416
Didn't Schwarzenegger wear mudface in Predator?
I wrote an article about how Jim Carrey used greenface (very offensively too) during the filming of "The Mask", but hardly anyone cared.
He's not even an amphibian!
Didn't she play tough hispanic space marine in another movie too?
nvm: I'm thinking of Michele Rodriguez from Fast and Furious, and a fair bit of other movies I thought was same actress.
-
Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?
-
No, have you?
She was bad ass
I think the groundbreaking part was Dan O'Bannon’s note in the Alien script that gave us more amazing characters in Aliens.
“At the start of Dan O'Bannon’s script for Alien, there’s a note that few other screenplays contain: “The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women.” It’s a line that fundamentally altered the nature of the film, affecting everything from the presentation of its characters to the way Ridley Scott and his team approached casting, and it was certainly for the best.”
Haha I read that originally as "they be robots and have removable arms and legs that fit erybody else."
That's fascinating though. I must say I like Aliens much better. I rarely revisit Alien but I might do in the near future.
Imho, they are different genres altogether.
Alien is a real horror-movie, while Aliens leans more towards the action-movie genre, of course retaining horror elements, but it doesn't quite play on the body-horror and fear of the unknown as much as the first part does.
Alien is art. Aliens is a schlocky action movie (nothing wrong with schlocky action movies, but it's just a completely different thing)
I feel the same way about the first and second Terminators, and the first Rambo and its sequels.
So you're saying that one's a bug-hunt, and the other's a stand-up fight?
Yes. As a child Alien was too scarey for me but I was able to watch Aliens. As an adult I don't usually wade into horror, except on a Super Eyepatch Wolf tangent, but still love action sci-fi.
I find it interesting how a trilogy (then... However many there are now...) can wander from one genre to the other. It's risky because you make a sequel partly because the the financial security you get from your fan base. Not sticking to that fanbases tastes is risky but also introduces people to new things in a more comfortable way.
I think it's kind of a natural evolution. The fear of the unknown effect of Alien wears off for the viewer, once the creature has been revealed and defeated in the first part. So a sequel in the same vein woulndn't really work, but recycling the creature as a fearsome enemy in an action flick surely does.
I also don't really gravitate towards horror movies as I find most of them to be pretty cheesy or tryhard edgy. Alien is the exception. This one is a work of art.
It might not seem like it now but Vasquez was a groundbreaking character at the time.
Expand on that
Badass female grunt soldier treated by her fellow soldiers as a soldier first and foremost.
She has the most iconic line from my youth.
Some soldier, saying to Vasquez who's doing pull-ups: hey Vasquez, you ever been mistaken for a man To which she replies: no, have you?
Also the way
she
dies is bad ass.
I mean next to Ripley, the android and the little girl, she's the most memorable character in that movie.
I definitely found the alien the most memorable character. She visitied me in my nightmares..
She has the most iconic line from my youth.
I got gifted a 4K Blu-ray player for Christmas. Immediately bought Aliens (my favourite movie of all time) then sat down with my older kids to watch it with popcorn etc.
There was such a buzz in the room when she delivered that line.
Have to recommend the 4K Blu-ray experience if you're a fan. The detail honestly shocked me.
Edit:
I mean next to Ripley, the android and the little girl, she's the most memorable character in that movie.
The casting is great.
I think Paul Riser did a great job as the slimy company man Burke. He was very believable.
Michael Bien was great as ~~Hudson~~ Hicks too. The exchange between himself, Ripley and Burke about nuking the site was great.
Bill Paxton played Hudson. Michael Bien played Hicks. Game over man.
Yes! My mistake!
Can't believe I pulled a Gorman. Edited previous post.
I recall an interview in which Paul Reiser said his mom was cheering his on screen death at the premier
load more comments
(1 replies)
Aliens in my favorite movie of all time too. (⌐■_■)
load more comments
(3 replies)
"Game over man!" makes Bill Paxton as memorable.
Both Paxton and Rodriguez were the highlights of the rest of the cast. Paxton is the guy showing us how we ought to feel, that this is indeed terrifying and fucked up. “Game over man!” is definitely one of the most memorable lines from the film, but a film having two absolutely badass women in Ripley and Vasquez that stood out because they were badasses, and not because they were specifically planted as women to have women be badasses, was great writing - probably thanks to the script being written for “unisex” characters.
"You always were an asshole, Gorman."
load more comments
(3 replies)
Michelle Rodriguez wouldn't have a career without this woman
Badass strong female character with more depth than what was normally portrayed in Hollywood. Ripley being another.
