Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley
by C. Jason Smith, Ximena Gallardo C.
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Book Summary Information
Author: C. Jason Smith, Ximena Gallardo C.Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-21
ISBN: 0826415709
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Continuum
Book Reviews of Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley
Book Review: Accessible theory/ close read - a wonderful work!
Summary: 5 Stars
In the span of the twenty-five years since the release of the first Alien film in 1979, much has changes in the American culture and society and the film industry. It would be easy to write a relatively standard work analyzing the four films in the series that include Lt. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). Other than those interested scholars and, perhaps, fans engrossed with those films, such a book would be rather dull. But Gallardo C. and Smith have produced a far different, far more unexpected and powerful work. This is done through an elegant and insightful organization of the work. Each of the four major chapters deals with one of the four films (Alien, Aliens, Alien3, Alien: Resurrection). Nicely written personal forward, introduction and a conclusion surround these, but it is these four chapters that are the meat of the text.
At first glance a potential reader may imagine that these four chapters have little to do with each other, as each deals with a different film. What is so wonderful about this organization is that Gallardo C. and Smith are able to actually accomplish two things with their text. The first is a surprisingly well researched and detailed close-reading of each of the films. But the second, which would likely not be possible in any other format, is a tracing of those cultural shifts of the last twenty-five years. When the first film was released in 1979 the United States was on a cusp both culturally and politically. Second Wave feminism was reaching a crest of cultural importance, the rise of the Republican Right was beginning to be noticed, and one small decision to change a protagonist from male to female was surprising in many ways. This was a female hero that did not scream and run to her protecting male. Gallardo C. and Smith do not pull punches, though, and while they praise Alan Ladd Jr. (then the head of 20th Century Fox) for casually suggesting the change, they also point out that he gathered together secretaries from the Fox offices to view Sigourney Weaver's screen test because in the late 1970s there simply were not female executives in the film industry.
With the emergence of the Reagan-era, the defeat of the E.R.A. (Equal Rights Amendment) film in the United States changed as well. The new heroes of film in the 1980s became muscled "hard men" and Gallardo C. and Smith spend much time discussing the changes made to the character of Ripley by James Cameron as a reaction to this change. The two most general critical replies made about these first two Alien films has been that the first suggested a new type of female hero, while the second was one of two things (or perhaps a bit of both): Either it is a film about reifying the nuclear unit (in the form of Ripley as mother, Newt, a young girl as daughter, and Hicks, a marine, as father), or it is a metaphorical Vietnam film.
Gallardo C. and Smith have it both ways, emphasizing the polyphony of the texts, and the fact that multiple readings are not necessarily false readings. They become more critical of the final two films featuring Lt. Riply, but in a carefully respectful way. Blamed for the lackluster reception of the third film are mostly studio problems that led the film to essentially be the "merged" versions of two competing scripts within the studio - and that with far too little "development" time. Of the fourth they note that the film undermines much of what came before it because of the underlying ironic and postmodern nature of Alien: Resurrection.
Gallardo C. and Smith claim early that they do not intend to write a "theory book" for such a book is beyond the scope of what they intend. Any while they have not, in another way they have written a "theory book" of a certain time. The organization of their volume is such that the intellectual history (the changes in theoretical perspectives from 1979 and after) can quite easily be fished from their text. The transition from Second Wave to post-feminism (or Third Wave, or whatever term you prefer) is there. The transition of the Modernist heroes of the 1970s to the muscle-bound Sylvester and Arnold-like character of the Reagan-era (which were ironic, but few seemed to notice) to the postmodern pastiche and irony are all just under the surface, waiting to be considered.
That "just beneath the surface" level allows Alien Woman to work very nicely as both a film studies work on its topic, and as, literally, an intellectual history of one of the more profound times for change in the academy in some time. The character of Ripley has always been on that embodied a certain amount of "sex trouble," but by placing the films in their own times, Gallardo C. and Smith manage to analyze with being over critical. This isn't the type of criticism too often found in the academy, the kind I like to call "claiming Napoleon was a bad general because he never called for air support." This is the kind of critical examination that allows theoretical perspectives to exist, but doesn't think an analysis of Ulysses should spend fifty pages discussing Foucault and five with the actual text. So, when the authors make their claim that this is not a "theory book" what they seem to really mean is, "we are theoretically informed, but are dealing with our texts, not polysyllabic jargon. And it is all the better for it (this from someone who likes theory, too!).
Gallardo C. and Smith have produced a work that is developed, complex, insightful, and still maintains a readability that was so accomplished I almost felt jealous. It is a suitable for collections at colleges and universities with film programs, film studies programs, English programs that emphasize cultural studies, American studies programs, and popular culture programs. I would recommend it for upper level undergraduates, scholars of culture, feminism or speculative fiction in all its form.
I just published my first book (do not worry, I wont name drop it here!) and upon publication I approached the large dry eraser board in my office and wrote down all the possible "next book" projects I could think of and, among these was a book on the Alien films. It turns out that Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith have already written it, and I'm scholar enough to know the did a better job than I would have. Alien Woman has my highest recommendation.
Summary of Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley
Alien Woman examines the construction of sex and gender in the four science-fiction films comprising the Alien saga (starring Sigourney Weaver). The Alien saga stands alone in presenting an enduring, self-reliant female protagonist, Ripley, who in the first film ends up as the sole survivor of the beleaguered starship Nostromo. Subsequent writers and directors in the 1980s and 1990s, left to grapple with this strong female protagonist, reenvision Ripley to for different social, political, and cultural imperatives for women. Alien Woman focuses on how these writers and directors have re-written Ripley and how each revision informs our understanding of women in science fiction. And by examining the films' creation and commodification of the female hero, the books illustrates how changing attitudes toward women and the female body help us understand broader societal beliefs and relationships, and provides a useful lens with which to understand woman's place in the late 20th century and early 21st century. Alien Woman will appeal to researchers and teachers in film, mass communication, women's studies, gender studies and genre studies (particularly in science fiction and horror).Movies Books
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