1974 Directed by John Carpenter
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 to 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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In times of trouble, it has often been a great comfort to me to go outside on a particularly dark night and look up into the sky, to contemplate the vast, incomprehensible infinities that make up our universe, the swirling galaxies and the exploding supernovas, the black holes and the glittering nebulae, and think to myself, "there's probably something really stupid going on up there."
Was interesting to see O’Bannon test run his blue-collar workers in space idea for Alien, and Carpenter’s lo-fi mood does amplify the bleakness of its comedy but definitely feels like a student short padded out to feature length.
Four comparisons:
Two Lane Blacktop. . . in space!
A much more compelling astronauts adrift in space movie than Gravity, with dirt cheap sets and effects that appear to be held together with bubble gum.
The alien here may not be as scary as the one in Alien, being a large beach ball and a pair of rubber Halloween hands, but it's just as disturbing. Also hilarious.
It's 2001 without the portentousness and class. Instead of a bright classical and modernist score, we get Carpenter's own country pop and electronics. Instead of the Evolution of Man, we get the final stages of space crazy: violence and apathy, surfing and phenomenology. Instead of semi-divine predetermination, the whims of idiotic chance.
it’s important that everyone knows that pinback and I are dating, he is my boyfriend and we are very much in love. it’s also important that everyone knows that the ship’s computer and I are dating, she is my girlfriend and we are very much in love.
The great Carpenter run begins. That dude must’ve fucking loved Kubrick because this is almost the exact result you’d get if you told a computer to combine Strangelove and 2001 without a budget.
We’re all just bombs in the midst of existential crises.
Big Johns satirical sci-fi-trash debut, before becoming the full metal genre master. clownish but funky. ultra cute like the big eyes on a murder doll.
Dark Star is an early showcase for the talents of John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon. It's not really a good movie, but it is impressive given that its a student film with obvious budgetary limitations. The film focuses on a bunch of bearded hippies on a space mission to destroy unstable planets. It plays out like a kind of intergalactic hangout movie. There's no major plot, we just spend the runtime with these guys as they get up to various hijinks. Some parts are more interesting than others, and it has to be said that a lot of feels like filler. The highlight is probably the sequence that sees O’Bannon face off against an alien beachball and then a wayward…
55/100
[Originally written on my blog.]
Finally. (Another case where I waited close to 20 years for a print to turn up near me.) Thought this was a total bust for a while, but it gets funnier as it goes along, culminating in a glorious finale ("teach it phenomenology") that anticipates Douglas Adams at his loopiest. Still, it's plainly a student short that's been padded out to feature length, and there's virtually no sign of the compositional magnificence Carpenter would demonstrate in Assault on Precinct 13 just two years later. In particular, the extended sequence involving the alien beach ball (which I gather was part of the padding) really feels like amateur hour, the kind of prankish tedium that's thankfully…
Dude, this is like, the cutest thing ever, and probably one of the funniest films I have seen of the decade. Carpenter opens his mind to us through: a sci-fi comedy? Yes: Beach-ball-like aliens, cheaply animated special effects, AI super-smart enough to employ dark humor, philosophical bombs, and Benson Arizona. It is also atmospheric whenever it feels like it; since O'Bannon's provided the idea, we had two developing sources of genius terror making us laugh before Star Wars amazed us or Alien scared us.
The dialogue with the bomb will have you in tears.
I so wish Carpenter had done more comedy in the future.
64/100
