“ALIEN was the first time an African-American had been seen in a role like that and today we see women and African-Americans in heroic roles.”
(Reuters) – Yaphet Kotto, an American actor known for his roles in movies including “Alien” and “Midnight Run” and as a villain in the James Bond film “Live and Let Die,” has died at age 81.
Kotto’s death was first disclosed by his wife, Tessie Sinahon, on Facebook on Monday night. It was later confirmed by his agent Ryan Goldhar on Twitter. The cause of death was not announced.
Sinahon wrote that she was saddened and shocked by the death of her husband of 24 years, adding, “You played a villain on some of your movies but for me you’re a real hero and to a lot of people also. A good man, a good father, a good husband and a decent human being, very rare to find.”
Listen as Kotto discusses his role in ALIEN.
The actor starred alongside Michael Douglas in The Star Chamber.
¨It’s got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don’t dare kill it.¨
Forty years ago, Ridley Scott‘s science-fiction/horror masterpiece ALIEN revolutionized the genre and the industry. To celebrate its 40th anniversary and everlasting impact on filmmaking, I wanted to remind you that Fathom Events is bringing ALIEN back to the big screen at more than 600 nationwide theaters as part of its TCM Big Screen Classics series. A perfect pre-Halloween fright, ALIEN returns to theaters for three days only: this Sunday, October 13, Tuesday, October 15, and Wednesday, October 16.
Moviegoers can search for their local participating theaters and purchase tickets for ALIEN now at FathomEvents.com.
Working from a screenplay by Dan O’Bannon and a story by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, ALIEN is a film dripping in dread. Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto are the crew members of the Nostromo, which investigates a mysterious signal coming from an unknown planet. When they unwittingly take an alien creature aboard the ship, they have no idea just how terrifying—and deadly—the ordeal will be.
· WHAT: In the summer of 1979, moviegoers journeyed into deep space and met with unimaginable horror as they discovered director Ridley Scott’s science-fiction/horror masterpiece Alien. Working from a screenplay by Dan O’Bannon and a story by O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, Scott created a film dripping in dread, one that upended audience expectations for a science-fiction film by combining a futuristic setting with extreme terror. Forty years later, Alien returns to more than 600 cinemas nationwide for three days only, with special commentary before and after the film from TCM Primetime Host Ben Mankiewicz.
Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto are the crew members of the Nostromo, which veers off course to explore a mysterious signal emanating from an unknown planet. When they unwittingly take an alien creature aboard the ship, they have no idea just how terrifying – and deadly – the ordeal will be.
Combining a remarkable visual style, including designs by H.R. Giger and Oscar®-winning visual effects, along with a disquieting score by Jerry Goldsmith, Alien has become a modern classic.
· WHO: Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies and Twentieth Century Fox
· WHEN: Sunday, October 13, 2019 – 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. (local time)
Tuesday, October 15, 2019 – 7:00 p.m. (local time)
Wednesday, October 16, 2019 – 7:00 p.m. (local time)
· WHERE: Tickets for Alien can be purchased at www.FathomEvents.com or participating theater box offices. For a complete list of theater locations, visit the Fathom Events website (participating theaters are subject to change).
¨It’s got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don’t dare kill it.¨
ALIEN plays this weekend (May 3rd and 4th) at the Tivoli (6350 Delmar Boulevard)as part of their Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight series.A Facebook invite for the screening can be found HERE
Ridley Scott has had a great career and has made many fantastic films, but ALIEN (1979), only his second, may arguably be his best.
It may be one of those films where everything fit perfectly. Direction, cast, visuals, score, atmosphere, editing, pacing. It’s hard to believe it was made 34 years ago it holds up so well. Made two years after Fox’s license to print money after STAR WARS, their next big sci-fi hit couldn’t have been more different. Much like STAR WARS, ALIEN drew on older movies for inspiration, such as IT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE, PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES, FORBIDDEN PLANET, THE THING, etc. And like STAR WARS, it presented B-movie thrills with an A-picture budget, treating its material seriously. If you could liken STAR WARS to a cliffhanger serial for modern kids, ALIENis like the old B-movie space monster films for a modern adult audience.
Now you’ll have the chance to revisit ALIEN in all its big-screen glory when it plays midnights this weekend (May 3rd and 4th) as part of the Tivoli’s Reel Late at the Tivoli Midnight Series! Even better, this will be the ALIEN Original Theatrical cut that we all enjoyed 40 years ago! Don’t miss ALIEN this weekend! I’ll be there with ALIEN trivia and prizes!
