Customer Reviews

Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley

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Gallardo & Smith have written a work that *will be* one of *the* most important books ever for scholars AND fans of the Aliens series of films. This serious and thought-provoking, clearly-written work is immanently readable at the same time as it is insightful and rigorously scholarly. It will promote greater academic understanding of science-fiction and feminism (together and as discrete studies) and those who read it will want to own it, reference it, and read it for sheer pleasure again and again.

The study examines the entire story arc of four movies that made us gasp and wonder, and made us re-examine science fiction not only as more than just "bug eyed monsters against the good GUYS" but also as reflections of the historical era from which each film arose. This seriously well-researched and well documented work traces the history of the movie's compelling images, (for example, giving us "ah ha" moments about the inspiration for the films' artwork, facts that I know I never knew about the reason for the Aliens' form). It gives us intricate close-readings of each film, examining scene after scene with insight and depth, and helps us understand the metaphors of Corporate space and humanity in a post-human era.

One of my favorite parts is the close-reading of Ripley's suicidal leap in Aliens 3, and I had to gloat as Gallardo & Smith reveal the background meanings and imagery of her strongly compelling act of grasping the newborn alien bursting from her chest. I was delighted when I realized that my own feelings watching the film for the first time were right (I knew it!) and had that comfortable feeling you get when having a great conversation with people who share your passion for interesting works of cultural significance.

Never a "publish or perish," jargon-laden ivory-tower read, this work is compelling and fun, at the same time that it contributes important scholarship to a pivotal science fiction franchise and science fiction studies in general. If you are a fan of the series, but not an academic, you will still love this book, and learn something new and worthwhile about your favorite sci-fi. If you are an academic looking for rigorous critical interpretation, you will also find what you are looking for.

A must read for fans, scholars, and anyone interested in the "post-human" subject and Ripley's compelling character. Plus, a heck of a lot of fun and hard to put down.

Thank heavens-close reading is not dead. Too many books on film sacrifice accuracy to a particular theoretical take, but these guys do not. And they write really clearly without all that unnecessary mumbo jumbo academics seem to like these days. I went right out and rented the movies and watched them all over again back to back and I have to say these writers really know the films inside and out and continually show us what actually happens on the screen (which is often contrary to what I remembered happening, but when I watched them again, these guys are always right, at least as far as I can tell). Best yet, the theory is not "on top" so to speak and seems really rooted in the films; they subtly shift the theoretical approach based upon what the films actually seem to be saying.

The first chapter on Alien is really nice coverage of all the stuff already written on it (and there has been a lot of it) but they also manage to weave it all together into a nice, historical, narrative of how one of the best sci-fi movies ever came to be and how different cultural theorists read the character of Ripley. Everyone seems to remember her tiny white panties, but who now remembers the furor over her "trash mouth"? Even more, who remembers that Ripley was the first female protagonist (ever?) to kill the monster on her own?

The second chapter kind of rags on Cameron a bit for the "Reagan-era" plot of the film, but these guys are right on with their reading of Ripley as remade into a "mom" and the hard-bodied Vasquez as a really new thing on the screen. This has always been my favorite of the films and it was really interesting for them to show me why I like it so much! (Lets just say is not as scary as Alien on a LOT of levels).

I never liked Alien3 but I think I understand it now. The film was not really intended for an audience like me. I don't like to see my heroes die, female or not, and the ending was really a downer. The context the authors give the film, however, makes a lot of sense: Ripley really does land in a "feminist hell" where she is raped, gets "pregnant," and, surrounded by right wing religious jerks, has to step up and take charge to save the human species again. The ending is really a big "F-you" to everyone (typical David Fincher-but this was the first time he did it).

And then there is Alien Resurrection. I hated this film when it came out. However, I just watched it again and almost died laughing. How could I have missed the fact that a film written by Joss (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) Whedon and Jean Pierre (Delicatessen and Amelie) Jeunot had to be funny? I just thought it was a grumpy, boring film, but I had really missed the boat on this one. From the very first shot-two guards chewing gum, guns aimed at each other's heads, fingers on the triggers-these writers took the blinders off my eyes and the whole film changed. I swear I must have seen a different movie altogether. I didn't even remember Sigourney Weaver and Winona Ryder being so good on screen together. (Personally, I think the sound track may be a problem with Alien Resurrection, but that's just my thinking). Ron Pearlman is even funny doing a rip-off of earlier characters on TV and in movies. If you remember the film Ice Pirates-and these guys certainly do-then you know what I mean.

