***SPOILER ALERT for Alien 1-3 and Bladerunner****
****Trigger warning***
Alien (1979), Ridley Scott (2004, Director’s Cut)
In Alien
(1979) there are a number of sexual and gender concepts developed in the text
that not only counter traditional gender roles, but also play off notions of
sexual orientation, rape etc.
The Lambert ‘rape’ scene is particularly
interesting as it is not shown and
left mainly up to audience interpretation. This being said the little that is
shown is therefore highly significant. The creeping claw of the tail onto
Lambert’s leg is particularly reminiscent of phallic symbols and the many shots
of Lambert standing paralysed with fear, mark her as a traditional helpless
female character. Interestingly the Lambert rape sequence is experienced
through Ripley’s perspective, through hearing Lambert’s cries, Parker’s
continuous screams for her to ‘Get out of the road’ and ‘Run’. Finally we see
Parker’s body on the ground and a shot of Lambert’s bare feet, presumably as
she hangs from the ceiling.
The interesting thing about the Lambert rape
scene is it’s absence, I think it makes it much more interesting that we don’t
see the alien ‘rape’ Lambert, if in fact that is what happened (open to
interpretation) particularly after only a few scenes previous we see the ‘Ash/
Ripley Rape Scene’ where Ash pursues and attacks Ripley, chasing her as she
crawls on all fours, rips out her hair and then as she appears somewhat
peaceful as she is knocked unconscious he callously takes what appears to be a
porn magazine and tries to suffocate
her. In this ‘rape’ scene Ash is the clinical machine, revealed later to be a
‘robot’ that appears to be punishing Ripley for her human emotions, but also
her apparent lack of them. This is how, I will establish that Ripley as a
mainly androgynous character, and a strong female character that appears very
logical and asexual (androgynous) is ‘punished’ for her lack of sexuality and failure to
conform to gender roles. Ash represents technology and it’s rape of women?
Identity? The magazine is a phallic symbol substituting for penetration,
depicting Ash as an asexual machine, who is impotent and must substitute his
manhood, with a pornographic magazine.
Another interesting note on gender roles is
the fact that the ship’s computer is named ‘mother’. In a sense Ash and
‘mother’ the computer both represent technology in an androgynous manner, while
still representing the creators, such as adam and eve. Both Ash and Mother are
cold and clinical in decisions. In particular near the end of the film Ripley
asks Mother to turn the cooling back on, but when no response comes Ripley
yells in frustration “You Bitch”. In Alien (1979), technology is the ‘bitch’
the cold, calculating ‘enemy’ which unfortunately gets somewhat undone by James
Cameron in Aliens (1986) where Ripley
says “Get away from her you bitch!” and so substituting the ‘bitch’ onto the
alien itself, the alien queen.
Ripley’s character in Alien (1979) is a round character the develops throughout the film.
Initially she seems cold and a ‘bitch’, not that well liked, particularly doesn’t
get along very well with Parker and Lambert. Ripley’s rational decision to not
allow Kane, Lambert and Captain not back on board seems cold and harsh
particularly in contrast with Lambert’s hysterical emotional response in the
Director’s cut where she violently slaps Ripley screaming ‘You were going to
leave us’ and crying. Whereas the theatrical seems a little empty and cold,
with no reference to Ripley’s decision. In this sequence Ash is the betrayer,
disobeying orders in order (it seems) to save Kane, Lambert and Captain, and in
this early part of the film this seems to indicate he is more human than
Ripley. As it is later revealed that Ash is in fact a robot and his true
motives are revealed, his actions seem less or more human, either representing
humanities greed and dark side, or the cold calculating of a humanless,
emotionless machine seen especially in Ash’s admiration for the alien, in it’s
‘purity’ ‘perfection’.
The rape of women who do not conform to
traditional gender roles and stereotypes is prevalent in Ridley Scott’s films. Blade Runner (1982) is one particularly
prevalent example. A much more obvious ‘rape’ scene occurs between Decker and
Rachael. Some have interpreted this as Decker showing his ‘love’ and ‘desire’
for Rachael and wooing her into intimacy, but in the face of it, it plays out
like a rape scene, with little or no dialogue, Rachel coldly takes Decker’s
kiss on the neck before pulling away, Decker’s face is stern and intense.
Rachael tries to leave, but Decker blocks the door, not only blocking her
escape but actually pushing her against the wall. Her forces her embrace and it
appears to stir Rachael’s desire and consent. Some have tried to argue that
Decker has successfully humanised Rachel by demonstrating his desire for her.
Instead it dehumanises her to a sex object that is forced into sex, by the
dominant man, and her cold demeanour only reinforces stereotypes of the frigid
virgin that must be coerced, but ‘really wants it’. Whether Ridley Scott has
some repressed hatred for women is not relevant, but his films indicate that
female characters are punished for failure to conform to these stereotypes.
Painting a dark picture of the traditional narrative, Rachel and Decker end up
in a romantic ending ‘happily ever after’ that seems despondent.
Ripley in Alien survives her ordeal, not only overcoming her rape by
technology, being used by technology (reference to the porn industry?), but
also overcoming the alien, in it’s androgynous, yet phallic appearance. In
particular in the end sequence in the shuttle, shots of the alien’s long
fingers and long fingernails are particularly prominent. One view could be that
Ripley manages to reconcile both aspects male and female into a composite
whole, whereas Ash/ Mother and the alien are distorted malformed androgynous
concepts and therefore demonised. It is interesting that Ripley is allowed to
live (although predictable as now the "final girl" trope in horror genre). Perhaps due to her masculine demeanour. But not without the reveal of her
feminine physique in the end sequence, showing her ‘vulnerable’ in a skimpy
underwear and shirt revealing her female form. Ripley’s feminine vulnerability
is most evident in this section of the film and is reconciled by her donning
the androgynous bulky space suit in order to kill the alien by blowing it out
of the air lock. This transformation demonstrates Ripley’s integration of the
feminine and masculine.