MANDINGO, a 1975 movie based on the best-selling period potboiler by Kyle Onstott about sexual shenanigans between masters and slaves on the Falconhurst slave-breeding plantation, was savaged by critics who saw it as nothing but degrading, big-budget exploitation. Roger Ebert called it “racist trash”, a “piece of manure”, and “excruciating to sit through”. MANDINGO certainly had it all; brutal violence, interracial sex, rape, infanticide, lynchings, and abundant nudity including full-frontal shots of it’s male star, boxer Ken Norton. But of course it was a huge hit and inspired a brief run of “slaverysploitation” films such as PASSION PLANTATION (1975 aka BLACK EMMANUELLE, WHITE EMMANUELLE ) and the cleverly titled MANDIGA (1976). MANDINGO was overwrought melodrama to be sure, but it’s a model of subtlety compared to its official sequel, the more lascivious DRUM, a mean-spirited trash epic from 1976 that would never fly in today’s politically correct climate. Despite its spaghetti western trappings, the film Tarantino’s DJANGO UNCHAINED most resembles is DRUM.
DRUM’s tawdry story picks up about 20 years after MANDINGO. Hammond Maxwell (Warren Oates), the son of the late Falconhurst patriarch Warren Maxwell purchases a slave named Drum from bordello hostess Marianna (Isela Vega). Drum turns out to be the son of Mede (killed at the end of MANDIGO), the slave who had murdered Hammond’s father. Hammond uses Mede and his friend Blaise (Yaphet Kotto) to fight in ridiculous gladiator battles as entertainment for the ‘white folk’. Slave Regine (Pam Grier) is Hammond’s favorite ‘bed wench’ but develops a romance with Drum. Hammond’s bratty slut daughter Sophie (Rainbeaux Smith) stirs up trouble between Drum and Blaise by trying to have sex with both of them and then lying to her father that Blaise tried to rape her and a campy gay French slave trader (John Colicos) wants to bed black stud Drum as well. Tensions build, emotions erupt and by the end of the movie, a mansion is on fire, the black slaves have revolted against the ‘mastas’ wielding scythes and knives, while the white men battle it out with their muskets and rifles.
I can only imagine the howling responses to DRUM by those same critics who thought MANDINGO was in poor taste. Where MANDINGO was at least pretentious and literary (and had a dignified performance by James Mason as Warren Maxwell), DRUM makes no pretense at being anything except cheap thrills exploitation (despite an impressive budget) and ups the sleaze quotient by adding lesbianism, incest, castration, and a swishy gay villain to the mix. DRUM is more fast-paced and entertaining than its predecessor and any movie that includes Warren Oates and Pam Grier in its cast has to be considered a must-see 70’s classic.
Square-jawed actor Perry King played Hammond in the first film so the thought of him aging into the grizzled Warren Oates is rich and the always-grinning Oates has a great time in DRUM. Oates brings real demented joy to the part and is fantastic reciting such ripe, un-PC dialog as “Falconhurst is all about niggas fornicatin’. If’n my niggas stop fornicatin’, we stops eatin’”. Drum, that perfect specimen of slave that neither man nor women can keep their hands off, was played by Ken Norton, a former world champion heavyweight boxer who had also played Mede in MANDINGO. Norton had a brooding, massive presence and no doubt high hopes for a film career, but he was no actor and his awkward readings and blank stare stand in stark contrast to the scenery-chewing of his DRUM co-stars. Norton (who once broke Muhammad Ali’s jaw) was reportedly a contender for the role of Apollo Creed in ROCKY but MANDINGO and DRUM were his first and last shots at big-screen stardom. Norton died in September of last year, but not before I got him to sign my DRUM one-sheet poster. John Collicos delivers an eye-rolling, over-the-top performance as the devious gay slave trader Bernard DeMarigny. His evil character is so mincing and disgusting that I’m sure 1976 audiences cheered near the end when Drum reaches down DeMarigny’s pants and rips off his testicles! Yaphet Kotto as Drum’s best friend Blaise provides the film’s best acting but Kotto is so good and so serious that it often seems like he’s not in on the joke. Pam Grier (billed for the only time in her career as ‘Pamela’) was the reigning queen of black cinema, but her role as Regine is surprisingly underwritten and she does none of her trademark ass-kicking. Isela Vega was a sexy Mexican who’d been Warren Oates leading lady in Sam Peckinpah’s BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA (and posed in ‘Playboy’) in 1974 and Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith, who plays Oates daughter, is an actress very familiar to fans of 70’exploitation and has a considerable cult following. Smith had starred in LEMORA LADY DRACULA in 1972 at age 17 and adorned drive-in screens throughout the decade in films like CAGED HEAT (1974), SWINGING CHEERLEADERS (1974), and MASSACRE AT CENTRAL HIGH (1976) and essayed the title role in the adult version of CINDERELLA in 1977. Smith was a sexy and charismatic presence but had a weakness for heroin and died destitute at age 45. All four of the aforementioned actresses appeared topless in DRUM.