Ripley and Vasquez are antithetical. Vasquez's strength comes from enbracing masculinity. She's in a traditionally male profession, she's stereotypically, "butch," (short hair, muscular, etc.), she's aggressive, and she belittles Ripley with her male peers. The film even calls attention to this early on ("Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?"..."No. Have you?"). Meanwhile, Ripley is similarly a strong woman, but she doesn't need to reject femininity to show strength. She weeps when she learns that her daughter died and later develops a maternal connection with Newt, but she's more than capable of picking up a gun and giving orders when needed. She's also in a traditionally male profession (which she demonstrates when she uses the power loader), but she doesn't let that define her. She never seeks the approval of the male characters or behaves like them to achieve her goals.
I've heard it argued that Vasquez is a sort of queer coded sheild for Ripley, allowing audiences to enjoy Ripley as a strong female character without worrying about her sexuality ("No, Ripley's not a lesbian; that's a lesbian."), but I don't think that's fair to either character. Vasquez is a heroic character in her own right, not wanting abandon teammates and ultimately sacrificing herself so that others can escape. But the film is about motherhood, and Vasquez, just like all the other marines, isn't capable of maternal behavior. I think in the end, Vasquez's character is meant to demonstrate that Ripley is a bad-ass because of her femininity, not in spite of it.
Putting aside the conversation about sexuality, I think viewing Vasquez as emphasis for Ripley’s femininity downplays the importance they both have. You’re totally right that Ripley shows a strong woman that embraces feminine traits, but there’s a lot to say about a character that breaks gender norms. I think the line you brought up shows that Vasquez doesn’t reject femininity outright, she just chooses to present that differently.
Yeah, I'm definitely not trying to diminish her as a character. Her sexuality is never explicitly stated, and the film doesn't seem particularly interested in addressing it, allowing the viewer to draw their own conclusions. The fact that she's a Marine at all is notable, since women weren't allowed to hold combat roles when the film was made, and it's awesome that Vasquez breaks gender norms without being demonized or treated like a punchline. All in all, she was an especially progressive character for 1986.
But there is definitely a theme of the film that masculinity (or what we would now call toxic masculinity) is inferior to femininity, specifically maternal femininity. All of these brash, hotshot marines spend the first act of the film belittling Ripley, despite her first hand knowledge of the threat. Ripley is also the only one to take the time to develop a relationship with Newt, despite the fact that she's the only colonist to survive the Aliens, while the Marines see her as unimportant. They are then immediately massacred in their first encounter with aliens and crumble (especially Hudson) when their big guns and big talk are ineffective.
Besides Ripley and Newt, the only survivors are Bishop and Hicks. Bishop is a male presenting android, but he's not like the Marines, being much more quiet, thoughtful, and diplomatic, stereotypically feminine attributes. Hicks is a much more traditionally masculine character, but despite becoming the ranking officer during the mission, he's willing to be deferential to Ripley and allow her to lead.
The film is about Ripley, a grieving mother, finding a surrogate daughter and protecting her, and it is the characteristics of her role as a mother that allow her to overcome the threat of the Aliens. Meanwhile, the tough, masculine characters she's paired with proved to be no match for that same threat, which in the third act is revealed to be another mother in the form of the Xenomorph Queen. It's awesome that Vasquez represents a non-gender confirming character, especially one made 40 years ago, but that fact that she's a masculine-coded character means she's part of the gender spectrum being critiqued in the film.
Aliens didn't exactly break new ground in strong female characters (except perhaps with Ripley as lead), but it was an early very popular movie that had strong female characters who weren't dependent upon men to save them so it was pretty good for representing women as something other than Hollywood's standard of the time. Not great mind you because the only way either of them managed to achieve that is by making both of them (especially Vasquez, Ripley at least had some nuance) act like traditional male characters, but it was a big step.
I see from the comments that apparently it was makeup. I wonder to what extent this is makeup, since after all, ALL actors on set wear make up. I have a similar skin complexion and if I sunbathe for a week I'll look like Vasquez too.
The fact that they tanned her is not the issue. The fact that they tanned her to play an ethnicity she is not, is the problem. Especially during an era where people of that ethnicity were lucky to be typecast in something.
I know it's before this time, but Martin Sheen had to change his name to get work in Hollywood because nobody would hire someone with a Hispanic sounding name.
Charlie
That's his son. And his other son is Emilio Estevez which is Sheen's real last name. Technically it's Charlie's last name too, but he kept his father's stage name for the stage.
Well, to be fair, blackface is also a type of makeup
I think shes got a company now that is making extra comfy bras.
She's also in Titanic, but in a very small role as an Irish mother.
SMH my head, so now she's doing irish face? Potato face? No wait, now I'm being racist
load more comments
(4 replies)
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 03 May 2025
416 points (100.0% liked)
Today I Learned
21679 readers
660 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS