In a message dated 97-12-02 04:06:15 EST, Sean Johnston wrote:
> >Barbara Benesch wrote:
> >For instance, when she attacked Dr. Wren very early in the
> >movie: she had no reason to, except that she felt like it and he'd let
his
> >guard down.
> She had a great reason: he was wayyy up in her face. What does an animal
> do, and what do most people probably feel like doing when a person they
> don't know does something like that?
I was operating on the assumption that she'd dealt with him before, (which
now that I think about it may very well not have been the case) and since she
seemed to retain some of her memories, she would have remembered what visits
to the doctor are all about. But that's not really the point I was trying to
make.
The point I was trying to make, which you've actually helped me with, is that
if you or I were dealing with a doctor who was severely invading our personal
space *and* talking about us like we weren't in the room, we would speak up,
we would not physically attack him. However, with people dealing with
Attachment Syndrome, they often revert to more "animalistic" impulses,
because they lack the socialization to deal with the problem in a more
"socially acceptable" way. So I thought that the movie was very consistent
in dealing with Ripley looking and processing mentally like an adult, but not
having the life experiences to deal with the world socially.
> At
> >least when the aliens hurt and abuse and kill, they tend to do so quickly
> >(even those humans who are impregnated with an alien and die during it's
> >"birth" die more quickly than "7"), and not to their own species.
>
> Welll, there was the cage scene w/ the three aliens, two of whom killed
the
> third, but for a good reason: to get outta the cage.
I also forgot about that. I'd meant to mention that I thought that was one
of the scarier things I'd seen (until the "Newborn", anyway), because that
scene made it so evident that the aliens weren't just unreasoning beings like
we'd been allowed to hope previously. I don't remember #3 very well, but I
do know that at the end of #2, we suspected that the aliens were what we
would consider sentient, but we weren't sure. That scene left no doubt that
the aliens are definitely _reasoning_ creatures.
> >> 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.
> >
> >I would disagree - the freezing a person scene probably was malicious,
> >actually. I see it as a retaliation for the times the alien itself was
> >frozen by the doctor. Not that I blame it, but I do see it as a
> relatiation,
> >and not just a way to remove an obstacle. However, I do agree that we're
> >supposed to have certainly more compassion for the aliens than we've had
in
> >the past.
> ><snip>
> Hm. Might have a point there, but I still don't see the aliens as
> malicious beings. Harsh by our standards, but not cruel. Heck, even the
> scene where the new alien bites a hunk outta the doc's head wasn't cruel.
> It was merely reacting to something it may have seen as a threat the most
> natural way it could, and perhaps the only way it could.
I don't think of them as necessarily malicious, either, but I think that
making the assumption that their actions are based solely on instinct would
be a mistake.
> By the by, who out there thinks the baby alien, the one with paler skin
and
> the quivering nose, was scarier than ten regular aliens combined with the
> queen alien tossed in? I think is was wayyyy scarier because it's a lot
> closer to human, so there's not such convenient sort of visual
> dissociation. For a perfect example of what I'm talking about, consider
> how much scarier Hannibal Lecter was than Freddy Kreuger, since Hannibal
> looked so much more...normal...so non-threatening at times. Freddy looked
> threatening all the time, so we got used to it and weren't so disarmed
when
> he did something spooky. Lecter, on the other hand, I didn't really get
so
> used to as a threat, which made him more of a threat, since he could
disarm
> so much more easily.
Definitely the Newborn was the scariest thing I've seen since... the two
aliens tore apart the third in order to escape. Whoooeeee! It was also
really freaky that it made a very human-infant wailing kind of sound as well.
It gave me some serious heebie-jeebies. And the look it gave Call when she
was fighting it and was trying to smush its head under a door (I think that's
how it went, that final battle is kind of a blur to me) was especially
creepy. It looked like it was about to cry, and even though *I* knew better,
part of me wanted to go "Oh, sweetie, I'm sorry," and comfort it.... well,
until it ate me. :) Yes, definitely some severe whim-whams.
> Of course, this analyzing of the Newborn is an attempt to not be so scared
> of it when, not if, I see the show again. That's not all that it is, but
> it's a good portion.
Also, it was really tough to get a bead on it. Not physically, but trying to
guess its motives was impossible (at least to me). It seemed to want Ripley
to cuddle it and play mama, but it also seemed to want to turn her into a
tasty snack. I think that was part of the Creep Factor on the Newborn.
And yes, Sean analyzes, Barb uses slang. All part of an attempt not to be so
scared next time I see it. :)
> >- I was really disturbed by the Newborn (I guess that's what they're
> >officially calling that human-alien hybrid at the end) killing it's
mother.
> > I still can't decide what exactly to make of that, but I don't much like
> it
> >either way.
>
> See above paragraph.
>
> -Sean
>
> Stand for something or you'll fall for anything.--Author Unknown
>
>
Barbara Benesch
BJBenesch@aol.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:37 PDT