Image: DRUM was released on the MGM video label in the mid-80’s but has long been out-of-print. Now DRUM is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino-Lorber with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1 aspect. DRUM is easily one of the most scenic enterprises of ‘70s Blaxploitation. With surprisingly evocative production and costume design, DRUM is often visually sumptuous despite its gritty subject matter, and that helps this high definition presentation to pop rather splendidly. There’s the expected amount of color grading here, from the cool blue tones of the opening the probably ironic golden amber hues that infuse the plantation sequence, but fine detail is exceptional throughout this presentation, with virtually every whiskered face and badly scarred back vividly on display.
Audio: The 2.0 DTS-HD sound is solid and free of distortion. Dialogue is cleanly and clearly presented, and the mix is generally superb.
Extras: Beside a trailer, the lone extra is an outstanding audio commentary with director Steve Carver moderated by Bill Olson. Carver talks at length about the film’s generous budget, which explains some of the opening shots with hundreds of extras dressed as slaves, scenes that were filmed in Puerto Rico by the original director Burt Topper, who dropped out after differences with producer Dino DeLaurentis. Much of the cast had left along with Topper including John Vernon, who was replaced with Oates. Carver also talks about how he had to win over Ken Norton, who was locked into the production even though Jim Brown had originally been approached for the role. It’s a fascinating listen though I wish Olson had been better prepared for the times when Carver’s memory failed him.
DRUM is historically inaccurate and politically incorrect in a way found only in the mid-70’s. It’s not racist in its attitude toward its characters and it, as well as MANDIGO, found their biggest audiences at urban theatres specializing in ‘Blaxploitation’. It’s one of my favorite exploitation films from the ‘70s and I highly recommend Kino-Lorber’s Blu-ray disc.
This Halloween revisit one of the scariest films of all-time as ALIEN: 35TH
Anniversary Edition arrives on Blu-ray October 7 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.
This Limited-Edition Set includes both the theatrical version and director’s cut on Blu-ray, along with audio commentaries, deleted scenes and more — PLUS — a reprint of the original Alien illustrated comic and all-new, collectible art cards as a tribute to the late H.R. Giger, creator of the iconic movie monster that started it all. Check out my look back at the film HERE.
When the crew of the space-tug Nostromo responds to a distress signal from a barren planet, they discover a mysterious life form that breeds within human hosts. The acid-blooded extraterrestrial proves to be the ultimate adversary as crew members battle to stay alive and prevent the deadly creature from reaching Earth. Directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver in her breakout performance as Ripley, this legendary first film in the ALIEN saga will leave you breathless!
Throughout 2014, Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products is honoring the milestone 35th anniversary with a yearlong celebration marking the beginnings of the Alien legacy by releasing commemorative and fan-favorite products.
Best in Class licensees including Dark Horse Comics, SEGA, NECA, Titan Publishing, Sideshow Collectibles, Diamond Select toys, Super7 x Funko and other partners will roll out exclusive branded publishing, toys and collectible merchandise worldwide to celebrate the ALIEN franchise. The highly-anticipated first person survival horror game Alien: Isolation will be available on the PlayStation4 computer entertainment system and Xbox One, the all-in-one games and entertainment system from Microsoft, as well as PlayStation3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PC also on October 7.
In addition to Alien: Isolation, hardcore fans can finally add Lieutenant Ellen Ripley to their ALIEN collections as we welcome her NECA figures into the family of officially-licensed merchandise. Many other exciting first-time and limited edition products will also release to celebrate this exciting milestone this year.
Fans can also help celebrate the 35th anniversary of ALIEN by joining the fight at www.AlienRevolt.com. Simply login to Facebook to create your profile, choose your team and complete the missions, sharing your triumphs with friends. The more badges you earn the bigger chance you have taking home some great ALIEN prizes including H.R. Giger’s Alien Diaries, a copy of the all-new ALIEN: ISOLATION video game from Sega and more!
ALIEN: 35th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray Special Features
Includes the 1979 Theatrical Version and 2003 Director’s Cut!
Audio Commentary by Director Ridley Scott, Cast and Crew
Audio Commentary by Ridley Scott (Theatrical Version Only)
Introduction by Ridley Scott (Director’s Cut Only)
Final Theatrical Isolated Score by Jerry Goldsmith
Composer’s Original Isolated Score by Jerry Goldsmith
Deleted and Extended Scenes
Digital HD
Alien Illustrated Comic
Collectible Art Cards
ALIEN: 35th Anniversary Blu-ray
Street Date: October 7, 2014
Prebook Date: September 3, 2014
Screen Format: Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, English 4.1 Dolby Surround, English Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English / Spanish / French / Portugeuse
U.S. Rating R
Closed Captioned: Yes
On Friday, director Ridley Scott arrived in Sydney, Australia, reportedlyto scout for locations for PROMETHEUS 2.