As the film progresses Ripley’s cold
demeanour crumbles revealing a vulnerable yet more strong character.
Thankfully, the film resists the stereotypes of romance, although there is
somewhat a hint of romance between Ripley and the Captain.
Lambert represents the old female archetype
in horror cinema. Lambert is the classic female, the hysteric, crying, often
fearful and very emotional. Lambert meets a predictable death as do most
hysterical crying females who flee monsters in horror films. But despite this
her demise pushes the boundaries of these genre stereotypes in her failure to
flee the alien and the sounds of her panting and final scream, the audience is
denied the gruesome image of her death and makes it much more disturbing as it
plays on the unseen as more terrifying than the seen.
Ripley’s emotions show through more as the
film goes on, culminating in the scene with Mother and then Ash, both Mother
has betrayed her and the crew as she discovers that the crew are expendable and
the subsequent attack and ‘rape’ by Ash. Ripley at this point in the film,
crying and desperate, fleeing on all fours represents the old paradigm of woman
as victim. Recovering from this scene her interrogation of Ash and then
subsequent sequence show Ripley’s growth in strength, but also fear. No longer
vulnerable Ripley dons the masculine heavy flame thrower allowing her to adopt
a phallic symbol for herself.
We cannot forget the themes of the alien
penetrating in particular Brett via the ‘facehugger’ and then the ‘birth’ scene
or ‘chest burster’ scene. The contradiction of gender roles in this film is
amazing. Brett, a male dies after giving ‘birth’ to the alien. The film could be
deemed to be homophobic in nature or at least fearful of sodomy, with multiple
depictions of sodomy in the text.
--
Next I will discuss changes to characters
in Aliens (1986) and their effects on
the notions of gender in the series. Namely the depiction of Ripley as female
and mother, and the focus on the alien queen.
--
Alien3 (1992)
In some ways the third film in the Alien
series, has more in common stylistically and as a remake with Alien (1979) than
with Aliens (1986).
The film deals with rape and sex in more
detail, furthering these concepts from the first film. Similar to Alien (1979)
sex or rape is alluded to and not shown. Also, Alien3 furthers the themes of
rape through a number of scenes. First it is alluded to that Clemens and Ripley
have sex, although it is not shown in the film. This is the first instance of
sex in the film. The second instance is the attempted gang rape of Ripley in
the yard where she is saved by the prophet/ priest like Dillon. In terms of
gender, Ripley is further androgenized with her shaved head, her military/
prison-like clothes etc. But conversely she is feminised (made feminine) or objectified as she
is the only female in both the story in the prison and in the film itself. Her
very presence is dangerous as the prison is comprised of murderers and rapistsz
whose religious code has caused them to swear off women, in a vow of celibacy.
Ripley’s presence as a female upsets the balance of the prison, demonising her
as Other and monster aligning her with the alien/ xenomorph. She is further
aligned with the alien as she has become impregnated with the alien queen,
becoming both alien and ‘mother’. By the end of the film she has both become
‘mother’, ‘christ’ as sacrifice and monster as she has become the alien.
Ripley’s character in this film merges these aspects of female.
In the ‘rape’ sequence Ripley is not
altogether feminised as her androgynous or masculine appearance is heightened
also prominent is the fact that she appears to be raped from behind, further
distancing her, with shots of the men cutting the back of her pants. In these
shots the knife is prominent in close to mid shots, substituting/ acting as a
phallic image. Also in the scene one of the men says “Shut up bitch” which
feminises her, and continues the usage of “bitch” seen in the first two films.
The third instance of sexual reference is
when Ripley figures out that she has an alien inside her. She was impregnated
on the ship and refers to being “violated”. The main difference in this film is
the focus on human penetration and violation of Ripley whereas the first film
focused on Ash (technology) as penetrator/ rapist and the alien (androgyny) as
penetrator/ rapist. Also this film encompasses consensual sex which is a new
introduction to the series albeit with the short lived relationship between
Clemens and Ripley. It appears that Ripley used sex to distract Clemens from
inquiring too closely in Ripley’s motivations for having the bodies cremated.
It also appears that she has no real emotional ties to their sexual relationship,
except for pleasure where she states “You’re spoiling the mood”. It is
significant that the sex scene is not shown, either for rating reasons, pacing
or whatever. It is important in the context that the Alien series and other
horror films consistently substitute sex and sexual references with violence (a symptom of the rating systems culture).
With the alien itself as a prime example of sexual desire subverted into
violence.
Interestingly this film focuses on elements
of mythology and religion, referring to the alien as “Dragon” and the elements
of religious methodology evident in the character of Dillon and also in the
imagery itself, particularly in the end sequence with Ripley leaping arms
outstretched into fire, the image of Christ.
In terms of abortion symbolism, Alien 3 and
Alien Resurrection are particularly prevalent. Especially in the final sequence
of Alien 3 where the ‘real’ human Bishop arrives, and Ripley says “Stay back, I
just felt it move”. With Bishop the cold doctor, hoping to take the ‘baby’
alien and his promise of trust to destroy it. This is heightened by the costume
design of Bishop’s men in their white plastic suits.
Interesting 85 calls human Bishop “Fucking
android” which further emphasises the series theme that humans are calculating
and inhuman in their greed and desire. Similar to Bourke’s character in Aliens.
In the final scene Ripley hugs the chest
bursting alien queen close to her chest, the sacrificial Christ figure combined
with mother figure embracing her child. Her suicide/ abortion/ death in childbirth.
The film ends with the voice of Ripley from
Alien (1979) signing off.
