At 10:32 AM 12/1/97 -0800, you wrote:
>Good heavens. Did that movie have some of the most bizarre subtext you've
>ever seen, or what? I loved the 1-7 scene, and would love to know what
>other people thought of it. And what did anyone make of Ripley's various
>relationships with the critters? Are we now supposed to start feeling
>more compassionate towards them, a la Frankenstein or King Kong? What are
>we to make of the fact that of the two stongest female (humanoid)
>characters, one was a semi-alien clone and the other was a robot?
Call was an android, not a robot. As to Ripley, remember that she was
equally strong mentally in the previous Alien movies, just not as
physically strong. Indeed, I think she's a little stronger now because she
can see both sides, that of the aliens and that of the humans, and still
chooses what on the surface seems to be the right thing to do.
What do you mean by the 1-7 scene? "1-7"? Meaning the previous clone
attempts? If that's what you're talking about, I found it simultaneously
disgusting and heart-rending. I kept expecting another of the incarnations
to come to life and was happy they didn't. The weakest part was Ron
Perlman's character's line when he didn't understand what the big deal was:
"Must be a chick thing." Funny, but juvenile, but funny, but juvenile...
Are we to feel more compassionate? I'd say so and I don't see how we
could not feel compassionate. These aliens were not acting out of malice
and that's important to keep in mind. I didn't even see the freezing a
person scene malicious but a way to get rid of a human, i.e., an obstacle.
We might as well say that lionesses feel malice toward gazelles. I think
not. I think lionesses see gazelles as food. Similar situation with the
aliens. I'd also note that in most cases, people killed were used for food
or as receptacles for new aliens, not just left on the floor like buffalo
hunters of old would leave skinned buffalo carcasses on the plains.
This said, I also think that the reaction of the humans was perfectly
reasonable and I'd do the same things they did in trying to stay alive and
get away.
-Sean
>
>Can't wait to hear other people's reactions!
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:37 PDT