Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley by Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith A Review By Hannah D. Forman I feel I must begin this review with a confession. Before being asked to review this book, I had no real background with the Alien franchise. I had only seen Alien once during a fifth grade sleepover party. Any socio-cultural significance was lost on me: I could sense the film was creepy, but above that I was more interested in teenybopper gossip bouncing around from sleeping bag to sleeping bag and eating Doritos. I was a bit nervous to review this book as I thought I'd be seen as a poser/fraud to Science Fiction fans since my expertise lay more with straight-on horror and mainly the slasher sub-genre.

With that being said, I read the first chapter of Alien Woman and, well, I fell in love. Before even finishing the introduction I went out and rented all the Alien films and spent a blissful night watching what Barbara Creed calls ‘the monstrous feminine' played out before my eyes.

The book begins with a mini intro by writers Ximena Gallardo C. & C. Jason Smith who as young children were captivated by these films. Gallardo & Smith don't claim to be social theorists but rather fans who have done lots of observation and research. This passion and unwavering devotion to the franchise oozes off the page, you can't help but get interested.

The book is broken into four main chapters. Each chapter examines Ripley's evolution: from female to female action hero. The writers set out to examine the role of gender and sexuality in each film and how that informs who Lt. Ellen Ripley is and who she becomes. First, a woman at the mercy of the male crew who goes on to defeat the Alien as only a true "Final Girl" can and her continuation to full on action hero. In case you are not a horror buff, the term "final girl" (coined by Carol Clover) is the girl to survive at the end of a slasher film. Since I am first and foremost a slasher fan I loved discovering the slasher formula used within a science fiction film. “Alien owes a debt for its uniqueness to the horror genre, particularly to a then nascent subgenre, the slasher” (p 14). If I had not read this book I would have never known how similar the formula is to say, I Spit on Your Grave or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Each of the four chapters examines Ripley's evolution. Gallardo & Smith have dissected everything from the dialogue, the visual make up of the spacecraft, to the art on the movie posters. The book successfully does all of this in such a way that even someone who has never seen the Alien films could understand. It is pretty remarkable how many academic ideas are presented in such accessible language.

Whether you're a fan of the Alien films or not I strongly recommend this book. You will never think of sexuality and alien creatures the same.

reprinted from BOFFM #3 (forthcoming)

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Alien Woman: The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley by Ximena Gallardo C. and C. Jason Smith
Published by Continuum International Publishing Group, 272 pages, August, 2006
Paperback
ISBN: 0826419100

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