What elements of cultural anxiety do the Aliens films represent?
jig and bobo123 are right on. (Though I buy that “Aliens” is about motherhood more than it’s about war–motherhood is definitely the main theme, esp. with the big mama alien). I would add, I guess, that the films aren’t “about” these anxieties at all; as others have said they’re “about” big aliens killing people in a spaceship. One of the reasons they’re so involving, though, is that tell their stories within certain freaky contexts. That a monster wants to eat you is pretty scary, but what gives the Alien moves their very *distinct* brand of horror is that the monster wants to forcibly put its long probiscis down your throat, inject its eggs there, and then force you to become pregnant and bear its child, which will result in your extremely horrific and agnoiziing death. Personally, I find that what makes me recoil from those movies and find the whole concept so disturbing is indeed the sexual subtext, which is just nasty. It’s definiely there — it’s why “Alien” is so much more imagi
crank, I’m a big fan of Alien 3, actually. I love the atmosphere as well, and I love the audacity of the way the story handles most-all of the characters from Aliens, it really sets the tone of loneliness and isolation, right from the start. I also love the beauty of the themes in it of self-awareness and trying to overcome your baser nature. I hate the ending, but I love the rest of the movie. I like it substantially better than Aliens, which is my least favourite of the four, heretical as that may be, I find the second one almost unwatchable, I find Sigourney strident and insanely irritating in it, and the story just leaves me cold. I love the fact that there are so many different themes people can find in these films, but I agree with the others who’ve said that what the movies are concretely “about” is different from the themes people can find in them.
For an excellent discussion on some of these themes, check out Alien Zone: Cultural Theory and Contemporary Science Fiction Cinema. I could go on and on about this, but I’m not going to. If you really are interested, get Alien Zone – it has 5 or 6 very good articles on Alien alone – and then go through the bibilographies. Also, whomever said that science fiction always presents cultural anxieties is 100% correct. That is the use and purpose of the genre. This makes it an incredibly useful vehicle for investigating the socities that produce them, a realization that is only just engendering the serious academic study the genre deserves.
I would agree with the sentiments that say SF represents and reflects cultural anxieties. To tie it into the “sequels only get made because the previous iteration made money” argument, I would put forth that the movies that hit the cultural anxiety button in a current time period are likely to make more money precisely because they speak to a wide audience and represent what everybody is thinking about. It would seem to me that’s why Aliens was super macho war-like in the 80s with Star Wars, Cold War, and unstoppable super powers, while Alien3 was much more angsty, defeatist and grunge like in the early 90s – when everyone between the ages of 20 and 35 mostly hated everyone else and thought it was all over. 🙂 Alien3 got made because Aliens made money, but Aliens made money because of its theme and tone, and Alien3 was designed with a different theme to speak to a different audience (and thus made some money). Admittedly, I’m not a cultural anthropolgist, or a film critic, just an armc
