gretchening

Alien Nation

I watched Alien Nation a couple of days ago (the one with James Caan and Mandy Patinkin from 1988--I've never seen any of the show or movies before). I was surprised at how it was actually pretty good, despite being cheesy with gaping plot holes.

Basically, an alien spaceship full of former slaves gets dumped on Earth--the aliens live for several years in quarantine, but now live among Earth (read: American, I SEE WHAT YOU DID THAR, film!) people, marginalized and ghettoized, though many of the Newcomers are integrating into positions of prominence. It was about xenophobia, about integration, about bigotry and the violence that so easily escalates from it. Sykes, a human cop (Caan) is paired up with Francisco (Patinkin), a Newcomer, who is the first of his species to make detective. Caan is impulsive, crude, and blue-collar to the bone. He acknowledges his bigotry openly, and yet he is quick and observant and of course comes round to a deep and satisfying partner relationship with Francisco by the end.

What I appreciated best were the lost little moments that highlight a racist society--the erasure of minority names, replacing them with 'human' ones that are mocking (Francisco's first name is "Sam"--he tells Sykes his given Newcomer name but Sykes immediately dubs him "George", again, "human" privilege in what is and isn't acceptable naming).

I liked the internal conflict between members of the Newcomer race, conflict that drives the plot and that asks serious questions about assimilation (which, in the end, the film portrays as positive), traitorousness, opportunism. The scene where they get drunk together (and how much do I love the sour milk business! These aliens are, like, alien!), and Sykes can't explain why a joke is funny, because humor is so contextually rooted and the Newcomer doesn't have the cultural frame of reference to participate. I loved the extreme deliberation of Francisco, I loved how he tried to act as a bridge and almost fell in the water (metaphorically, but also almost literally!) when he tried to straddle the divide between allegiance to his species and allegiance to safety and justice.

It is by no means a perfect film, and in a lot of ways it's seriously dated and could have benefited by a lot less of James Caan playing James Caan. There were some problematic issues about homosexuality, but this film was not sophisticated enough to do more than take a few potshots. But I'd be interested in the show and will probably give it a try.