Alien has been one of the most influential Sci-Fi horror films. At its time it was the first to combine the horror genre with science fiction. Its now hard to imagine a time when dark corridors, narrow shafts and salivating aliens weren�t the sci-fi norm.
The film was and still is the benchmark to compare Sci-fi horror and in many ways its score by Jerry Goldsmith is also now something to judge against. His score uses a more rhythmic and coherent approach to horror music than James Horner�s percussion heavy and brass blast style and Elliot Goldenthal�s brass wailing and changing of direction.
Goldsmith�s score is defined as the Alien Trilogy score that has the most effective suspense cues. Cues such as �The Shaft� and �The Alien Planet� use a powerful orchestration that never reaches the pace or loudness of the score�s action music but instead are full of sinister and bleak music especially in the �The Shaft� cue which provides a pulse pounding finale. The strings and brass are applied in powerful unison and sound out a dark and tragic ending as it becomes obvious on screen that Dallas�s death is inevitable and imminent.
The other tension cues are Significantly quieter and orchestral with far more use made of the percussion section with the mechanical sounding motif that appears numerous times throughout the score seemingly to represent the inside and workings of the Nostromo between moments of silence giving these on ship tracks a massive and eerie quality.
The Action cues are few and far between but nonetheless equally impressive. �Face Hugger� and �The Droid� are the two main action cues of note. The �Face Hugger� track exhibits the more horror action stylings of the score with the brass being pushed to their limits to provide all kinds of strange noises with effective brass crescendos rising out of the ruckus of strings and percussion. �The Droid� provides the more coherent and classic Goldsmith action cue, the brass are usually powerful and the track conforms to a motif but that motif changes quickly through the track and meanders through the more bombastic elements of the track.
Lastly the Main and End Titles provide the most melodic and well known pieces on the CD. The majestic title theme, that would be imitated by almost all of the future Alien film composers embodies the atmosphere of the first film perfectly. The solo trumpet performance captures the loneliness of the film and is both heroic sounding and lamenting. It serves to highlight the massiveness of space and the isolation that the Nostromo crew are facing.
Overall the Alien release is everything you�d expect. It includes all the themes and some of the major cues, however, there is still a lot missing from the release. The CD is short at just over 35 minutes and misses out most of the action cues and includes none of the rejected score for the film. The cues that are on the CD are muddled and mislabelled so if you are after this score you couldn�t do any better than by the Alien DVD on which the score has been isolated from the film�s dialogue and production sound. The sound quality of the DVD is also far greater and you get the film as well. So the best thing to do is get the DVD to get the score. Not only do you get all the music including the rejected score but you get the film as well, saving you a few more quid or dollars for another time.
Isolated score on DVD: ****
Score on CD: ***
1. Main Title (3:30)
2. Face Hugger (2:32)
3. Breakaway (3:00)
4. Acid Test (4:35)
5. The Landing (4:29)
6. The Droid (4:40)
7. The Recovery (2:44)
8. The Alien Planet (2:28)
9. The Shaft (3:57)
10. End Title (3:02)
