Thirty years ago I was 9. I was still dizzy with anti­cip­a­tion for Empire Strikes Back and was in awe of the spe­cial effects of Star Trek: The Motion Pic­ture (the dry­dock scene has one of the best beauty shots of any space­ship — ever). I was only mar­gin­ally aware of another cine­matic phe­nomenon that was unleashed on the pub­lic in 1979: Alien.

It wasn’t until I was 12 that I was first exposed to this film via the comic book adapt­a­tion by Heavy Metal, Alien: The Illus­trated Story. The typo­graphy on the first inner spread made such an impact on me that I redrew it over and over again (little did I know at the time that it would gradu­ally lead to my cur­rent love of type as well!). I also remem­ber a friend of mine at school has the same book, although his par­ents had gone through it with a black marker and cen­sored all the swear­ing — I hadn’t actu­ally noticed the swear­ing until I saw his copy!

I can’t remem­ber the first time I saw the film. All I remem­ber is that I watched it when it was shown on the TV, very late at night. I must have been about 13–14 as it used to take about five years for cinema releases to find their way onto the telly. I was instantly in love with the film, even though I kind of knew the plot from the comic book. But the book was noth­ing like the film. The way it was shot, the madly unusual space­ship, the lived-in tech­no­logy (it felt like it was real!) and the Alien itself …

It was one of the quint­es­sen­tial films of my youth and one that has stayed with me over the years. It seems like all the great SF films came out in the late 70s and early 80s, but that may just be my nos­tal­gia vis­ion kick­ing in — these films shaped much of my life and I am richer for it!

Any­way, enjoy the trailer and — more import­antly — put the DVD in your player now; kick back and enjoy!

Alien trailer