Talking about the "Alien" series, how can we not talk about feminism, the biggest recognition of the "Alien" series is that without exception, the heroine is the first protagonist.
And such an iconic classic convention, starting from Ray's "Alien" to Cameron's "Alien 2" to get the most radiance.
Ripley also won the Oscar nomination for Best Actress for the first time because of the role of "Alien 2", as a sci-fi action genre film, it is already very rare.
To talk about feminism, we must first know what feminism is and the correct expression of feminism in film and television works, rather than what is called political correctness today.
Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of inequality, but also focuses on gender politics, power relations, and sexual awareness. Specifically, in society, the right to reproductive rights, abortion rights, the right to education, domestic violence, maternity leave, pay equality, gender discrimination and many other topics were discussed.
Feminism has undergone a lot of changes after decades of development, which is a big topic, and we can only point to the end here, and then we focus more on the expression of feminism in the Alien series.
Similarly, feminist discussions are relatively more controversial, so please discuss rationally, and the following are just some of my shallow views and opinions (desire to survive).
In the 1970s and 1980s, film and television works, especially action movie genres, almost always had men as the first protagonists, and in the minds of the audience, they often subtly thought that male characters were more capable of fighting, more intelligent, more calm and calm.
The female character is more portrayed as a victim or a tool man. Of course, in that period, there were also many film and television works under the banner of feminism, but in fact, it was only from the perspective of entertainment, with women simply showing the flesh as a selling point of pseudo-feminist films.
In the original draft script of "Alien", the characters were all stripped of their gender, but the initial decision was still to want men to play the leading role, but then the film's producers and Fox executives decided to use a woman as the protagonist, which can distinguish it from the situation that the action genre was dominated by men at that time.
Although the motivation for this decision is to better stimulate the audience, thus creating a sense of freshness in the movie, which seems to have nothing to do with feminism, such a decision is equally risky, in case the audience does not like the image of a female warrior.
Therefore, alien's use of women as the first protagonist was more or less influenced by the background of the times at that time.
In other words, Alien didn't really want to be a beacon of feminist hope at the time, just a consideration and coincidence, but in any case, the image of a classic female hero like Ripley quickly became a positive symbol.
Feminism arose in Western societies, the first wave of feminism began as early as the 19th century, and the second wave of feminism happened to be in the 1970s, and then intensified, and even evolved into three stages.
At the time of the birth of "Alien", it was the first stage of feminism in the United States, which began to oppose the movement of beauty pageants, and at that time, there was also a free trash can, which women could throw things like bras, abdominal straps, and false eyelashes into the trash to express their attitude.
It is precisely because of this background catalysis that the casting gender of "Alien" has undergone interesting changes.
At that time, when Old Ray knew that Fox wanted to use female characters as the protagonist, Old Ray was also very supportive and welcoming.
If fans who are familiar with Lao Lei's works also know that female characters are usually tough and powerful characters in Lao Lei's works, which also has a lot to do with Lao Lei's life experience.
Old Lei was born in a military family, his father joined the army for many years and was not at home, Old Ray and his brothers, are all raised by their mothers, in the eyes of Old Ray, women occupy a very important position.
In addition to "Alien", after that, Lao Lei also made a great female theme movie "The End of the Road".
And when "Alien 2" meets Cameron, feminism and the impact on Cameron's directing career, the two roles are more mutual.
Cameron makes ripley's character the spiritual backbone of the lead and the film's owners, making Ripley more heroic and fearless, but also attached to the empathy of a woman's natural mother.
And it's not just Ripley, in Alien 2, most of the men are portrayed as a negative example, the film's mature male characters show panic and retreat when they encounter real danger, and the only three female characters in the film become the obvious dominance in the film.
Newt, the girl who looks the weakest on the surface, is actually the only survivor of the base camp.
The only female warrior in the team, in the face of danger and chaos, also remains calm and brave, not to mention Ripley as the protagonist.
Especially at the end of "Alien 2", we can see that the last remaining ones to fight against the Alien Queen, in fact, there is no real male representative, the male soldier who lives to the end is comatose, and then the bishop, although he is a male feature, but in the end he is a cyborg who has gone gendered, the little girl has no combat effectiveness, and the only thing left is Ripley.
For Cameron himself, the weak and helpless heroine in "Terminator" turned into a fierce and cool and heroic posture in "Terminator 2", and then the female protagonist of the "Terminator" series also became the iconic representative of the series.
In "Alien 2", Cameron's finishing touch is to make Ripley a mother, the identity of the mother, indeed plays a very important role in women, the core driving force of the film's decisive battle, but also because Ripley wants to go to save Newt, who is regarded as a daughter, he is desperate.
Of course, after years of precipitation, the interpretation angle and space of "Alien 2" have also changed, including the interpretation of the alien queen's anti-feminism.
Because the Alien Queen also belongs to the role of women and mothers, Ripley kills the alien queen's children, thus also causing the "revenge" of the last alien queen, both mothers are for their children, and finally fight for their own children, such a duel and then add feminist meaning, seems to become more complicated and worth playing.
In my opinion, this interpretation seems a bit far-fetched, and Cameron also clarified in the interview that the Alien Queen is a very aggressive alien monster, and when he portrayed the Alien Queen, he really thought that it would be more interesting if the two mother-like characters were singled out, and did not think about the anti-feminist aspect of the past.
So in any case, the fearless image of Rapley women created by "Alien 2" has been until today, as long as it comes to the representative works of feminism in film and television works, it must be indispensable to the "Alien" series, and the audience will not forget the female warrior image of Ripley, it can be said that after "Prometheus" and "Alien Contract" want to follow this way, but the effect is very small, Signi. Ripley, played by Weaver, is still unable to reproduce the classic peak.
Here is a small behind-the-scenes scenes, when "Alien" finalized the first protagonist as a woman, in fact, 2 people were selected at that time, one was Aunt Mei, who was already famous at the time, and the other was the new actor Signey. Weaver, but at that time, Aunt May was too sad because of the death of her boyfriend, rejected the role of Ripley, and eventually the light of luck was given to Signey. Weaver.
Of course the world has no ifs, so we should also be able to understand that Signi. Weaver, in turn, created a classic female screen image like Ripley.
Especially in "Alien 2", Cameron added the identity of Ripley's mother, so that Ripley really achieved a higher benchmark of feminism, that is, women do not need to imitate the strength and heroism of men, but interpret women themselves, and can also have their own strong and heroic side.