Which brings me to another great thing about the book: they really make connections to a lot of other movies and some of them were BIG movies at one time that have sort of been forgotten. I now have a whole second list of films to watch again. Molly Ringwald was in Space Hunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone?

This was a really great book about women and men in science fiction film.

Ripley is my hero for all time, so I was more than interested when I saw this book displayed at the Popular Culture conference in San Antonio about two months ago. I loved it! I have read it three times already, and I keep finding new things to make me think, or even better, chuckle. The section on H.R. Giger's face-hugger as a perverse monster that forces its victims into an act similar to cunniligus/fellatio is wicked! Giger would love it, so much of his work is brilliantly sexually perverse.

There are many, many pearls in this book, most of them about the way women characters are written about and filmed, things I had not noticed though I have been a complete fan of the ALIEN movies for years and I have the them on video and DVD. I learned about the dangers of Vasquez being the best of the Marines. I now appreciate Winona Ryder's robot more, though I hated her character in Alien 4. But best of all, I fell in love with Ripley all over again. The chapter on Alien 3 was awesome-I actually watched the movie again after reading the book the first time, because I could not believe I had missed so much of the meaning of Ripley's character or her connection to another of my favorite women, Madonna (who worked with David Fincher, the director of Alien 3, and so...oh, just read the book). Obviously the authors watched the movies very carefully.

If you are an ALIEN fan and think you already know everything about the movies, this book is for you. It'll be dog-eared by the end of the year.

Alien Woman is one of those books that works to find the proper context for an aesthetic product. Gallardo and Smith read the Alien films in the context of gender theory and feminism (and the way gender theory and feminism fit into the very different cultural moments of the films: 1979, 1986, 1992, 1998). For them, the films unevenly chart such themes as the primacy of the body, the breakdown of the rationalist-humanist white male subject, the fear of woman and the feminine, the identification of the monstrous and horrific with the feminine and with sexuality, and the emergence of philosophical post-humanism as an alternative to Renaissance humanism. Though they do not put it in these terms they essentially track the consequences of a Hegelian-style equation: the split "Man vs. Alien" is merely the reflection of a split within category "Man (human)" itself, "Man vs. Woman." In other words, the fight between Man and Alien is really the gender trouble within humanity itself.

The authors have an admirable sense of focus: outside of an introduction and an afterword, the book devotes one chapter to each film analysis: no novel or comic book spin-offs, no video games, no parodies, no fan-fiction. Gallardo and Smith know these films backwards, forwards and sideways. Heavy theory is relegated to the footnotes (making the whole thing easy to read), but their knowledge of Freud, Jung, Foucault, and Butler shows in the pages. And for several years Gallardo and Smith have chaired the science fiction section of one of the largest academic popular culture conferences in the world: Alien Woman is particularly strengthened by their almost encyclopedic knowledge of science fiction movies good and bad; the reader benefits from their sitting through these often awful films (Ice Pirates, anyone?), and connecting them to the Alien series. The book also hits every substantial piece of Alien criticism: future scholars will start reading about the films here, and then follow the bibliography.

I'm not a hardcore sci-fan, nor am I interested in the study of motion pictures of that genre, or any other for that matter. "Alien Woman" was a gift so I felt compelled to read it so I could comment on it at a later date. I was expecting it to be stiff, boring, and full of intricate detail about a boring subject. I was wrong. Since when is it fashionable for authors with PhD.s after their names to write a rollicking, roller coaster read that could be a staple in an English composition or movie-as-art/culture class as well as a fun, bedtime yarn? I read the book, then went to the movie rental store and saw all four "Alien" movies within a week's time. It was like I was seeing the movies for the first time. Academicians having fun with words and telling a tale in a way that makes characters immortalized on film come alive! What a concept!

In ALIEN WOMAN, authors and pop culture critics Ximena Gallardo-C. and C. Jason Smith examine "The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley" - a process which is both informed by and reflects the differing sociopolitical landscapes present during the creation of the respective installations of the quadrilogy. While the first ALIEN film was a radical (perhaps even feminist) reimagining of the slasher/horror genre, ALIENS represented a return to retro Reagen-era "family" values. ALIENS 3 joined the "hero" and the "monstrous creature," and allowed Ripley to subvert the patriarchy by destroying both herself and the alien; ALIEN: RESURRECTION went a step further, creating a sisterhood of two non-human females (alien-human hybrid Ripley and second-gen android Call), which represents the future of humanity - humane, if not necessarily human.

