The Alien Legacy (1999), documentary about 1979 ALIEN film
89,862
Published 2016-05-03
There is doc. material in this feature exclusive to it (found nowhere else).
1 hr 8 min (68 min)
Aspect ratio: 1.33 : 1
TheDigitalBits.com -- back in 1999 -- said this:
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All in all, this is a good look into the making of the original Alien. The documentary boasts new interviews with Ridley Scott, Ron Cobb, H. R. Giger, Dan O'Bannon and others. It's a bit talking-heady, and could probably have been trimmed. But if you're interested in a behind-the-scenes look, particularly at the production design, then this is well worth a watch. I'm not sure I'd buy the whole set just to get this disc, but I'm sure glad I have it.
The shot-on-video quality is generally very good, intercut with film excerpts and older documentary clips. The audio is in stereo, and sounds fine. There are no extras, no chapters, and no main menu - you simply put the disc in your player, and away it goes. On my DVD screener copy, the subtitles defaulted to on - a minor inconvenience. The disc also arrived in a slip-sleeve, of the type that CD-ROMs are often packaged in.
All Comments (21)
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Dan O'Bannon maybe one of the most underrated man in the face of all film making. Rest In Peace Dan.
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I was 11 in 1979. My brother was 15, and our dad knew his boys loved sci-fi more than sports (much to his chagrin, but he got over it) and took us to Menlo Park, NJ opening week. I had been reading about the production in Starlog magazine and was lamenting the fact that I knew it was going to be rated R when it came out… I never thought I would get to see it. This is gonna sound nuts 44 years later, but I can still remember where my brother and I were (hanging out in the basement, probably playing Atari) when our dad came in and said, “you guys want to see this movie Alien? It looks scary.” I remember waiting with umbrellas in the rain outside the theater. Man, what a time to be alive. And I must have seen this perfect, perfect movie somewhere around 30 times by now…
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There are only a handful of movies you can say are truly timeless, and ALIEN is one of them....
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The kind of special effects used for 'Alien' and John Carpenters 'The Thing' are better than the CGI used in film today. It feels like they're more realistic and far more impressive than over the top digital graphics. If I had to name a perfect film it would be Alien.
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I first watched this movie crossing the Pacific on a cargo ship in flat calm weather, after dinner, on 16mm film and the parallels with the situation of the NOSTROMO as the film opened were striking: we were all drawn in instantly. There were 2 wives watching and after the chest-bursting scene, they watched the rest of the movie from behind the sofa. I was duty engineer that night, responsible for doing an engine-room inspection at midnight after everyone except the duty deck officer on the bridge had gone to bed. As the film was wound back at the end, the Chief Engineer put his hand gently on my shoulder and said "Be careful down on the engine-room tonight John". I have watched all the Alien and Prometheus franchise films and to my mind nothing measures up to the atmosphere and impact of that first film.
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This has to be the best documentary I've seen about Alien.
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As much as I love the Alien films (I have the first 3 films on DVD from 1999), I never knew this documentary on DVD existed until 2020. Thanks for posting it up.
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I think the best part of this documentary is the first 5 minutes talking with the writers. And the parts about Geiger were entertaining
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As a long time fan of Alien I thought I'd seen every documentary made but I have never seen this gem. The section with John Mollo about costumes and that with the gentleman who owns the various practical objects are fascinating and now, in 2023, I am still blown away by this movie. Long live Alien and I hope it is still discussed a hundred years from now. Many thanks for uploading this.
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I really think the music is just as beautiful as the movie is.
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I'm not the biggest sci-fi movie fan in the world but Alien is one of my favourite films and one of the greatest movies ever made. It's more horror than sci-fi, which is probably why I love it so much. Aliens is different but equally as good in my opinion. The first film uses the viewers imagination and genuine terror which is true of most great horror movies. I'm sure a lot of it was to do with the limitations the film makers had at the time but it really worked and produced one of the most atmospheric and truly terrifying films of all time.
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Excellent documentary been searching for this for years. Hard to track down the DVD as well. This is great for us Alien fans.
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The overall effect is the photography. The creation of set building without any assistance of any digital platform. Ultimately, when you consider the time that it was made, it was way ahead of anything. , I have to say that the monster is so believable, that it lives in so many peoples heads in nightmares. Overall, it's the work of multiple geniuses, which includes art and direction combined.
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Wow. This is great. There is much conceptual art and a few publicity stills I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen before. That full cast shot 17:00 is freaking awesome. I met Sigourney once briefly at the Williamstown theater festival in the 80s. I was struck by how tall she was back then, and hadn’t thought about it until seeing this picture. She is such a legend.
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I laughed out loud when Ridley Scott said they were not sure if they wanted to meet Giger in person. Makes a lot of sense: Would you really like to be in closed room with a guy with THAT in his head?
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Ironically, I’ve likely watched this on VHS more often then Alien itself…
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Brilliant documentary. The best movie ever made in my opinion and my favourite of all time.
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One of the best sci fi horror movies ever made
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If only all the other alien movies could be as "quiet" and atmmospheric as the first
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I truly adore the Alien film. The first one looks so authentic. It feels like you are trapped inside a documentary. I spent the last 10 years working in offshore oil rigs and production platforms as a paramedic. The industrial look and feel, the chatter between crew members, so matter of fact. I put Alien on at bedtime and drift off to sleep at the slow intro and ethereal musical score. I live in Thailand and as I drift off there is sometimes a Thai lady laying next to me playing on her phone, not really paying attention to the 75 inch flat screen... Until the chest burster scene... LOL!!!
