her to play an ethnicity she is not, is the problem. Especially during an era where people of that ethnicity were lucky to be typecast in something.
I know it’s before this time, but Martin Sheen had to change his name to get work in Hollywood because nobody would hire someone with a Hispanic sounding name.
Charlie
That’s his son. And his other son is Emilio Estevez which is Sheen’s real last name. Technically it’s Charlie’s last name too, but he kept his father’s stage name for the stage.
James Roday Rodriguez did the same before he got his role in Psych.
Brown face? That’s just a tan
The american obsession with melanin levels is insane. Why cant they be normal and be racist to people who live over the next hill, like us enlightened europeans.
That’s offensive. Those over the hill have bushier eyebrows. They are totally different and meant to be hated.
Nah you guys just claim the brown ppl are “culturally different” because they’re Muslim so they should leave
Brown nose? That’s just business.
Brown finger, that’s just play time.
Its almost like the people who come up with this batty shit never actually leave the basement, so they don’t understand suntans.
I wrote an article about how Jim Carrey used greenface (very offensively too) during the filming of “The Mask”, but hardly anyone cared.
He’s not even an amphibian!
-
Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?
-
No, have you?
She was bad ass
-
She’s also in Titanic, but in a very small role as an Irish mother.
Just curious, is it offense that she dyed her hair reddish and has Hollywood freckles for the Irish role?
Irish. Trying to muster one fuck to give but just can’t manage it unfortunately.
Side note: She’s a great actress.
The Irish don’t care, they’re too busy secretly taking over the world.
Good thing god created alcohol to slow them down.
Hasn’t worked, those bastards are everywhere!
It wouldn’t surprise me if we finally make contact with that uncontacted tribe off the coast of India and there was already a bunch of Irish dudes chilling out with them already.
Bit weird. Irish people tend to have dark hair and pale skin.
SMH my head, so now she’s doing irish face? Potato face? No wait, now I’m being racist
And Lethal Weapon
Im pretty sure thats just a tan, but its interesting that her imdb page says “Jenette Goldstein is a true chameleon”
I think shes got a company now that is making extra comfy bras.
Was it makeup? Lighting can do a lot too…
It was, even though apparently one of her parents is of Brazilian and Moroccan descent.
This is mildly racist in two different directions. There was clearly an assumption of what a “private Vasquez” should look like they were shooting for. She was allegedly cast partially because she was in the right shape for the character already. These days they would have gotten an actor in shape that looked like the ethnic stereotype they had in mind, probably.
Which is still kinda more messed up than just having cast her, kept the character and just not spray tan her. Didn’t even have to change her name. I don’t speak for American latinos, but from where I stand the visual design of the character seems like a much bigger issue than the casting.
A lot of ppl were saying if you need a disabled role, hire a disabled person, if you need this and that hire someone with that exact trait. That’s not the point of acting. The point of a good actor is that they can change for every role.
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okay but another point of acting is authentically bringing the experience of the character portrayed so that the audience can empathize with that character, so stuffing someone without that lived experience into the role deceives the audience into thinking that they’re empathizing with people like that character when they’re actually just getting what the actor thinks it’s like instead
You just described acting.
ah, so hiring a white actor to play a Black person in blackface would be okay, then
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If black people can play a white person, then absolutely. White Chicks, best white face ever. Tropical Thunder, best black face ever. I’ll see my way out.
In both of those examples, the actors played characters of their own race, pretending to be another race as the plot of the respective movies.
Didn’t Schwarzenegger wear mudface in Predator?
Didn’t she play tough hispanic space marine in another movie too?
nvm: I’m thinking of Michele Rodriguez from Fast and Furious, resident evil, and a fair bit of other movies I thought was same actress.
The ‘80s was just like that. Fun while it lasted but I am glad we have moved on and it is somewhat shameful to look back on now. I have so much nostalgia for the Short Circuit movies but I will never show them to my Indian husband, Fischer Stevens.
Lol!
Let your husband be the judge of whether he’s missing out or not.
