Prometheus Revisited
The Prometheus dvd is out in my part of the world, and so I rewatched the film plus the cut and alternate scenes on said dvd. Of said scenes, there are just three meaty ones, but those are genuinenly interesting: Elizabeth Shaw's speech to the crew, an argument between her and Charlie Holloway later on, and a longer version of Meredith Vickers' scene with her father. My guess is the main reason why they cut Elizabeth Shaw's speech and came up with an alternate version for the scene between Shaw and Holloway that replaced the argument is that in both scenes, Charlie is a complete jerk to Elizabeth. Now he's already being a jerk to David throughout, and if he were also an ass to Elizabeth, her later grief for him would be incomprehensible. Not to mention that the switch from argument to angry sex is not quite believable. (In the equivalent scene the film offers instead, they don't argue at all but are affectionate towards each other and in celebration mode.) This being said, a part of me wishes they'd kept the scenes because they offer additional insight into Elizabeth Shaw, and also more about why Charlie Holloway is being such a jerk. Elizabeth's speech starts with an African story with the sun creating someone to shine on, as to have a purpose and not be alone anymore, which tells you something about what she expected the Engineers to be and is also an interesting counterpoint to Charlie's later scene with David and the question why anyone would create life (the Engineers humans - and the xenomorphs -, the humans robots like David), with "because we could" being the cynical and, quoth David, dissapointing reply). At the end of the speech, an already drunken Charlie shows up to fire ouf hostile comments, which leads into the argument scene in Elizabeth's cabin that in the film got completely rewritten and changed. The focus of Charlie Holloway's anger there is the fact that the Engineers are not Gods; they're another species, but as mortal (what with the crew at this point having found a skeleton and a skull) and presumably as flawed as humans, and he feels betrayed by that, and by Elizabeth Shaw for a) not being angry as well and b) having raised his hopes there could be more in the first place. At which point we also find out quite how Elizabeth's mother died; giving birth to her. This is an information I really wish had made it into the film proper, where we know Elizabeth's mother died but not how. Until seeing the additional scenes, I had assumed that making Elizabeth incapable of having children was mainly so she'd know instantly that she can't be pregnant the natural way and what's inside her is not something she'd want, and possibly to establish a difference to Ripley, whose maternity (the fact she has a daughter, Newt as her adopted daughter motivating her to go head to head with the Alien Queen, and the Alien inside her that triggers her suicide) is rather important. But in addition to deepening the meaning of her exchange with David ("that being said, don't we all want our parents dead?" "I didn't"), it places Elizabeth Shaw also squarely as an Alien parallel. (The Aliens killing their unwilling "parents" at birth, read, chest-bursting, being a key part of their evolution.) And of couse she kills the Engineer, her creator/parent, before he can kill her by throwing him at her unwanted xenomorph offspring, hoping for the annihilation of both.
(It occurs to me that Elizabeth's driving question - what made the Engineers change their mind about humanity and caused them to reject their creation? - may have its answer here. "Accepting" her unnatural pregnancy was never an option, because it happened without her consent, and would in the long term kill her. The Engineers may well have come to the conclusion in the long term, humanity would kill them, and besides, the original creation may not have happened with any more consent by the majority than that which Charlie and Elizabeth gave to David, which is to say, none.)
The longer scene between Meredith Vickers and Weyland makes the mess that's Weyland family relationships a bit more complex than mean daddy, unable-to-please-him daughter, because Meredith after kissing his hand gets a true zinger in about his pyhsical decay, how much it disgusts her and how much she can't stand having to wait yet more for him to draw his final breath, and only then does his hand clinch and he says "is there anything more?". (I.e. in the film as released, he rejects her; in the longer scene, she rejects him first.) Meredith's argument about the natural cycle of life and death between parents and children, and Weyland's refusal to keep to it by wanting to prolong his life both via his own creation, David, and his presumed creators, the Engineers, could be argued to be at the root of of Weyland's company as the root of all evil through all the Alien films; the xenomorphs are simply following their instincts; as a bitter Ripley once observes, humans are worse because they do it deliberately, for profit.
Lastly, the slightly longer exchange between Meredith Vickers and the Captain when he's hustling his Christmas tree around doesn't add anything new, exactly, but it reminded me that the entire film, prologues involving the Engineer and the island of Skye excepted, takes place exactly between Christmas and New Year (Elizabeth Shaw notes it's New Year's Day in her closing broadcast). How to make sure we're in a Damon Lindelof script: a) focus on belief/faith and same getting challenged, b) daddy issues. (Dr. Shaw and David should so have tea with John Locke and Ben.) Also, child birth. (And refusal of same; Elizabeth Shaw breaking the cycle by essentially giving herself an abortion, i.e. the thing that never happened on< i>Lost, simultanously functions as a birth-of-the-hero(ine) scene, i.e. the one where Elizabeth goes from one of the ensemble to designated heroic survivor.) And it all takes place at a feast celebrating the birth of the son of God (Christian) or the birth of the new year (not). Carry on, Damon. Oh, and this makes Prometheus another entry in the gory Christmas movies stakes. :)
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/846856.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
(It occurs to me that Elizabeth's driving question - what made the Engineers change their mind about humanity and caused them to reject their creation? - may have its answer here. "Accepting" her unnatural pregnancy was never an option, because it happened without her consent, and would in the long term kill her. The Engineers may well have come to the conclusion in the long term, humanity would kill them, and besides, the original creation may not have happened with any more consent by the majority than that which Charlie and Elizabeth gave to David, which is to say, none.)
The longer scene between Meredith Vickers and Weyland makes the mess that's Weyland family relationships a bit more complex than mean daddy, unable-to-please-him daughter, because Meredith after kissing his hand gets a true zinger in about his pyhsical decay, how much it disgusts her and how much she can't stand having to wait yet more for him to draw his final breath, and only then does his hand clinch and he says "is there anything more?". (I.e. in the film as released, he rejects her; in the longer scene, she rejects him first.) Meredith's argument about the natural cycle of life and death between parents and children, and Weyland's refusal to keep to it by wanting to prolong his life both via his own creation, David, and his presumed creators, the Engineers, could be argued to be at the root of of Weyland's company as the root of all evil through all the Alien films; the xenomorphs are simply following their instincts; as a bitter Ripley once observes, humans are worse because they do it deliberately, for profit.
Lastly, the slightly longer exchange between Meredith Vickers and the Captain when he's hustling his Christmas tree around doesn't add anything new, exactly, but it reminded me that the entire film, prologues involving the Engineer and the island of Skye excepted, takes place exactly between Christmas and New Year (Elizabeth Shaw notes it's New Year's Day in her closing broadcast). How to make sure we're in a Damon Lindelof script: a) focus on belief/faith and same getting challenged, b) daddy issues. (Dr. Shaw and David should so have tea with John Locke and Ben.) Also, child birth. (And refusal of same; Elizabeth Shaw breaking the cycle by essentially giving herself an abortion, i.e. the thing that never happened on< i>Lost, simultanously functions as a birth-of-the-hero(ine) scene, i.e. the one where Elizabeth goes from one of the ensemble to designated heroic survivor.) And it all takes place at a feast celebrating the birth of the son of God (Christian) or the birth of the new year (not). Carry on, Damon. Oh, and this makes Prometheus another entry in the gory Christmas movies stakes. :)
This entry was originally posted at http://selenak.dreamwidth.org/846856.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.