#1979 films

[adamwatchesmovies]

Meteor (1979)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

Say what you will about 1998’s Armageddon. Its science is laughable, the sentimentality is cheap, the premise raises at least a couple of eyebrows… but one thing it isn’t is boring. The same can't be said about 1979’s Meteor. This space disaster film is likely to put you to sleep and the one thing it had going for it at the time - the special effects - don’t hold up today.

A comet passes through the Asteroid Belt and hits the asteroid Orpheus, sending it on a collision course with Earth. The United States government has only days to find a way to deflect or destroy it before Orpheus creates an extinction-level event. Our best hope rests in Hercules, a secret orbiting nuclear missile platform satellite designed by Dr. Paul Bradley (Sean Connery).

Let’s get one thing out of the way first. This title is awful. Orpheus is not a meteorite; it’s an asteroid. Why’d they call the film Meteor instead of Asteroid? Probably because the studio didn’t want their movie to sound like a butt thing. This movie is much too serious for that sort of nonsense.

While I appreciate a science fiction film trying to remain realistic, Meteor takes it too far. This story has no race to find a solution. Everything we need to save ourselves is already built. Hercules was designed to knock out space threats and doesn’t even require a pilot. How is there any tension then? Well, Hercules is a secret (illegal) missile base. Admitting it exists - even in the face of armageddon - would be embarrassing for the United States government. This means even though Hercules is our only hope, Major General Adlon (Martin Landau) fights Dr. Bradley every step of the way. World’s gonna end but, you know. Gotta hold onto those Cold War grudges. That’s what the movie is REALLY about. The U.S. has Hercules. They figure the USSR has something similar. On their own, neither station would have the firepower required to blast the space rock but together they would. If only we could come together in peace and harmony…

The movie is frustrating because it takes so long to get to the obvious. This movie is no Dr. Strangelove; it’s not funny or subversive. There aren’t any surprises, no unexpected twists. All you do is wait for people to get over their childish hang-ups. Even Dr. Paul Bradley is acting like a big baby. He’s all upset that the government hijacked his satellite and changed it so the missiles aim TOWARD the planet instead of away. Fair enough but come on, man. The planet’s about to blow up. Unless you’re in a weird state of depression or you don't think there's any point in living unless you're a billionaire and want to hold the planet ransom, there’s no point stalling. Just get on the project and save the world. You’ve got a family. Do it for them. Do it for the audience so we can get this over with and move on.

Meteor doesn’t have a story worth watching. It doesn’t have visuals worth seeing either. The small asteroids that end up falling on Earth (the film’s attempts to keep us awake while we wait for the main event) are just glowing balls that go past the screen. The destruction is nothing special (the fact that director Donald Neame uses footage from the 1978 disaster film Avalanche isn’t worth docking points from the overall score, but does show that we’re not talking spectacular in the least). The main asteroid is just a big cragly rock floating in space. It’s no sight to behold. In theory, the characters would pick up the slack. You’d be so worried about them, so invested in their character arcs this would feel like a big deal (it worked for Titanic) but you won’t care about any of this.

With a star-studded cast that includes Natalie Wood and Henry Fonda, it’s a surprise this disaster flick only sparks to life towards the end, when it’s so cloying you can kind of smirk in a mixture of amusement and embarrassment. Meteor is the kind of movie you barely manage to watch once and then forget you ever did. (On VHS, September 26, 2021)

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

Toyah Willcox as Miranda in Derek Jarman's 1979 version of Shakespeare's The Tempest.

[reallybadblackoutpoems]

imagination (1963) - harold ordway rugg

"chekhovs cat / schrödingers razor / occams gun"

[brandyrobbinscyberpunk]

Sigourney Weaver photographed by Helmut Newton, 1983.

[deputyrook]

“It is women who love horror. Gloat over it. Feed on it. Are nourished by it. Shudder and cling and cry out-and come back for more.” ― Bela Lugosi

[driveintheaterofthemind]

On The Set - Kermit And Miss Piggy Visit Yoda

The Empire Strikes Back (1979)

[gameraboy2]

Alien (1979)

[bisexualseraphim]

Alien (1979) is my favourite horror film primarily based on the fact Ripley literally risks getting slaughtered by a creature she knows nothing about or fucking blown up on the ship just to rescue her kitty cat. The character of all time

[superectojazzmage]

Just back from Alien Romulus and hoooo boy oh boy. Review/analysis.

