H.R.Giger's Alien

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H.R.Giger's Alien

"Hollywood's conception of extraterrestrial life was pretty much limited to either whimsical little green men or clumsy bug-eyed monsters. In a gritty future, Scott brought to life Swiss surrealist H.R.Giger's terrifying biomechanical beastie: an acid-bleeding, razor-toothed, overgrown cockroach with an ugly practice of gestating its offspring in human hosts……. Suddenly, space was a pretty scary place to be." (Schwarzbaum, 27)

In 1979 an alien was born. Before 1979 the movie "Star Wars" showed the vastness of space where men and women fought among themselves for control of the universe. The aliens that were present in such movies were nothing more than secondary actors. These types of aliens were never truly frightening and the concept of extraterrestrial life as a threat to us was never believable. The movie "Aliens" presented a conception and perception of design of extraterrestrial life that was different from anything else. This movie introduced many revolutionary concepts; the two most prominent of these are the female heroine and the new design for a terrifying alien life form and its surroundings that gave a less perfect view of space.

What makes the movie "Alien" so terrifying is the concept that life in outer space is pure evil. Before 1979, most movies portrayed aliens as friendly creature that came in peace and wanted to help humanity. This new Alien was so different and had revolutionary special effects; that the creation of an alien creature won an Oscar for "Best Achievement for Visual Effects" April14th, 1980. The creator and designer of the alien creature was H. R Giger, born in Born in Chur, Germany, 1940. H. R Giger’s revolutionary designs and the publishing of the book Giger’s "Necr...

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...ective that is still being used in Science fiction movies today.

Bibliography

Internet Site

www.hrgiger.com © Copyright 1996, H.R.Giger

Movies

Alien: Directed by Ridley Scott. 20th century Fox, 1979

Planet of the Apes: Directed by Franklin J. Schanffner. 20th Century Fox, 1968

Star Wars: Directed by George Lucas. Lucas films Ltd, 1977

This Island Earth: Directed by Joseph M. Newman. Universal International Pictures, 1954

War of the Worlds: Directed by Byron Haskin and George Pal. Paramount Pictures, 1953

Magazines

Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum. Volume 3 Issue #454, October 1998

Books

Bonnie J. Dow. Prime-Time Feminism Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996

Clute, John. Science fiction : the illustrated encyclopedia. London; New York: Dorling Kindersley; Boston: Distributed by Houghton Mifflin, 1995.

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