Alien, and why Ridley Scott deserves the hype

I like some of his newer movies (Gladiator is pretty fun), but Ridley Scott deserves the buzz that surrounds his science-fiction films more than anything else. Bladerunner and Alien were not just groundbreaking and immensely influential (in terms of lighting, special effects, and themes), but also managed to take a genre out of the absurd and adolescent and humanize it. We do not just like Alien and Bladerunner because of the robots and aliens--though they are surely beautifully assembled, free of the yoke of CGI--but also because their characters are immensely human and his science-fiction films do what all sci-fi purportedly seeks to: they describe intricately what is unique about being human and the perils and pitfalls of connection between us. Rick endangers himself (assuming he is not a Replicant) in Bladerunner by falling for the dazzling Rachel--it is an irrational relationship but (and perhaps thus) a richly human one. Likewise, Alien is full of situations wherein rationality might have saved them. The robot's clear (but heartless) mind is contrasted with the cat-loving, friend-adoring humans who keep getting whacked. Move over, George Lucas, sci-fi films can be dark and scary on the one hand, and profound at the same time. The two are not mutually exclusive.