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As said above, most of the marketing didn't really focus on the cast much. Vintage magazine articles seemed to treat the cast members quite equally, actually, focusing on the ensemble as a whole. This wouldn't have been too out of the norm in the 70s, lots of disaster flicks and expansive dramas of the time featured big ensemble casts that had one or two "leads," but not quite The One Main Character that the movie revolves around.
It's true, though, that most audiences almost certainly would've considered Dallas the "lead" going into it. Sigourney Weaver was actually the least known of the cast at the time (it was her first major screen role if I remember right), but since she was positioned as something of a love interest I reckon it wasn't TOO surprising that she was among the survivors (most folksprobably would've guessed Dallas and Ripley along with maybe one or two other random characters would be the ones to make it); though Ripley being the only one left standing and Dallas suddenly biting it 2/3 in likely did raise some eyebrows.
I believe in the recent "Making of Alien" book it was decided against showing the topless female crew because in certain more religious countries they'd risk a higher rating.
It should be noted that in many countries film age ratings prohibit anyone at all underage from attending, where as MPAA ratings generally still allow underage patrons if they're accompanied by an adult. Also in some countries ratings are determined by a government censor board while MPAA ratings are a film industry self-regulation (as in you're not actually breaking any laws or anything if you violate them), so there are places that take ratings a lot more seriously.
BLADE RUNNER?! That was considered too slow and boring for 1982, let alone nowadays!
There are a couple drafts, but both of them are even stupider than the finished movie. Ripley has multiple fistfights with aliens, including the newborn who is more like a creature from Resident Evil. Come to think of it, his scripts read quite a bit like a Milla Jovovich-starring Resident Evil flick.
In the script there's a scene where Meurice checks out Marty's house after Abby says she thinks he's dead, and there he encounters the dog, who is hungry and growling. The next scene shows Meurice holding a bloody broken pool cue, implying that he had to kill the dog in self defense.
The tornado and the bad news from the doctor are punishments from god because Larry took the bribe. Up to this point god had actually been *rewarding* Larry throughout his life and all of Larry's perceived problems until then were all just the long-term consequences of his not doing anything to prevent them, but he was too self-centered and myopic to understand that.
If you look into the production history of Alien 3 it becomes much more understandable how it turned out the way it did. Nobody went into the project with the intention of producing such a drab film, it just slowly got funneled into that shape after years of development hell.
Basically they spent years trying to get an action-oriented sequel to Aliens based around Hicks and Bishop off the ground but simply couldn't get a satisfying script, so they finally decided instead to bring back Ripley and try for a fresh new direction. By the time the producers decided that the "surreal" direction David Twohy had come up with (wooden planet, crazy nightmares, etc.) was too far out there for an Alien sequel, the movie was already in pre-production with sets being built and everything, and so they had to work with what they already had.
Essentially, the reason that Alien 3 is so boring is mostly because it's the Twohy script but with all the "surreal" stuff scooped out without adding anything to compensate. It's like if you simply deleted all the action out of Aliens-- all you'd have left is a lamer retread of Alien, and that's pretty much what happened here. Now, I agree that Twohy's stuff was bonkers and inappropriate to the Alien series, but it would've likely been more fun and interesting to watch than the dull final film, at least.
To give a more in-depth answer than my previous response, this was a fairly lengthy script for its genre that featured Weaver in almost every scene, running her through an entire gamut of emotions both intense and subtle, along with grueling physical work, and required her to maintain a gradually developing character arc throughout the whole thing (and remember that the film was shot out of sequence!). She has to carry the entire movie on her shoulders and spin a lot of plates while doing it. That's a tall order, but she passes with such flying colors you completely overlook the "work" she's doing while watching.
And then you add on that she absolutely nails being a credible, serious action heroine (while pulling off the "blue collar everyman action hero" thing a year before Bruce Willis!) which was a hard thing for people to even envision at the time ("female action hero" was basically silly stuff like Charlie's Angels) and I have to say yeah, Sigourney Weaver fully earned that Oscar nom.
It was a pretty badass and memorable moment, so I can't say it bothered me at all, really.
And, no, it wasn't a plot hole.
I have to agree. This movie was quite "PC" for the time.
"the bad guy dies at the end of an 80s action movie" really isn't a spoiler.
Haha, I read that script and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. It's basically hillbillies versus Aliens.
I'll grant that it was too early in the series to be doing something that goofy, but they probably could've went there with, say, one of the Alien Vs. Predator movies.
I think pretty much all the people of color in this movie are half white, so I'll venture to say that no I don't think it's against miscegenation.
The cinematography is pretty good all things considered, it's just a drab, cramped setting that looks like it'd be a nightmare to get proper lighting and camera angles in. Some of the later scenes when it gets much darker look more impressive.
Friday the 13th is mostly patterned after the beginning of Halloween, extrapolating the opening scene into a full feature film. The killer is kept out of camera view (often through POV shots) in order to hide the twist that the killer is a member of an unexpected demographic (a young boy in Halloween; a middle aged lady in Friday the 13th). The killer is also stalking teens who are having sex instead of watching the children they're supposed to be responsible for (babysitters in Halloween; camp counselors in Friday the 13th) on a distinctive and spooky day of the year.
Also, every slasher movie is a ripoff of every other slasher movie, just like every action movie is a ripoff, every romantic comedy is a ripoff, etc. "Genre" is just a nice word for "ripoff." It's best not to get too hung up on claims of a work being a ripoff, because anything that fits into a genre (subgenres especially) is consciously ripping off something else. It's why they call it "genre work."
Her supersonic whistle notes are fine, it's the gospel-like power "belting" vocals that she struggles with these days.
Spoiler
Yes.
To me it felt like the producers knew they were making an exploitation flick but managed to snag some genuine talet both in front and behind the camera by claiming it was a legit period drama, lol!
Limiting it to first appearances I'd give it to Laurie Strode, but the Halloween sequels make her more and more of a nervous wreck to the point ridiculousness.
Including followup appearances it's definitely Sidney. It's interesting to note that when we first see her she's already something of a survivor, having dealt with the murder of her mother. I also love how especially after the initial trilogy it's apparent that Sidney has more or less completely moved on from all the murders and that overall they've long since stopped being what she's shaped her life around. They're just, like, these annoying events she has to deal with every few years.
No, but it's interesting to look at the series and note how the pathology of the Scream villains resembles mass shooters, and domestic terrorists (like highway snipers and the unabomber) more than they do serial killers.