Whether you love the ALIEN quadrilogy, yearn for more feminist fare, or simply enjoy watching strong heroines kick serious arse, ALIEN WOMAN is a must-read for pop culture junkies of all stripes. A background in cultural studies is a plus, but not a prerequisite; though psychoanalytic concepts such as the "monstrous feminine," the "womb-tomb," and the "monstrous generative mother" figure heavily into the discussion, the authors gradually unpack their thesis, piece by piece, resulting in an accessible, highly enjoyable volume. ALIEN WOMAN is the rare scholarly work that's suitable for laypeople and post-grads alike.

As a longtime fan of the ALIEN series, now that I've read ALIEN WOMAN, I'm eager to re-experience the films through fresh eyes. I don't think I'll view Ripley's probing of Call's bullet wound the same way again.

If you love Lt.Ellen Ripley and actress Sigourney Weaver? - you must read this book!

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.

About a two weeks ago, my husband bought this book, and we have been notified that it will be on its way soon. I'm saying this because for some reason Amazon delayed the delivery, and if it happens to you, it's worth the wait. I know it's worth it because I borrowed a colleague's copy.

But to the review: Having watched the first three movies only once when they were released in theaters, I found that ALIEN WOMAN helped me remember many, many scenes I had forgotten. I believe that this is one of the book's strengths: the authors deal with the movies in their entirety, as opposed to dealing just with selected scenes that "prove" their points and ignoring the rest.

Another strength is how easy and fun this book is to read! No cumbersome quotes, no "academese" to muddle through-a book as entertaining as the movies, and even more exciting sometimes. Where else will you find an academic text that describes Ripley's spacing of the Alien Queen as "bitch-slapping the Alien into space"?

ALIEN WOMAN does have an agenda. It centers on Ripley more than the monster, and it does reveal how hard it is for actresses to find a role different from "babe," "mom," and "old lady" (and I'm old enough to remember what few roles women had before ALIEN was released). It is the book's contention that Ripley manages to escape this mold, and so, that she's a somewhat unique female hero in sci-fi cinema-and more than just a dragon slayer.

All in all, ALIEN WOMAN was good enough to make me want a copy of my own, and to make me rent ALIEN RESURRECTION, which appeared to be too violent and silly in the ads for me to care about watching it before I read this book.

I REALLY DID LIKE THIS BOOK FOR THE FACT THAT I AM A BIG FAN OF THE ALIEN MOVIES AND BOOKS. I FOUND THIS BOOK LOOKING FOR UNDERLYING MEANINGS AND VARIOUS OTHER CONNOTATIONS. WHEN THE AUTHOR REHASHED THE PLOT IN EACH MOVIE IT BROUGHT BACK SOME GREAT MEMORIES AND EXCITING MOMENTS. AS I READ FURTHER AND DEEPER INTO THIS BOOK I FOUND MANY SEXUAL AND MALE FEMALE MEANINGS THAT I NEVER SAW BEFORE OR CARE ABOUT NOW. THE ANALYSIS OF THE RIPLEY CHARACTER IS REALLY INTERESTING AND WELL DONE. FOR SOME PEOPLE THIS BOOK IS A VERY IN DEPTH AND A VERY DIFFERENT LOOK AT THESE IDEAS AND MEANINGS. FOR ME I JUST WANT TO ENJOY THE ALIEN EXPERIENCE. I REALLY NEVER NOTICED IF THE ENTRANCE TO THE ALIEN DERELICT IN ALIEN LOOKED LIKE A VAGINA OR THAT THE ORIGINAL CHESTBUSTER LOOKS LIKE A "LITTLE DICK WITH TEETH". MAYBE IT'S ME BUT MY MIND IS NOT CONSTANTLY ON SEX OR MALE FEMALE MEANINGS AND BODY LANGUAGE. IF YOU LIKE THE ALIEN EXPERIENCE AND ARE OPEN MINDED ABOUT THE THINGS I HAVE MENTIONED THEN THIS IS A GREAT BOOK FOR YOU. IF YOU JUST ENJOY THE RIPLEY CHARACTER AND ENJOY ALIEN MOVIES THEN IT IS STILL A GOOD READ.