PROMETHEUS (2012) starred Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Idris Elba, was well received by critics and subsequently a box office hit. The sequel is scheduled for a release in March 2016.
I’ll bet Scott never thought in a million years that he’d be scouting locations for another ALIEN movie almost 35 years to the day after the original hit theaters.
Jump back to opening weekend… May 25, 1979. “In space no one can hear you scream”
I was a 12 year girl when my mother, after much pleading, took me to the Showcase Cinemas in East Hartford, CT on that Friday night. These were the days prior to the words “spoilers” and “internet” when audiences went into a film blind and when parents didn’t take their children to R rated movies.
All I knew from the ad in the TV Guide was that it was science fiction. Period. After seeing JAWS in 1975, my naïve younger self really didn’t think there’d ever be another movie that would give me such nightmares.
What I didn’t bargain for was director Ridley Scott’s movie would scare the living daylights out of me and become his masterpiece – ALIEN.
The terror begins when the crew of a spaceship investigates an S.O.S – “A transmission, out here?” – from a desolate planet, and discovers a life form that is perfectly evolved to annihilate mankind. One by one, each crew member is killed off until only Ripley is left, leading to an explosive conclusion.
Today’s trailers give everything, and I mean everything, away. The monsters are no longer a surprise. Keeping the money-shot hidden are a thing of the past. This trailer set the tone and mood before the film’s release.
It’s hard to impress on today’s moviegoers how truly frightening the experience was – hearing people’s screams, while watching others get up and walk right out of the theater – as the two hours unfolded up on the screen. To say audiences were white knuckling the armrests of their chairs from the minute the opening title began is an understatement. Would it have the same effect on audiences if released into cinemas today? Truthfully, no.
With only a crew of seven, and a cat, Jones, these truck drivers in space try to survive a killing machine. The menacing feeling of not being able to escape from such claustrophobic quarters, while the “Company” you work for has only one thing in mind – Insure return of organism… Crew expendable.
Staying with me throughout the 35 years are three things. Ripley has the wherewithal to survive until the conclusion, this visceral film still looks as fresh as it did on that weekend in 1979 and the underlying, continual sound of the ship’s heartbeat running throughout the audio.
The combinations of the jumpsuit uniforms, the commercial towing vehicle ‘The Nostromo,’ decorated with relics from airplanes, and most importantly, H.R. Giger’s creature – the rich aesthetics of the film refuse to look dated or low-budget. As with all of Scott’s pictures, ALIEN is a beautiful film to watch.
The production design and attention to detail is impeccable. The knobs, switches, buttons, lights, headsets – all the functioning technicality of the set made such an impression on twelve year old me that I later became a newscast director pushing the same knobs, switches, buttons in a control booth.
Editor Terry Rawlings cut the film with such a slow, long burn that by the end of the chest-burster scene, you could cut the tension in the theater with a knife. It was that palpable. Anything remotely sounding like a pinging tracker still send chills down the spine.
Sigourney Weaver’s “Ripley” becomes the hero and it is ultimately her story. Up to that time, for a studio to make the lead protagonist a woman, keeping her wits together and being the sole survivor was unheard of. Science Fiction was never the same.
Her character inspired heroines to come – THE TERMINATOR’s Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), BRAVE’s Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), PROMETHEUS’s Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and GRAVITY’s Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) just to name a few.
Without a realistic alien, the movie would have been laughable instead of lauded. The double-jawed head filled with razor like teeth is still scary stuff. Jerry Goldsmith’s menacing score added fuel to the horrifying one hundred and sixteen minutes in the darkness. Seven months later, audiences would hear his score for another sci-fi film, STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE.
In the end, the stars aligned for the perfect movie, and 35 years later, ALIEN is still a terrific melding of horror and science-fiction.
After all was said and done on May 25, 1979, the cheering from a weary audience died down and the “blink and you’ll miss them” credits with Howard Hanson’s pacifying Symphony No. 2 “Romantic” rolled, what did my mother and I do? Went out to the Box Office and bought tickets for Saturday night’s show.
Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, Ian Holm, Yaphet Kotto, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Veronica Cartwright, Bolaji Badejo, Helen Horton, Eddie Powell.
Director: Ridley Scott
Producers: Gordon Carroll, David Giler, Walter Hill, Ivor Powell, Ronald Shusett.
