A lot of you have seen the one video with the frog sitting like a human being on the bench, right? Well, some say the frog is nailed to the bench or glued. This simply isn't so. You can see another example of a frog doing this video link.

The "Alien" taking a break during the filming of Alien( 1979), the drawing and concept of which was created by artist, H.R. Giger. A Mr. Bolaji Badejo, who happened to be a 7’ 2” Nigerian engineering student, portrayed the creature. As luck would have it, Badejo was discovered by the casting director while he stopped in to get a drink at a local bar [McIntree 2005]. (See the original trailer under the references list at the conclusion of this entry.)

Alien (1979), was a major motion picture directed by Ridley Scott. It stars a very youthful Sigourney Weaver (Ripley), acclaimed English actor, John Hunt (Kane), Ian Holm (Ash), Yaphet Kotto (Parker), Tom Skerrit (Dallas), Veronica Cartwright (Lambert) and Harry Stanton (Brett). Sigourney Weaver whose portrayal of “Ripley” is fantastic. She is the heroine in the film and eventual lone survivor. Weaver would receive numerous awards for her acting in this film, along with the film itself, which collected numerous awards including an Academy Award for special effects.

Ingeniously written, Alien proposes space travel in the future will be made by private funded industry rather than some type of a-typical government exploration project. While long distance space travel was not a new concept in 1979 by a long shot, the idea that private corporations would be the driving force in space travel to harvest resources from other planets, was largely unexplored in sci-fi. Interestingly enough, a recent article just came out that corporations are now looking at the possibility of mining asteroids [Daytona Journal 2012].

PLOT

The film focuses on a interstellar mining team on board the private space ship, Nostromo returning to earth with mined minerals from the planet Theodus. While in an induced sleep stasis, the team is awakened by the ship’s computer, “Mother”, after detecting what appears to be a distress signal coming from an uncharted planetoid later named “LV-426” [LV-426 2012]. Upon landing, a few team members search out on foot to investigate the source of the signal. Kane, who is one of the crew on foot, soon discovers an area in the crashed ship containing what he sees as large eggs protected under a layer of blue colored mist that he says, “reacts when broken”. While studying the eggs one begins to open before his eyes, and a projection shoots from it quickly penetrating his helmet and attaches permanently to his face. Kane is knocked unconscious from the entity and is quickly rushed back to the Nostromo. Meanwhile, Ripley who is on board the Nostromo is told by the computer, "Mother", that the transmission is not a distress but in fact a type some type of warning to keep away. As the survey team returns Ripley immediately acts on protocol and refuses to let them reenter the Nostromo with Kane in the condition he is in fearing it may spread to the crew on board. After pleading relentlessly to let them in, her shady crew mate (later revealed to be a malfunctioning android)Ash opens up the door and allows the crew members back in to get help for Kane. While Kane is observed in the crew's sickbay by Ash and Dallas, the entity most often referred to as a ‘facehugger’[McIntree 2005], and decide not to remove it fearing that it may kill Kane. Unbeknownst to the crew (other than the bad android, Ash) Kane is host to a growing alien parasite inside his body. Soon there after the 'facehugger' entity drops off of Kane's face, Kane soon recovers and joins his crewmembers for dinner. What happens next is nothing more than movie making history. While eating dinner with his crew mates, Kane goes into a seizure like frenzy while taking a bite of food. He falls back on the table, continues to gyrate and scream in pain, and before the crew's eyes his chest begins to bleed and burst open under his t-shirt. After hearing a loud cracking sound the crew members are in shock as they witness the "birth" of an gnarling, grinning, phallic shaped baby alien as it bursts forth spewing everyone with Kane's blood in the process. This horrific draw dropping scene sets the pace for the coming battle with the growing alien (that quickly escaped from the dinner table) on board the Nostromo .

Alien And Its Franchise

Alien would eventually become a huge franchise. While not as popular as Star Wars (1977) in popular culture, Alien can be argued to be as popular in the science fiction fan community. In fact, it became so popular with sci-fi fans that it was mingled with the Predator (1987) franchise that Arnold Schwarzenegger initially made famous. Speaking of Star Wars, the writing for Alien is credited to the late sci-fi writer, Dan O'Bannon. O'Bannon worked as the main special computer effects guy in Star Wars [Film Reference 2012].