Easily the best Alien movie since the first two, which isn't saying much, yeah, but it is legit a really cool and well-made movie, competing with Late Night With The Devil, Longlegs, and Cuckoo for title of my favorite horror movie this year.

In a lot of ways it's about harvesting the few good ideas from the post-2 movies that were squandered and doing them right, plus getting the series back to it's healthier roots, kinda the movie equivalent of someone doing physical therapy to get back in the saddle after an injury. This means it's not quite brand new ground like some may hope for and I've heard some people feel it gets a little derivative at points because of it. I can kinda agree and certainly understand that criticism, but I feel it does what it's aiming for really well and sets things up for future works to go in even crazier directions. Furthermore, it takes a lot of time to try and weld together the disparate post-2 movies in a way that brings the series back to a little coherency.

The atmosphere is really intense and cool, swinging between lovecraftian dread and build-up and high-energy chaos. The aesthetics and special effects are gorgeous, taking full advantage of the progress that technology has made since 2 plus really digging in to the used cassette future vibe of the older films. The characters are likable and actually intelligent (or at least understandable) in behavior like in the first two movies, so you care about what's happening to them instead of just waiting for them to get munched. The action and kills were really cool and creative, the cinematography in general was off-kilter in an awesome way - there's a definite attempt to make the movie feel claustrophobic and intimate. Fede Alvarez did a fantastic job in general, I'd love to see him do more with the series.

It REALLY cranks up the series' psychosexual, freudian, and sexual assault subtext, arguably to a point where it's just plain text. So if you're sensitive to stuff like that or if this is your first go at Alien, be warned for that.

More specific notes go under the header for spoilers. Highly recommend you go in as blind as you can.

Andy and Rain were wonderful leads, their dynamic was fantastic and Calie Spaeny and David Jonsson both turned in great performances. I direly hope they join the first two films' casts as "major" characters for the series going forward.

The effects to make Daniel Betts look like Ian Holms were quite possibly the one and only time the special effects failed. It looks very wonky, which is sad because Betts does a really good job copying Holms' mannerisms for Ash while still making Rook feel like a distinct character.

In addition to the usual themes of sexual unease, genetics, and parenthood, this movie adds in some really interesting themes of familial legacy, the rise of new generations, foundations, etc.. Andy and Rain are like Romulus and Remus of myth, orphaned and left to fend for themselves but growing into founders of a new age - both in-story with their carrying the XX121 substance and evidence of Weyland-Yutani's misdeeds to Yvaga and out-of-story with them being the protagonists of a new era for Alien. Likewise, the Offspring is the first example of an entirely new species, neither human nor alien but taking from the lineages of both through Kay and Big Chap, a Romulus-like founder of it's breed that will later bear fruit in Resurrection with the Ripley clone and Newborn.

I'm really not kidding when I say above that the psychosexual undercurrents are taken to the extreme here. This movie basically sees the ways the original film subtly pin-pricked at those themes, says "fuck that", and deliberately rubs it in your face in a way designed to make sure you can't ignore it. It wants you to be grossed out and to squirm in your chair and it knows exactly how to make it happen.

Alvarez noted in the lead-up to release that he took a lot of influence from Isolation and you can definitely see that in how he depicts the Xenomorphs and the general aura of the film. He further described it as a kind of halfway point between the first and second movies and you can also see that; it has the Lovecraft-style tension and horror of the first, balanced with the energy and action of the second, and it does a really good job finding a middle ground between Ridley Scott and James Cameron's styles while also doing it's own dance.

I mentioned way back at the start how the movie basically harvests the good ideas from 3, Resurrection, Prometheus, and Covenant and gives them the room they deserve while dumping the bad. It does that in both terms of themes/style and continuity/lore. Concepts that those movies bungled like xeno-human hybridism, the black goo, genetic engineering as a focus, and so on are done here more creatively and competently. Themes that those films tried and failed to tackle are handled with significantly more grace. It has the atmosphere and characterization of 3 but none of it's baggage and needlessly depressive tone. It has the body horror and weirdness of Resurrection without taking it to the zany, embarrassing areas that movie went. The effects and creativity of Prometheus and Covenant without any of their awful writing and clumsy messages. Alvarez takes on kind of an Al Ewing-esque "repairman" writing style here.

