Alien Film Scores

[img]http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8200000/Alien-1979-alien-aliens-8255327-654-283.jpg[/img] In 1979 filmdom's most horrific science fiction saga began with director Ridley Scott's ALIEN. Dan O'Bannon's simple B-movie premise follows the crew of a massive Earth-bound space freighter and their ill-fated detour to investigate a signal from a remote planetoid. While exploring a seemingly deserted alien vessel on the surface, one of the crewmen, Kane (John Hurt), is attacked by a parasite that attaches itself to his face and orally impregnates him. Once back on board the freighter, Kane gives "birth" to a tiny murderous alien which proceeds to grow... and stalk the ship's crew one member at a time. [img]http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/8200000/Alien-1979-alien-aliens-8255333-655-291.jpg[/img] For a sci-fi bloodfest, ALIEN was brought to the screen with unprecedented realism and A-list production values. Famed Swiss artist H.R. Giger conceived the film's titular phallic beast, while equally renowned designer Ron Cobb (Star Wars) was responsible for the massive three-deck space ship, the Nostromo, whose claustrophobic corridors and chambers provide a terrifying playground for the film's cat-and-mouse suspense. At the forefront of the cast was Sigourney Weaver, in her first leading role, as Ellen Ripley. Weaver made a considerable impression as the tough, lone survivor who ultimately defeats the Alien, but it would take another film to turn Ripley into a true sci-fi legend. [img]http://www.culturedeluxe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/aliens-Ripley-vs-Queen.jpg[/img] Despite the cultural and commercial success of ALIEN, a follow-up didn't appear until 1986, when writer/director James Cameron, fresh off the success of his hit THE TERMINATOR, presented the idea of taking the story into the action genre rather than repeating the first film's approach. Cameron's ALIENS opens with Ripley's return to Earth after drifting through space for 57 years in hypersleep. Although her superiors doubt her fantastical "Alien" testimonial, she agrees to revisit her nightmare, accompanying a team of marines back to the planetoid (now designated LV-426) where contact has been lost with a colony of terraforming engineers. There, Ripley and the troops face off against a hive of Aliens and their terrifying Queen. [img]http://horrorfanzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/aliens-04.jpg[/img] The character of Ripley (as seen in ALIENS) became the basis by which all female action heroes have been judged ever since, including characters in Cameron's own films such as Sarah Connor in TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY and Neytiri, the warrior princess from Avatar. Weaver was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance. [img]http://www.saintvespaluus.com/lc_alien3gr16d.jpg[/img] Director David Fincher's ALIEN 3 (1992) crash-lands Ripley on a desolate penal planet, Fiorina "Fury" 161. Her crewmates are killed on impact, leaving Ripley to fend for herself in a prison comprised of highly religious male murderers and rapists. Ripley soon learns that her crash was caused by a stowaway face hugger, and when one inmate's dog is impregnated, the resultant Alien begins to stalk the prisoners. The stakes are raised when Ripley discovers that she herself was impregnated during her hypersleep. With the help of the prisoners, Ripley is able to trap and kill the Alien and in an act of self sacrifice, she leaps backwards into a pit of molten steel, depriving the company of its prize. While the film's bleak tone and Ripley's sacrifice gave ALIEN 3 some noteworthy dramatic weight, after the triumph of ALIENS, fans were largely disappointed. [img]http://www.dvdactive.com/images/reviews/screenshot/2006/4/alien3cap3rev.jpg[/img] ALIEN RESURRECTION (1997), the final installment (thus far) to feature Sigourney Weaver, was conceived as an effort to revive the series by combining the mystery of Scott's original with the action of Cameron's sequel. Set 200 years after the events of Fiorina 161aboard the science vessel Auriga, the story opens with the United Systems Military extracting an Alien Queen from a cloned Ripley; as a result of the cloning process, the new Ripley is more monster than human; she now shares a psychological bond with the Aliens, as well as some of their physical capabilities and attributes, such as acid for blood. The scientists use the eggs of Ripley's Queen to impregnate a group of involuntary human hosts (who are delivered by a band of mercenaries) but the resulting Aliens escape from their holding chamber and wreak havoc aboard the Auriga. With the ship programmed on an emergency course for earth, the reborn Ripley joins the visiting mercenaries (and USM crew members) in an attempt to reach their freighter, the Betty. Along the way Ripley finds her humanity thanks in part to her relationship with Call (Winona Ryder), an android mercenary with identity issues of her own. The final scene of RESURRECTION has the Betty breaking the Earth's atmosphere in time to see the Auriga crash-land and explode. The heroes take in the site of Earth's vivid, colorful cloudscape, a powerful payoff capping four films of cold, sterile environments. While