The sequel to Alien was "Aliens" (1986). It was directed by James Cameron who had just become famous for his direction with the hit movie, The Terminator (1984) starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Aliens takes up where the original film ended, except having Ripley lost in sleep stasis for about six decades after the original finale. Rescued from her drifting escape pod/ship, she is interviewed before her employer, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, (also known as, “The company”. The company board members decide that her story is implausible. Ripley loses her position, and is demoted from any future space travel. Meanwhile we learn the original planet where the alien eggs were first encountered has become an earth colony. Contact with the colony is lost by the company, and Ripley is called to travel, and to investigate since she is the only person who might know how to combat such a creature, if it truly exists.

Aliens was in my opinion a really good sequel and like its predecessor, won lots of awards. It has some very memorable lines, and the character of Ripley is portrayed flawlessly by Weaver. Sadly, the franchise just seems to go downhill after this. By the third sequel the writing went in the wrong direction, and drifted too far from O’Bannon’s original story line. Alien: Resurrection is by far the worst in the Alien franchise. As the fourth installment of the franchise, Ripley's character is made into this clone of her former self which died in a suicidal plunge in molten lead from the previous film. So technically while it is still Sigourney Weaver, this introduces a brand new character to the franchise and a very poor decision. Her acting in the 4th story had no spark to it, and it appeared as if she was struggling with her new role in many of the scenes. Frankly, I just pretend that Alien 3 (1992) and Alien: Resurrection never existed. Much in the same way we pretend that Highlander II (1991) never happened, - (never watch Highlander II to save your life, folks).

A Prequel?

With all that said about disliking sequels so much, I am excited to hear about the next film in the Alien franchise! This time it will be based on the original creature we see briefly in the spacecraft found on the planetoid, “LV-426”. Nicknamed the “Space Jockey”, [Mala'kak 2012] this is the giant of a creature that was petrified in what appears to be some sort of cockpit type chair. This is supposedly going to work as a prequel to the original expedition, from what I understand. It will be titled, Prometheus and will hit theaters in June of this year (2012). (See the Prometheus (2012) trailer in a new window by clicking here) The best part about the new Prometheus film is that Ridley Scott is returning as the director, and the first time he has returned to the franchise since the original! It is going to be interesting to see where he goes with this new part of the franchise.

There is something special about a movie classic that stands alone. In my humble opinion, making Alien into the numerous sequels and spin offs it accumulated took away from the original character it possessed. However, I have to admit that Alien gets filed away in my list as the top sci-fi movie franchises so far. Let us hope with the new prequel that Ridley Scott can give us that same kind of movie magic we got in 1979.

Sources:

Film Reference “Dan O'Bannon Biography” 2012 [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.filmreference.com/film/40/Dan-O-Bannon.html. Last accessed 28 April 2012.

LV-426 - Alien Species Wiki - Aliens, UFOs, Space aliens. 2012 [ONLINE] Available at:http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/LV-426. [Accessed 30 April 2012].

Mala'kak - Alien Species Wiki - Aliens, UFOs, Space aliens. 2012 [ONLINE] Available at:http://aliens.wikia.com/wiki/Mala'kak. [Accessed 30 April 2012].

McIntree, David, 2005. Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to the Alien and Predator Movies. 1 Edition. Telos Publishing.

Paul Scanlon, 2012. The Book of Alien. Edition. Titan Books.

Prometheus (2012) - IMDb. 2012. Prometheus (2012) - IMDb. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/. [Accessed 30 April 2012].

The Daytona Beach News Journal “Asteroid-mining ventures could open a new frontier” - Opinion. 2012. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.news-journalonline.com/opinion/editorials/n-j-editorials/2012/04/30/asteroid-mining-ventures-could-open-a-new-frontier.html. [Accessed 25April 2012].

The Band’s final performance was filmed on Thanksgiving Day in San Francisco, California in 1976 by Director, Martin Scorsese, and was released in 1978. Titled, The Last Waltz [MGM 1978] it was praised by critics as one of the greatest rock band movies (if not the greatest) of all time [Chicago Times 2002]. This film is chock full of the best of the best musicians of that era with a few of them still making music today. The film was made at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco, and of course was made for the group’s final performance. There were many influential artists present during the making of the film with folks like Van Morrison, Mississippi Delta Blues legend, Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Neil Diamond, Eric Clapton, John Denver, Neil Young, Dr. John and many more. It is simply a wonderful period picture of rock Americana because it gives you a personal look into the lives of the members of the band along with a sound stage with so many musicians performing in their prime.

