Rick Collier has raised some very interesting points...
> He is saying,
> to women that they can be tough and resourceful, but only if they
> remember first to heed the call of biological/hormonal destiny: don't
> forget your place in the overall scheme of things, ladies!
... but it isn't clear to me that this is Cameron's point. Nor is it
clear to me that protecting the young of one's species is necessarily a
smarmy family value. It seems instead to be an instinct laden with
survival value. I'm not convinced that Cameron establishes an ONLY IF
-- perhaps, rather, he argues that women can be tough and resourceful AND
retain maternal instincts.
I understand that a number of readers were not fans of this movie, but I
want to remark that I was probably not the only one to take offense at
various commentators' suggestions that we should stop discussing it.
Over the last week I have read a number of posts arguing for and against
the quality of the scripts and themes, comparing and contrasting the
different Aliens films, situating "Aliens" within this or that film
genre, and so on. These seem to me valid and interesting discussions
revealing that there may well be materials in these movies worthy of
critical notice. Those who feel the subject exhausted are, as always,
free to stab their delete key.
Cordially,
Fiona Kelleghan
SF critic
University of Miami
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