I Watched Them Three Times (April 19, 2024)

I watched them three times (April 19 2024);

In the opening week of Aliens (1986), I went to a local movie theatre and sat through to watch the film three times. Those were the days before multiplexes. Happy days for many young movie fans who were subject to financial constraints. There were fans who watched Star Wars (1977) a hundred times, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) two hundred times, and so on. A few weeks ago, I watched Aliens for the first time in many years and enjoyed it. It was the Special Edition. I noticed some scenes added to and deleted from the original theatrical release edition. About the additions, you may find information in IMDb. About the deletions, I noticed the following two.

(1) In the beginning, Ripley’s lifeboat is retrieved by a spaceship from the Earth. Then, we see a remote-controlled probe peeks through the window of the lifeboat. After this, there is a long silence about 10 seconds (in the original theatrical release edition). Then suddenly, the silence is broken by the blast of blowtorch prying open the hatch of the lifeboat.

(2) After Bishop (Lance Henriksen) successfully crawled through the service tunnel, he tries to establish a communication link with the spaceship Sulaco which is circling planet’s orbit. We see Bishop typing keyboard at superhuman speed. Then, we see the loading bay of the Sulaco in dead silence (in the original theatrical release edition). After this, there are some action scenes of the survivors waiting for the rescue. When Bishop enters activation command, we see the Sulaco’s loading bay suddenly re-animated.

 When I watched Aliens for the first time, I was impressed by these two scenes for the contrast between dormant states and active states. Alien (1979) also begins with a wake-up call to crew members from long hibernation of space travel. So, I felt the narrative continuity of these two movies.

 But in the Special Edition, the two scenes underlined above are deleted from the original theatrical release edition. I hope to have a chance to watch the original edition again.

 I know there are movie fans who want to watch the original theatrical release edition of Star Wars (1977). That is understandable. Those were the years before Blockbuster. So, when we watched movies in theatres or on TV, we had to use our cognitive powers to the max. We didn’t know if we would have chances to watch our favorite movies again in the future. For movie creators, movies are the final output. (That’s why they re-edit the original edition so as to achieve artistic perfection.) But for fans in those years, going to movie theatre was a whole experience. You may remember when and where you watched movies, who were with you, events related to the trips to the theatres, and so on. By watching certain movies after a long while, you may recall those memories.

Star Wars (1977), produced by Lucasfilm and Twentieth Century Fox, written and directed by George Lucas.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), produced by Julia Phillips and Michael Phillips Productions and EMI Films, written by Steven Spielberg et. al., directed by Steven Spielberg.

Alien (1979), produced by Twentieth Century Fox, written by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, directed by Ridley Scott.

Aliens (1986), produced by Twentieth Century Fox, written by James Cameron, David Giler, and Walter Hill, directed by James Cameron.