Dark Star
1974 Directed by John Carpenter
Synopsis
What Do You Say To A Talking Bomb? All Systems Snafu!!!
A low-budget, sci-fi satire that focuses on a group of scientists whose mission is to destroy unstable planets. 20 years into their mission, they have battle their alien mascot, that resembles a beach ball, as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.
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What the hell did I just watch??!!
It's terrible, has a budget of about $1.47, and might be a little bit brilliant.
I need to watch it about three more times before I decide.
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John Carpenter's first film (a collaboration with future ALIEN screenwriter and THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD director Dan O'Bannon) began life as a 68-minute student film before the filmmakers were given some money by producer Jack H. Harris to add 15 minutes and some FX.
The resulting film, with its shaggy, laid-back rhythms, existential themes, charmingly low-budget effects, and sardonic, satirical sense of humor, definitely isn't for everybody, but I personally think it's a minor masterpiece. Certainly there is no other movie quite like it.
A small crew of slacker astronauts glumly travel the universe, blowing up "unstable planets" to clear the way for colonization. The film does a fantastic job capturing the lonely, desolate atmosphere of extremely distant…
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Some great sequences and ideas - particularly the intelligent bombs, but very much the unsure work of early film makers who would go on to do great things.
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Film 26 of "The December Project" 2012
83 minutesI previously stated that I would like to check off some of the John Carpenter films that I'd never seen, and since this was his first film, and I heard it was actually a comedy, I said why not?
The comedy was extremely dated for my taste, so a lot of it fell flat and I really didn't laugh very much. Not that it wasn't funny at all, I did laugh a few times at the characters while they were interacting with each other. The ship's voice also was a large part of the comedy, it was almost as if it was fucking with the crew.
There were a few things…
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Dark Star is the first feature length film ever directed by John Carpenter back during his film school days. The film stars and was co-written by Carpenter's fellow classmate Dan O'Bannon, who later went on to write Ridley Scott's film Alien with the help of Ron Shussett. After twenty years of soaring around space blowing up unstable planets to protect the solar system, a human error causes one of the "smart bombs" aboard the Dark Star spaceship to malfunction. It's up to the four living (and one dead) over-worked, under-enthusiastic crew members of the ship to find a way to stop the bomb from blowing up and killing them all before it's too late.
That's the general plot of Dark…
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I wish I could remember who recommended this but in some recent discussion this came up as a pretty obvious precursor to ALIEN. Quite honestly, it's almost like a trial run for writer Dan O'Bannon who later used many of the ideas here in the far more successful ALIEN.
The story here, about a group of space travelers preparing worlds for terraforming, plays on the idea that these guys are slowly going stir crazy inside the Dark Star ship and coupled with the alien loosed on the ship and the constant malfunctions... there's quite a bit to love though what I really liked was the 70s counterculture which is immediately apparent.
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What an odd film! Funny at points, strange at points, very 70s. I enjoyed it in a camp sort of fashion.
Oddly enough, this is the precursor to Alien. Kinda.
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The DR. STRANGELOVE of outer space movies.
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I wish I could remember who recommended this but in some recent discussion this came up as a pretty obvious precursor to ALIEN. Quite honestly, it's almost like a trial run for writer Dan O'Bannon who later used many of the ideas here in the far more successful ALIEN.
The story here, about a group of space travelers preparing worlds for terraforming, plays on the idea that these guys are slowly going stir crazy inside the Dark Star ship and coupled with the alien loosed on the ship and the constant malfunctions... there's quite a bit to love though what I really liked was the 70s counterculture which is immediately apparent.
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John Carpenter's creaky but utterly charming debut feature. Draggy in places, but it's influence on bigger pictures like Alien and Star Wars is undeniable. Seen at the BFI with a live, Carpenter-approved score by Animat.
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What a joy it was to revisit my favourite director's first film on the big screen with Animat playing an alternative soundtrack live. I'd forgotten how great this film is. Sure it's low budget and the ship's pet alien is a beach ball (literally) but this film is so much fun. I now want to revisit the film again to see how much a difference Animat's work made. They also recommended checking out the making of documentary too. Any cinema going experience that ends with the very song you had as the first dance at your wedding is always going to win points.
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Some great sequences and ideas - particularly the intelligent bombs, but very much the unsure work of early film makers who would go on to do great things.
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A crew of four astronauts are in deep space on the ship Darkstar, cut off from the rest of humanity, conducting their mission to destroy potentially unstable planets to aid future colonisation. They've been there decades and are apathetic and tired. Their routine is disturbed one mission and they have that and a runaway alien captive to cope with...
One of those films where you have to bear in mind the context of its creation. Carpenter's first feature film, working with Dan O'Brian on a shoe-string budget of $60,000 and it looks very crude in terms of the special effects. I mean the Alien was a beach ball with two plastic feet attached to the bottom. A beach ball. The…
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Die Reise der 4 Astronauten auf ihrer sinnlosen Reise auf der beengten “Dark Star” ist ein skurriler Blick in das Zusammenleben von erwachsenen Männern auf langer Fahrt. Nach 20 Jahren Flug sind sie von der Erde abgeschnitten, Nachschub, Abslösung und Ersatzteile werden nicht mehr geliefert, zu weit sind sie schon weg.
An Board hat der Niedergang das Kommando übernommen. Das Schiff bröckelt an allen Ecken und Enden, der Commander ist nach einem Unfall tiefgefrohren und unter den verbleibenden vier Crew Mitgliedern machen sich Stumpfsinn, Desinteresse und gegenseitige Verachtung breit.
Visuell macht der Film nicht viel her. Assoziationen zu Grafiken und Bildern aus Spielautomaten der frühen 80er Jahren machen sich breit. Es geht aber wohl auch nicht so sehr um die…
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My follow-up to Mike Leigh's debut was another debut feature which was very, very different. Believe it or not, this is my first John Carpenter film which gives me another chance to explore a director's work chronologically (though I'm definitely going to miss a few out.) The film's use of comedy is subtle, yet absurd and silly sequences do provide laughs, though there's nothing to make your sides split. It's quite fun from the outset, but it lacks real emotional depth to get the audience involved. It's impressive for a student film, coupled with the budget it was made on. What's most interesting is there's a new layer to the satire as a number of shots and moments in Dark Star are reminiscent of Alien (both share the same writer) despite being made before it. It's fun & silly, and at 70 minutes it's an easy watch.