It is interesting to note how Art and Fiction - much like individuals' dreams - can reveal humanity's inner dark secrets and problems, as well as it's solutions. I will discuss one of these works: the film Alien.
Alien - the 1979 Sci-Fi/ Horror Ridley Scott film - must be one of the most remarkable and ground breaking films of, not only its own genre, but of all time.
It is a film that reverses the typical male/ female role portrayal of western society - breaking a long Hollywood tradition. With this as basis, it also dives into the human sub-conscious and archetypal mind; dealing with concepts of our society not often dealt with.
As with all Hero's Journeys, the film starts out with a setting - albeit super normal to us earth dwellers - an essentially normal environment for our Heroes and protagonist of the film. They wake up from slumber, eat, work and have silly conversations. They are all in shapeless uniforms, symbolizing their malleability to become the later better identifiable characters.
Then - the calling of the Herald: The crew we have already shaped a bond with, needs to answer a distress signal on an unknown planet; and the whole disastrous tale unfolds in horror as they discover a remorseless alien life form.
The 'zenomorph' creature - designed by controversial Swiss artist H.R. Giger - is truly a beast from our worst nightmares, and was indeed the first of its kind to be copied countless times in Hollywood history. It is a beast not often seen, lurking in the shadows. It is not your average humanoid monster like Count Dracula or the wolf-man - it is a beast with no eyes has a touch metallic-like outer shell with acid for blood and a phallic-like extra jaw, coming from its already hideous mouth that 'penetrates' its victims on the kill. It has also a larvae stage, where it attaches itself to the face of a victim, forcing its egg down the victim's mouth when - after some weeks - the small adult creature will burst through the victim's chest.
What we have here then, is a representation of our darker self: blind to remorse and justice (no eyes), it is the cold polluting industrial machine (metallic-like skin with acid for blood) 'raping' earth and humanity, thus life with its phallic-like killing jaw and forceful 'impregnation' by the larvic 'facehugger', giving an abominable birth to this very dark materialist beast from within ourselves.
Further in the film, the male characters fail miserably to stop this beast. It is only in the end, that Ripley - at first a shapeless woman, once again almost abominably 'raped' by the male android using the rolled up magazine - that kills this beast, her almost nude female form shown complete and triumphant in the end of the film.
It is thus an ode to the feminine element in humanity that is needed to save ourselves from the industrial male dominating beast we have created over the last 2000 years.
'Alien' shows then - with counless other works of art and fiction - that the archetypal sub-conscious human mind not only reveals the inner problems of humanity to itself through symbolic dreams; but through works of art and fiction alike.
Quite interesting...
Alien - the 1979 Sci-Fi/ Horror Ridley Scott film - must be one of the most remarkable and ground breaking films of, not only its own genre, but of all time.
It is a film that reverses the typical male/ female role portrayal of western society - breaking a long Hollywood tradition. With this as basis, it also dives into the human sub-conscious and archetypal mind; dealing with concepts of our society not often dealt with.
As with all Hero's Journeys, the film starts out with a setting - albeit super normal to us earth dwellers - an essentially normal environment for our Heroes and protagonist of the film. They wake up from slumber, eat, work and have silly conversations. They are all in shapeless uniforms, symbolizing their malleability to become the later better identifiable characters.
Then - the calling of the Herald: The crew we have already shaped a bond with, needs to answer a distress signal on an unknown planet; and the whole disastrous tale unfolds in horror as they discover a remorseless alien life form.
The 'zenomorph' creature - designed by controversial Swiss artist H.R. Giger - is truly a beast from our worst nightmares, and was indeed the first of its kind to be copied countless times in Hollywood history. It is a beast not often seen, lurking in the shadows. It is not your average humanoid monster like Count Dracula or the wolf-man - it is a beast with no eyes has a touch metallic-like outer shell with acid for blood and a phallic-like extra jaw, coming from its already hideous mouth that 'penetrates' its victims on the kill. It has also a larvae stage, where it attaches itself to the face of a victim, forcing its egg down the victim's mouth when - after some weeks - the small adult creature will burst through the victim's chest.
What we have here then, is a representation of our darker self: blind to remorse and justice (no eyes), it is the cold polluting industrial machine (metallic-like skin with acid for blood) 'raping' earth and humanity, thus life with its phallic-like killing jaw and forceful 'impregnation' by the larvic 'facehugger', giving an abominable birth to this very dark materialist beast from within ourselves.
Further in the film, the male characters fail miserably to stop this beast. It is only in the end, that Ripley - at first a shapeless woman, once again almost abominably 'raped' by the male android using the rolled up magazine - that kills this beast, her almost nude female form shown complete and triumphant in the end of the film.
It is thus an ode to the feminine element in humanity that is needed to save ourselves from the industrial male dominating beast we have created over the last 2000 years.
'Alien' shows then - with counless other works of art and fiction - that the archetypal sub-conscious human mind not only reveals the inner problems of humanity to itself through symbolic dreams; but through works of art and fiction alike.
Quite interesting...
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