Summer sci-fi viewing, part the second (but where’s the first?)
(this post is spoiler-free)
Okay, actually the first of my summer sci-fi viewing reviews doesn’t exist yet. I’ll get to that coming up, because actually the viewing in question is much more complex and deserving of more varied, considered discussion.
First up (but second), is what I watched last night, the 1988 “science fiction” film Alien Nation, starring James Caan and Mandy Patinkin.
Set just a few years in the future (1991), the plot tells of a race of alien worker drones — dubbed “Newcomers” — who arrive on the planet Earth as immigrants, and are invited take up residence, slowly entering into society. As with any newly arrived race of immigrants, full incorporation into society is slow, and many of the aliens wind up in ethnic ghettos, such as the “slagtown” of Los Angeles. When Detective Sergeant Matthew Sykes (Caan) loses his partner in a Newcomer-related shooting, he gets Sam Francisco (Patinkin) — the first Newcomer to achieve the rank of Detective — as his new partner. Together they investigate the shooting which resulted in the death of his old partner, and unravel a criminal plot that could expose a horrendous secret of the Newcomer race.
The first and most important reaction to this movie is that, despite certain surface dressings, this really isn’t a science fiction movie at all. Most SF authors and critics state that in order for material to qualify as real science fiction, it must explore science or technology in a manner integral to the plot; in other words, that without this science element the story would not exist.
Alien Nation does not meet this criterion. It is, in all respects and in the most traditional of ways, a buddy cop picture. The science fiction elements in the movie are simply a veneer to provide color and a new taste to a very old formula (like putting cherry in Coke). Structurally, the screenplay is a very straightforward connect-the-dots “cops search out a mystery in the underworld while they struggle to work together” story. It’s like 48 Hours, except one of the two leads has a head which looks like a spotted ostrich egg. The race of alien Newcomers could just as easily have been replaced with another race of “exotic” Los Angeles immigrants — Koreans, Japanese, El Salvadorians — without any of the plot being lost. So, right there, and to my disappointment, “summer sci-fi viewing, part the second” has become “summer buddy cop picture with funny-loooking people viewing, part the first”.
As a buddy cop feature, then, how does it measure up? It’s acceptable, I suppose. Hardly revolutionary. It has most of the requisite features. There’s a high-society criminal villain, played with steel by Terence Stamp (a character indistinguishable from any corrupt wealthy citizen in any issue of Batman). There’s one car chase scene where most of the Los Angeles basin is traversed (sort of out of sequence) in something like ten minutes. There’s the requisite scene with an inexplicably aroused female who drops awkwardly out of the story as soon as she provides the needed minute or so of feminine pulchritude. There’s the standard bonding scene between the two cops from different walks of life over drinks. Then there’s the gasp shock couple of fisticuff finales at the end which tend to make things a little strung out and exhausting rather than exciting.
I’m being intentionally vague so as to avoid spoilers. But it’s actually not that difficult to avoid spoilers in this case because so many of the plot points are so generic that they are instantly recognizable to anyone who has any kind of familiarity with action movies, especially of the urban cop variety. They are given just a hint of a “science-fiction” flavor here and there, but not enough to free them from being anything but by-the-book formula.
Also, if a variety of visual effects are a necessary element in a science-fiction movie for you, this movie will disappoint. Aside from a kind of still-shot of the alien flying saucer seen on a television screen at the beginning of the movie, there are absolutely no visual effects whatsoever. And the alien makeup and prosthetics, despite coming from the vaunted Stan Winston studio, are nothing to write home about. The aliens, as mentioned, look like toned-down Coneheads with a few spots, their mouths and noses blotted out slightly like silly putty, but in all other respects they look just like any human being. Indeed, more to the detriment of the movie, they act just like native humans — the way they stand, their mannerisms, their idiosyncracies, completely blow any kind of sense of otherworldliness or exoticism. They’re terribly un-alien. This is excused away in the script with some silly reference about how they adapt to new societies remarkably quickly, mimicking the natives with ease, but it nevertheless kills any chance of the movie being perceived as anything but a standard cop movie with a handful of people with silly heads.
If there can be said to be a saving grace to the movie it’s no doubt Patinkin, who is always good, even when others around him are not. He does a commendable job acting like the straight man, in a sense, to Caan; while Caan is sarcastic and broad and wild Patinkin remains very sober and level, humorless, and calm (with one dramatic exception — you’ll understand when you watch it). I’m not sure how the writer originally envisioned Patinkin’s character Sam Francisco being played, but Patinkin played it very straight and very honest, and very seriously. Francisco therefore has a kind of weightiness and substance which makes him really the anchor of the film, far more likable than sarcastic and abstractly sleazy Sykes, and his honesty really sells the movie to the audience. Without him … hoo-boy.
There’s not much more that can be said. The story features very few supporting characters, and the somewhat slim 97 minutes don’t allow for lots of digression and subtle shading. Writer Rockne S. O’Bannon (no relation to Dan O’Bannon of Alien fame to my knowledge) would go on to serve as writer-producer on a number of sci-fi themed tv shows, including Farscape, and the Alien Nation tv series.
Ultimately, what is my emotion walking away from this movie? I think disappointment would sum it up best — disappointment that more wasn’t done with the theme, more wasn’t done to really explore the concept, and indeed, more wasn’t done to actually make this a science-fiction story and not a rather standard buddy cop movie with little more to the aliens than set dressing. As it stands, it’s a rather standard but acceptable enough buddy cop movie with an intriguing concept that is left largely unexplored, saved from mediocrity by Mandy Patinkin’s stalwart and strong performance. Not having seen the follow-up TV series, I can’t say whether or not they managed to explore the premise of a race of alien ex-slaves living amongst us in a more genuine science-fiction way. I hope so.
Up next: V: the mini-series, watched first but written about second, the classic 1983 mini-series chronicling the visitation of a very different group of aliens, and one that I think we can definitely say is unquestionably, and completely, science-fiction.
Tags: science fiction, Alien Nation, DVD.