The movie Alien was not your typical movie with highlighted objects and people, instead the visuals were dulled and darkened to the point that I couldn't find anything that was supposed to catch my eye. Later as the movie finished, I realized that was the exact point. The lack of color and vibrancy forced the viewer to be confused as to what he or she was looking at. One could notice that at the beginning, before the monster had been born out of Kane's stomach, the lighting, especially at their final meal, was bright and everything was well visible. The entire white room resonated the florescent lights so you were able to see the alien in full lighting. From that point on, the monster became one with the background, blending into everything corner and nook. The execution of putting everything in a darker light forced the viewer to imagine every crate, corner, or pipe to be the alien. Rather than adding importance with color, they added a thematic element of surprise and danger by taking away all light and details possible. The movie never again returns to full brightness but the alien is finally revealed when Ripley shoots it and flings it out into space. We are able to see it's full size but never his full color or shape due to all the shadows and dark on lighting. The viewer is able to create his or her own image of what the details of the alien truly look like. This allows them to form a personalized version of the alien that is different from viewer to viewer.
Aside from the lighting, movie had a notion of constant birthing and rebirthing throughout the movie. The movie begins with all of the characters, beginning and focusing on Kane, emerging out of an egg shaped cocoon that held them and protected them on their long journey to this new planet. In this instance the ship it's their mother is ironically called "Mother" and she carries all the knowledge about the mission and how the mission will enfold. (Unfortunately she is a bad mother and gets all of her kids killed, but that's not her fault exactly.) We then see this phenomenon happening again on the crashed ship that Ash has discovered. There are eggs located in the crashed ship and one happens to leech itself onto Kane and then reproduces inside of him. One could say that Kane is a mother, not in a humanly biological way, by being a host for the alien to grow inside of him and then is expelled out of him. This process looks much like a mother giving birth to a human with the use of blood, mucous and other bodily juices. The alien dies much like a mother giving birth. Ripley shoots the alien out of the space ship and she's it flying out into space. Only thing is that the arrow is attached to a large rope that makes the alien appear to have an umbilical cord attached to it while being expelled or "born" into space.
Though this movie contrasted very differently from movies in the past, it offered viewers many opportunities to find similarities visually about the metaphor of a mother.
I think its interesting how the lighting was used. This aspected reminded me a lot of the first movie we watched, Blade Runner, which was also directed by Ridley Scott. It makes me wonder if Scott has a demented idea of what the future would be like. Most people think to the future as a bright and beautiful place (at least I do of my own). However, Scott considers the future to be a dark world with little light and little hope of positivity. Watching such a drab film also tends to put you in a sad or inhibited mood, something Scott may have also been trying to obtain throughout his films.
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