''Alien'' 1979 on VHS and on Computer

[Necronom IV]

I imagine that watching Alien on VHS gives it a bit of a "found footage" look that makes it even creepier.  Am I right?

Yes -- although I noticed the machine-sounds and the slightly worn screen first. I certainly find it creepier and prefer it.

[SM]

I imagine that watching Alien on VHS gives it a bit of a "found footage" look that makes it even creepier.  Am I right?

Not really.  Apart frm the odd hand held stuff, the shot are too well framed for it to look 'found footage'.

[Necronom IV]

I imagine that watching Alien on VHS gives it a bit of a "found footage" look that makes it even creepier.  Am I right?

Not really.  Apart frm the odd hand held stuff, the shot are too well framed for it to look 'found footage'.

In this case, I must concede to you: another possible error of judgement. I am not familiar with ''found footage'' as a genre (Local Trouble is far more knowledgeable than I), though I can guess at its meaning: the scenes are beautifully framed so perhaps nostalgia and sound are more important. It would be interesting to see his opinion too.

[SM]

Nostalgia isn't necessarily a crime.

[Elmazalman]

My old Betamax fullscreen copy was very dark with drained colours.

Some of the extreme close up shots of the Alien, which made sense viewed in widescreen, were almost incomprehensible seen in fullscreen.

[Necronom IV]

Nostalgia isn't necessarily a crime.

I didn't mean to imply it was: just a different reason. Of course it is nostalgic, an aesthetic choice rather than a statistical.

[Local Trouble]

I imagine that watching Alien on VHS gives it a bit of a "found footage" look that makes it even creepier.  Am I right?

Not really.  Apart frm the odd hand held stuff, the shot are too well framed for it to look 'found footage'.

You're right.  Dammit, you're right and I'm wrong.  Again. 

[Huggs]

I imagine that watching Alien on VHS gives it a bit of a "found footage" look that makes it even creepier.  Am I right?

Not really.  Apart frm the odd hand held stuff, the shot are too well framed for it to look 'found footage'.

You're right.  Dammit, you're right and I'm wrong.  Again. 

His logic is undeniable.

[Local Trouble]

That's why he's S-to-the-motherf**kin-M.

[FenGiddel]

As my mother wanted to use the television to watch a programme about Yorkshire farmers, to-day is the first time I have watched ''Alien'' using anything other than VHS. It is, beyond doubt, the finest film I know, but I miss the bulky cartridge, the flickering, the spools winding away and the noise of the tape, all of which suggest, and complement, the 'MS-DOS' systems of the Nostromo.

''Alien'' (1979) in a blackened room on an old cathode ray television (I'm lucky -- my grandfather left us a very handsome one in a wooden case), flickering, whirring and occasionally dimming is, to my mind, the better way to see it.

Does anyone else have the same feeling?

That is a very cool memory!
I certainly do remember those days. Taping the movie on VHS and playing it until it fragged out from freeze-framing it to get what detail you could make out at that resolution. And when widescreen was released...!



I will admit: I justified my first digital TV purchase so we could watch the 20th Anniversary DVD release of the film.