Alien addressed . . . .

"Alien" opened in American cinemas on May 25, 1979. The film had no formal premiere, yet moviegoers lined up for blocks to see it at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood where a number of models, sets, and props were displayed outside to promote it during its first run. Religious zealots set fire to the model of the space jockey, believing it to be the work of the devil. 

An initial screening of "Alien" for 20th Century Fox representatives in St. Louis was marred by poor sound. A subsequent screening in a newer theater in Dallas went significantly better, eliciting genuine fright from the audience. Two theatrical trailers were shown to the public. The first consisted of rapidly changing still images set to some of Jerry Goldsmith's electronic music from "Logan's Run" (1976).

Ridley Scott: "I've never liked horror films before, because in the end it's always been a man in a rubber suit. Well, there's one way to deal with that. The most important thing in a film of this type is not what you see, but the effect of what you think you saw." 

Scott chose not to show the full Alien for most of the film, keeping most of its body in shadow in order to create a sense of terror and heighten suspense. The audience could thus project their own fears into imagining what the rest of the creature might look like: "Every movement is going to be very slow, very graceful, and the Alien will alter shape so you never really know exactly what he looks like." Scott said. Roger Ebert remarked that "'Alien' uses a tricky device to keep the alien fresh throughout the movie: It evolves the nature and appearance of the creature, so we never know quite what it looks like or what it can do." 

 

The Alien has been referred to as one of the most iconic movie monsters in film history, and its biomechanical appearance and sexual overtones have been frequently noted. Dan O'Bannon, who wrote the film's screenplay, has argued that the "facehugger" scene is a metaphor for the male fear of penetration, and that the "oral invasion" of Kane by the facehugger functions as "payback" for the many horror films in which sexually vulnerable women are attacked by male monsters. O'Bannon later described the sexual imagery in "Alien" as overt and intentional: "One thing that people are all disturbed about is sex... I said 'That's how I'm going to attack the audience; I'm going to attack them sexually. And I'm not going to go after the women in the audience, I'm going to attack the men. I am going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs. Homosexual oral rape, birth. The thing lays its eggs down your throat, the whole number.'" (Wikipedia)

 

to come . . . . 

John Prine notes . . . .

 

If you could sum up what was unique about John Prine’s work, you might look to what inspired him to write "Angel From Montgomery": a vision of a woman who feels older than she is, "standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands.” He so often found other people more interesting than himself - which only serves to make him more interesting.

 

Probably most John Prine fans know how he got started, how Roger Ebert walked out of a Chicago movie theatre because the popcorn was too salty — true or not, I love that detail, because it sounds like it came from a John Prine song — and into a little club where he saw this young guy with a scratchy voice and a steady picking hand, three years out of the Army and working as a mailman, singing songs that he wrote. Ebert went home and rushed out a rave review that, among other things, pointed out that Prine's work was notable for its complete lack of narcissism. Shortly after, Kristofferson showed up to marvel at him, strings were pulled ... and within a year, the mailman was a star. 

It’s one of music’s most authentic Cinderella stories, but there is something more to be gleaned from it than the fact that sometimes the good guy wins and the poor boy gets lucky. I think often about the fact that Prine was a soldier, a mailman. In fact he wrote most of his first album — a perfect album — on his mail route. This should serve to makes us mindful of how the mail carrier passing by the yard, the woman pushing the shopping cart with three kids in tow, the guy that fixes your car, the kid on the corner in the cheap shoes … any of these people could be geniuses, filled with strange beauty, wisdom, striking images and shards of poetry. 

But there will never be another John Prine: someone who's idea of an inspiring figure, worthy of an immortal song, was a tired woman washing dishes.

John Prine Fans Official