The Xenomorphs are absolutely deranged in behavior compared to most portrayals, attacking like either cruel sadists or raging chimps and rarely bothering to take hosts. I'm not sure if such a reading was intended, but I got the vibe that the idea is Xenos raised without a queen or hive grow to be basically sociopathic like how real world predatory animals grown without parental figures become feral and dysfunctional. Which would also explain a lot about how the Xeno in the original movie, Big Chap, acts there.

The Offspring's design is fucking wicked and I love it.

One of my few major criticisms is that Big Chap died off-screen instead of getting more to do. What was the point of having him be alive at the start if he wasn't gonna be used beyond a backstory point to set up the main story?

All in all, a very impressive effort and a great return to form for the series that I recommend highly.

[atomic-chronoscaph]

The Shining - On-set photographs (c. 1979)

[adamwatchesmovies]

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

From The Shawshank Redemption to The Great Escape, stories of innocent or righteous people scratching together the means to regain their freedom is both captivating and emotional. Unlike most films, Escape from Alcatraz doesn’t “cheat” by giving us a softie of a protagonist. Without a doubt, the people in this film deserve to be jailed. Ultimately, you don't care because of the ingenuity in their plan and the fact that it’s based on a real-life story. Tense all the way through and with a terrific ending, it’s one of the best prison escape films.

In early 1960, Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) is sentenced to the maximum security prison on Alcatraz Island. Having escaped capture many times, Frank is undeterred by the exceedingly high security measures and strict warden (Patrick McGoohan) who assures him no one’s ever made it out.

Alcatraz isn’t merely a prison; it’s a hell hole. While there are some who certainly deserve everything the guards and warden throw at the inmates, such as a rapist called Wolf (Bruce M. Fischer), many of the prisoners are sympathetic; victims of an unfair system (Paul Benjamin is serving dual life sentences for killing two white men in self-defence) or clearly reformed by the time we meet them. Alcatraz doesn’t see it that way. The objective is not to rehabilitate. It’s to make lives miserable. In fact, the warden makes a point to punish those he oversees based on how he feels about them rather than the way the justice system sees them. He’s not a cartoon but his smugness means he deserves to be knocked down a peg. That’s where Morris comes in. The odds are stacked against our protagonist. It’ll take inhuman levels of ingenuity to escape from the prison. Some of his tactics are so wild, it’ll make you feel like a moron. You think the operation will be as simple as Morris, his accomplices John and Clarence Anglin (Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau) and the fourth conspirator, Charley Butts (Larry Hankin) stealing a power tool to break through the bars at night but no. They’re going to have to MAKE the tools they need - out of nothing.

The space the escapees have to maneuver in is so tight, you’re constantly wondering what will go wrong. Clever as it might be, their plan is literally put together with bits of loose paper, paint, and mud. It just barely crosses the line into doable and the tiniest detail out of place will make the whole thing fall apart. While there might not be anything that prevents them from trying again should they fail, so much effort is being put into this attempt you can’t bear the idea of it failing. You want to see the phases work just so you can see what to see what comes next.

It’s probably better that you don’t know beforehand what actually happened on the night of June 11, 1962. The FBI’s position on the events are clear and unfortunately, they don’t make for a cinematic ending. This is where the film proves to be as ingenious as its protagonist. It’s a terrific final note.

Escape from Alcatraz deftly maneuvers over the obstacles it might’ve faced to deliver wall-to-wall thrills. Against all odds, you like the characters. You like them even more when you see what kind of plan they’ve got cooked up and you can’t wait to see it executed. It's one of these stories that's so wild it HAS to be true, which makes it a real nail-biter. (March 27, 2020)

[do-you-know-this-cat]

Do You Know This Cat?

[pedroam-bang]

Ellen Louise Ripley as warrant officer aboard the USCSS Nostromo

Alien (1979)

[sacredwhores]

Michael Haneke - Lemmings, Part II: Injuries (1979)

[brandyrobbinscyberpunk]

Incredible poster for Aliens by Krzysztof Domaradzki

[folksy]

creatures of horror

pumpkinhead (1988) / brain damage (1988) / alien (1979) / the thing (1981) / possession (1981) / eraserhead (1977) / the fly (1986) / basket case (1982) / beetlejuice (1988)