Jeunet's suspense sequences take a different approach from the earlier ALIEN films, the director's set pieces crackle with energy: the best action scene has Ripley and the bounty hunters swimming through a labyrinthian underwater chamber while being pursued by Aliens. [img]http://cf1.imgobject.com/backdrops/a7e/4d2a389f5e73d626bc003a7e/alien-resurrection-original.jpg[/img] For RESURRECTION, composer John Frizzell faced the seemingly-daunting task of following up the first three ALIEN scores, powerful works by composers who each found a unique way to tackle his respective film. The original ALIEN's music by Jerry Goldsmith painted an eerily beautiful portrait of space with an impressionistic trumpet theme and an iconic, echoing motif for flutes. For the monster itself, Goldsmith employed unorthodox sounds such as didgeridoo, steel drum and serpent. As the thematic centerpiece for his ALIENS score, James Horner adapted Aram Khachaturians adagio from the Gayene Ballet Suite to unnervingly calm effect and addressed the film's action set pieces with driving, militaristic percussion. The cue "Bishops Countdown" became a staple in movie trailers for years to come and Horner earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Score. ALIEN 3 put Elliot Goldenthal on the film scoring map, with composer introducing his now-trademark trilling horns, brass clusters and bizarre electronic samples for the new incarnation of the creature, and a stunning Adagio theme that reached operatic proportions for Ripley's suicide at the end of the film. [img]http://www.brutalashell.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/alien-1979.jpg[/img] Once aboard the project, Frizzell had little trouble discovering an approach for his music, one that would set it apart from the previous ALIEN scores. "I think the story of this film distinguishes itself from the others and Jean-Pierre's filmmaking also sets it apart," the composer explains. "Therefore, just by focusing on scoring RESURRECTION in and of itself sets it apart." As such, Frizzell was able to differentiate his work from what had come before by emphasizing the film's sensual overtones. His flowing, dissonant main theme combines a rising and falling accompanimental line with a descending chromatic melody. This material not only oozes sexuality for the new predatory Ripley. "Sensual' was the key word," says the composer. "Also erotic' the images were so dream-like and strange, that using themes was the way to go." In addition to the main melody, the composer wrote a number of subsidiary motifs, making RESURRECTION the most thematic score of the series: a swelling chordal idea recurs throughout the film, generating suspense as well as sexual tension; an anguished, rising B-them heroically characterizes the humans and adds weight to their plight; Ripley receives her own lamentive string melody that addresses the tragedy of her rebirth; Frizzell also subtly foreshadows the revelation that Call is an adroid, underscoring the character with a cold, two-voice theme that is heard even when she's displaying humane behavior. [img]http://www.saintvespaluus.com/lc_alien3gr15d.jpg[/img] The score's timbres recall the precedent set by Goldenthal on ALIEN 3: "I wanted to meld orchestra and electronics in the score," says Frizzell. "This is done a lot today and wasn't particularly unique back then either. But I wanted to have a sense that these two worlds, acoustic and electronic (or synthetic and real) were merged and blended and in some cases indistinguishable." While Frizzell deliberately blurs the line between acoustic and electronic, the score's more thematic elements are typically orchestral. Prominent uses of the electronics include industrial percussive loops for Ripley displaying superhuman qualities early in the film and skittish patterns for the Aliens. The score's most harrowing use of samples synthesizes squeals sounding as the Newborn is violently blown through a tiny hole in the Betty. RESURRECTION also makes prominent use of choir; the film's climax would afford Frizzell the opportunity to compose a powerful chorale for orchestra and female voices, returning the ALIEN saga to Earth and the composer to the beginnings of his own musical career as a boy treble in Paris and the Metropolitan Opera. [img]http://www.finalgirlproject.com/images/ind2.png[/img] Article: courtesy of Ap Kaplan who wrote this article for the Limited Edition Score of Alien Resurrection. After four very successful and honorary scores to the franchise how will the score to Ridley Scott's Prometheus match up? How will it be different yet retain the terrifying reminiscent value of the last 4 scores. Marc Streitenfeld's has a past with Ridley Scott (most recently Robin Hood) but will his unique style stay true to the franchise or branch out and do something completely different, adding on to what Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Elliot Goldenthal and John Frizzell did for the franchise? I'm excited to see and pumped to hear what Streitenfeld has in store. [img]http://www.indiewire.com/static/dims4/INDIEWIRE/a005d8b/4102462740/thumbnail/680x478/http://d1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net/f1/b6b7e02a6611e197b6123138165f92/file/ridley-scott-downplays-alien-connection-to-prometheus.jpg[/img]