Aliens- Mise-en-scene (In Character Analysis)

Character analysation

I have chosen to study the characters who were given enough screen time for me to analyse them.

Ellen Ripley- Ripley has dealt with aliens before so she is exactly aware of what they are dealing with. Because of her past experience, she is seen as serious and stern from the start of the film whereas the military crew are excited and acting childish. Ripley acts overly anxious compared to the others and this creates a sense of foreboding. In the sequence I looked at she is seen to be knowledgeable as she noticed that the bullet types the crew were going to use could lead to a nuclear reaction. The army general, Gorman was not aware of the consequences showing he was not educated in the sciences as well as Ripley and Burke. If Ripley didn't notice, the whole ship would have blown up and killed the whole crew. She never lets her guard down whether she's on the operating tank or on the deserted alien spaceship, we can see this from her body posture and facial expressions, she walks as though she is anticipating something to happen. She is experienced in a lot of things which makes her a good advisor, although she is not always listened to, for example, when the crew were getting signals of movement surrounding them, Ripley was advising Gorman to call them back. He ignored her and when aliens started to attack crew members Gorman was freezing and stuttering and not taking control of the situation like he should, Ripley tried asserting herself into his position but only got shouted at to 'shut up'. She's a natural leader, she took the matters into her own hands and drove the tank to collect the crew, she saved the majority of the crew. From that point on, they took her more seriously instead of just someone who is 'there'.

William Gorman- Gorman was a Colonial Marine officer fresh out of the academy, the mission shown in this film was to be only his second combat operation. He is inexperienced in his field and does not hold a great amount of respect from his fellow marines because of it. From the scenes I watched, he seemed to have control of orders going to Sargent Apone, this meant everything the crew does, comes through Apone, from Gorman. 
We can see that he is clueless and not educated well enough on his sciences as he did not see the risk of causing a large nuclear explosion from shots potentially being fired into the Atmosphere Processor. Gorman does what he thinks is best and does not discuss or take second opinions from his peers, this led to a bad situation where some crew mates were killed. He starts to panick and lose his words and control over the situation when the aliens start to attack the marines, Ripley tries to take over but she is shunned away. This shows that Gorman is too stuck in his ways to have someone else help him or take control.

Jenette Vasquez- Vasquez was a private first class marine and comes across as very tough. She acts macho, possibly to fit in with her male dominated counterparts. Not only does she act this way, she dresses in conflict to how a stereotypical woman would, this is because she is a marine, which is seen typically to be a male role. She wears no helmet but instead a bandana around her short black hair. Every other character wears a helmet, this seems though she does not care much for safety precautions and does not feel that her life is in danger. This could show her optimism of surviving and her arrogance. When the team is looking around the ship, Vasquez is the natural leader, she leads the way infront of all the men, this could show that she is equal or almost the equivalent to them. She is seen to have a boisterous personality, she does not get affected by taunts from fellow marines but instead has a witty and stronger response.This helps her gain respect from the others and proves that she is not weak or a 'damsel in distress' type of person. After realising that the bullets in their guns could cause a nuclear explosion, Sarge Apone was instructed to take all ammunition from the crew's guns. Vasquez was one of the few to complain and did not give all of her ammo and kept some for herself and Private Drake. This tells us that she is not afraid to break the rules and shows rebellion to decisions she does not agree with. She was not aware of the harm that could come to her and her crew mates from firing, so when the aliens first attacked, she recklessly started shooting. This would have been taking a risk of getting into trouble with Sarge Apone as she did not follow orders.