While I did not personally grow up in the Mississippi Delta, my mother was born and raised there, and my Father was born not too far way in the Red Hills region of the state. Levon Helm was born just over the river in the Arkansas region of the Mississippi Delta and spent his youth in a small farming town. As both of my parents were heavily influenced by the life they had growing up as children, it is easy to see where helm was influenced with his music. I am not sure if it was the lifestyle there at the time with the hard work, or maybe just something in the water, but there is no doubt that Mississippi and the Mississippi Delta has produced some of the finest musical talents and music genres. In fact, Rock and Roll itself owes its origins because of the Delta. Anyone that has studied the Blues knows that it was the predecessor to rock and roll. It had to drift over the Atlantic and return before it was called that, but rock and roll nonetheless.

When listening to Helm’s voice, it has a throaty, expressive and heart felt emotion to it. It is like you can visualize where the man came from just from his songs, and sense the feeling of what he was expressing. The Band’s famous themed song about the civil war was an instant hit to the listeners and quickly copied by many other musicians. It was a hit not just because it had some new catchy sound to it, but because of the raw feeling and emotion Helm put into it. Like most people who know how to appreciate good music, it is never hard to predict what kind of singer will come up with an instant classic. I have always said that if a person can just sing from the heart with genuine feeling and emotion, that it will do well, - Helm did just that with this song and he did it perfectly. The words to the song lends to the listener a vivid imagery to a time and place in history that does not exist any longer, yet we can still feel the pain expressed by Helm as if it happened only yesterday. A portion of the song lyrics read,

Like my father before me, I will work the land. Like my brother above me, who took a rebel stand. He was just 18, proud and brave, but a Yankee laid him in his grave. I swear by the mud below my feet, you can’t raise a Caine back up when he’s in defeat.

It is highly important to note that Joan Baez’s version of the song, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down is not sung correctly. She changed the meaning of the words, obviously not intentionally, and took away its meaning. I will not go into detail on all of it, but I just want to stress to you, the reader, that The Band’s version of the song is what it should be. One example is where Levon sings, ” Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train ‘Til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again…” and Baez sings, “Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train ’til so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again.” Baez interpretation of the song is all wrong, and takes away from the importance of the words by making Virgil the man who drove the train. By doing this, she took away the fact that Virgil was a Confederate soldier who guarded or was positioned near a rail line. Then she sings, “til so much cavalry came.” This also negates the songs meaning because Stoneman was in fact a Union Cavalry General by the name of George Stoneman who would raid into Virginia and thwart the South by tearing up the railroad tracks,[Stoneman 2012] but I digress…

As a child I remember riding down the road and hearing it on the AM radio in our VW Beetle. My mother would always sing to me or anyone that cared to listen, and while at the time I hated to hear her sing, I supposed I would do anything to hear her voice today. It is always nice to hear an old song on the radio now and have it bring back some memory from our youth, - I really miss music like this and this song always does that for me.

Levon was called up today, for his time with us was done; he passed away after a long battle with cancer. His memory will not be soon forgotten, and I am certain many people across the world mourn the loss of such a great and inspirational singer. Levon died at 1:30PM on April 19, 2012 in New York, where he had resided for many years.

Goodbye Levon, you will be missed by a lot of us.

Sources:

George Stoneman: Civil War General and California Governor. 2012. George Stoneman: Civil War General and California Governor. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.militarymuseum.org/Stoneman.html. [Accessed 19 April 2012].

MGM’s Official Site for The Last Waltz - Released Apr 26, 1978. 2012. MGM’s Official Site for The Last Waltz - Released Apr 26, 1978. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.mgm.com/view/Movie/1092/The-Last-Waltz/. [Accessed 19 April 2012].

‘The Last Waltz’ –chicagotribune.com 2012. Movie review, ‘The Last Waltz’ - chicagotribune.com, Wilmington M., [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/mmx-16264_lgcy,0,5298290.story. [Accessed 19 April 2012].