Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019) Review
Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019) Review
The untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s Alien – rooted in Greek and Egyptian mythologies, underground comics, the art of Francis Bacon, and the dark visions of Dan O’Bannon and H.R. Giger. A contemplation on the symbiotic collaborative process of movie-making, the power of myth, and our collective unconscious.
Being a huge fan of Ridley Scott’s 1979 flick ALIEN, receiving this documentary about the movie’s origins to review, effectively meant that I put everything else in my life was on hold until I had sat through every single minute of it. Director Alexandre O. Philippe’s documentary covers familiar ground in a fresh way (familiar to those that have watched the extras on Fox’s endless special edition disc releases) with photos and behind-the-scenes stuff that kept me glued throughout.
MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN is a world away from Alexandre O. Philippe’s previous documentary ‘78/52’ – which concentrated purely on dissecting PSYCHO’s infamous shower scene rather than the whole film – proving more conventional in its approach. To that end this flick is no less interesting for fans who would already know of the various inspirations O’Bannon and the production drew upon for this classic sci-fi flick. That’s not to say that for such an ardent fan, such as myself, that there wasn’t some nuggets of information gold for me to gleam, as that would do this exhaustive look at ALIEN a disservice.
I enjoyed learning that writer Dan O’Bannon, who wrote the thirty-page script Memory that formed the basis for ALIEN, practically lifted the idea wholesale for an alien birthing from a male from a 1951 EC Comic eight-page story called Seeds of Jupiter. O’Bannon’s previous foray into the genre was the 1974 cult hit DARK STAR. O’Bannon wanted a co-director credit for his work on the film but his co-director John Carpenter wasn’t having any of it. As a consequence O’Bannon wanted more control and input with his writing project, which turned out to be ALIEN. He was fortunate to have such a strong-headed director such as Ridley Scott fighting in his corner to ensure that the titular beast would look exactly as artist Giger had designed it.
There’s a very detailed behind-the-scenes look at how the infamous chest bursting scene was planned and filmed, plus there’s plenty of talking heads imparting nuggets of information – Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Roger Corman amongst them – making MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN a well-rounded, comprehensive look at a classic movie that celebrated its 40th birthday earlier this year. MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN in cinemas 30 August, on VOD and DVD 2 September.
