By RM
saturday, october 26, 2024 at 4:18:00 a.m. edt
Recently watched a movie I hadn’t seen for some time, Planet of the Vampires, an Italian flick directed by the erratic Mario Bava (1965, released here in 1967- I actually saw it when it came out, on a double bill with The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre!).
Well, it wasn’t so hot, BUT I’m bringing it up because it was blatantly ripped off by Alien! The concept of astronauts lured to a planet by a distress call is there, followed by aliens taking over human bodies, and the kicker is a scene where the astronauts discover the body of a huge dead creature in a space vehicle, definitely “borrowed” for the later movie. Bava was also a production designer, and the look of his movie must have influenced both Scott and Alien designer, H.R. Giger. Of course, Alien was the better movie-and Cameron’s sequel, Aliens (1986), even better-and that one ripped off about a DOZEN other movies!
-RM
OK, Ridley Scott is a jerk, but in all fairness, ALIEN did have a unique monster, fantastic production design, a grim unrelenting atmosphere, the unusual-for-its-time concept of astronauts as an ethnic mix that made them seem like a NYC maintenance crew working in a grungy environment, and a hot leading lady who turned out to be the hero! AND music by Jerry Goldsmith! Of course, if Mario Bava had a Hollywood-sized budget, who knows what he could have come up with?
ReplyDeleteLoved BLADE RUNNER also (the restored version, not the butchered original-release version). Anything Scott did after that... You can throw him away along with Scorsese, Coppola, Cameron, DePalma, Spielberg and the rest of the Lefty has-beens. (Well, maybe I'll watch GLADIATOR someday just to see Oliver Reed's farewell performance.)
-RM
At least in the 80s there were movies to go to,actors and actresses to see. The 90s too,not much after 9/11.
ReplyDelete--GRA