25 REASONS TO 1080 IT: DAY TWENTY FIVE

posted on
12.27.2010

The
economy has gone to hell, but you can still afford to splurge on the
latest in High Definition treats. The CHUD Home Entertainment Team has
taken upon themselves to draft the Top 25 Blu-Rays released in Region A
thus far. From the 1st of December until Christmas, we’ll count down to
the greatest Blu-Ray release of all-time. Join us and marvel at the
treasures of the 1080p set.

LIST POSITION: #1
TITLE: Alien Anthology
Director: Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Yaphet Kotto, Ron Perlman, Michael Biehn and more!
MSRP: $139.99
RATING: R
BUY IT AT AMAZON!

WHY IT’S ON THE LIST

20th Century Fox did such a great job marketing this title, that websites were freaking out over leaked screenshots. Tying the early releases close to Avatar‘s theatrical reign only helped to drive up interest in older James Cameron titles. Then, FOX decided to up the ante past the superb treatment for Aliens, they dared to turn our expectations on their ear. All four Alien titles would be revisited with fully remastered transfers and a new wealth of special features. What were you more excited over? You couldn’t tell, as every time you turned around something new got announced.

Alien opens the Anthology with a new HD transfer that makes it look like it was released last year. Ridley Scott shot the film in dark surroundings with a ton of suggestion to help cover the limited technology of the time. But, that doesn’t matter as Sci-Fi/Horror is a genre where the Director best shines. This was Scott’s second feature, as he attempted to move out of commercial work and into the realm of studio pictures. Much has been made of Tobe Hooper and Stanley Kubrick’s influence over the film and it shows. The sterility of Weyland Yutani’s Nostromo serves as the perfect environment where Scott could play with expectations.

The late great Dan O’ Bannon used to simply state the movie was a haunted house film in space. Period film critics dismissed it as a slasher with slight riffs on Mario Bava material. While I admit that there is truth in both opinions, what matters is that audiences throughout the last thirty-one years have discovered and mined new meaning out of film. Pulling a Blue Collar aesthetic out of the Sci-Fi sterile environment was rather inventive for the time. Hell, name any film pre-dating Alien that featured characters like Yaphet Kotto or Harry Dean Stanton.

What works in this film is that Scott and the crew don’t want you to feel comfortable. There is no scientist on board the ship and the best that the crew has to work with is an automated computer system. Say what you want about Ash, but I view him as yet another head of the giant Company machine. When the crew is ordered to explore the wrecked Space Jockey ship, they’re doing out of obligation to an employer. There’s no greater cause and no desire to explore the unknown. The crew of the Nostromo are regular people just like you.

The
film’s arrival on Blu-Ray is marked by that incredible transfer. Home Theater Master Charles de Lauzirika has been handling the Alien franchise for roughly a decade and his work for FOX has been nothing less than stellar. Having watched the film on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and Rep Theater film print…I’d have to go so far as to say that this is the best possible presentation. You’re able to pick up background detail for the first time, such as the obvious milk crates being used for the floor panels. Hell, there’s one moment in the film when they try to cut the facehugger off of Kane and the blood tears through the floor that blows my mind.

If you frame it just right, when the blood spatter burns through the last panel, you can see a boom mike clearly in frame. Hell, Yaphet Kotto’s death scene is almost ruined by the 1080p transfer. When he gets lifted up for the forehead crunch, you need to stop and slowly advance the film to see something interesting. That’s right, kids. The FX team replaced Kotto’s head with a melon and they didn’t even bother to match up the skin complexion. How hard is it to doll up a piece of produce?

Alien
is a film that a lot of cinema geeks use as a rite of passage. Long considered the best in the Quadrilogy, fans try to mark it as the start of the American Sci-Fi horror boom. Teens struggle to find copies, so that they can witness Kane’s chestburster death for themselves. Many copies are ruined by excessive pausing on vintage Weaver in her panties. There’s so much genre schlock among the quality elements that it’s an instant treat for the neophyte.

Is the film groundbreaking? Hell, no. At times it does play like Heavy Metal working out their version of Planet of the Vampires. That’s not a bad thing, as it seems cinema needs more films about exploring genre staples and trying to ground fantasy and reality into a piecemeal offering. Will the violence be excessive for some viewers? Sure, but people need to see properly shot violence. We’ve had two generations of music video pill poppers trying to redefine editing and cinematography for a generation. Fuck the jump scares and take a trip back into time to see some fucked up H.R. Giger horror fantasies.

THE BEST SUPPLEMENT

MU-TH-ER mode offers fans a chance to place what they’re seeing in a larger context. Similar to the releases for Fight Club and Gladiator, this BD-Java application allows the viewer to watch the film on one of the first discs with points marked off for potential revisiting in the supplemental discs. Such an application is almost essential for the bigger box sets. The sheer armada of supplemental material collected over the last ten years needs context and applications like this offer new viewers and old hands a chance to relay this material into an educational treasure trove. Would it be nice if all the material could be contained on one disc? Sure, but that’s not feasible at this point in time.

SCREENSHOTS