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Dark Star (1974)

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123 comments in total

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41 out of 45 people found the following comment useful :-
The Bizarro 2001, 25 October 2004
Author: sciencefaction3d (sciencefaction3d@yahoo.com) from Lafayette,La.

I saw this film as a kid, dismissed it as boring, and moved on. Luckily, fate forced me to see it again about 2 years ago and (some are going to hate me for this) now i consider it second only to Kubrick's 2001:A Space Odyssey. The scope is gigantic, even though we're trapped inside the goofy little ship with these rejects (and they ARE rejects). It is a spoof of man's uninformed view of his place in the universe. It is filled to capacity with malfunctioning technology, illogical solutions to self-inflicted conflicts and a very genuine feeling of the isolation of deep space.

The music (John Carpenter is an innovator in film scoring) is strange and often indistinguishable from the zany noises of the ship's equipment and displays (who would ever create such tortuous bleeps and sirens for EVERY function of a spacecraft designed to house a couple of guys in the outermost regions of the galaxy?). The ship's computer is a perfect contast of Hal9000 (2001) in that SHE seems to understand her crew's dimwitted plight and ,after speaking to them in her programmed monotone, recognizes the need to go back and dumb herself down so that they can function accordingly. It is never explained whether she has assumed a mother-figure role or is simply acting out of self-preservation ,but ,like most of the more thought-provoking elements of this absurdist's fantasy, the viewer is merely given the bare-bones information and allowed to decide for itself.

Maybe all of this implied data caused me to make the movie better in my head than it actually is ,but how many films have you seen lately that can give you that freedom?

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35 out of 38 people found the following comment useful :-
One of my favourite films!, 6 December 2004

Author: NiceGuyTommy from Bristol, England

John Carpenter's feature debut 'Dark Star' is an absolutely brilliant little curio, that'll make you laugh and laugh. I first saw the film on England's Channel 4 a few years back, and remember wondering what the hell I was watching. I quickly tracked down a copy and rewatched it to see if it was really THAT good...

The story involves a bunch of astronauts who have been in space for many years: they spend their time blowing up unstable planets and rocking out to surf music. During this time, an alien (that looks suspiciously like a beach ball runs riot), and an unruly bomb threatens to blow everyone to smithereens.

'Alien' screenwriter Dan O'Bannon wrote 'Dark Star', and clearly borrowed from it for the 1979 Ridley Scott film - taking the hilarious beach-ball sequence and playing it out for tension rather than laughs. Also a big influence on the TV series 'Red Dwarf'.

Check it out if you're a fan of science fiction or a fan of John Carpenter. 10/10. An underrated classic.

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31 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :-
A demented outer space comedy from John Carpenter., 12 November 2003
Author: Joseph P. Ulibas (sirjosephu@aol.com) from Sacramento, CA

Dark Star (1974) was a student film that John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon worked on while they were in college. They later found a film distributor who asked them to expand it to feature film length. The movie takes place in a small, cramped out of date spacecraft. Several astronauts are on board (who have been around each other to long) trying to complete their mission of destroying unstable planets. I found this film to be very entertaining and bizarre. I enjoyed it very much. The highlight of this film is when a computerized bomb decides that he doesn't want to take orders from the astronauts anymore and ponders the meaning of life. Highly recommended, but it's not your average Sci-Fi film.

A.

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23 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
I never realized Pinback wrote Alien!, 13 December 2004
Author: alan-potter-1 from Essex, UK

I first saw Dark Star about 25 years ago and have enthused about it ever since. It's definitely a movie that you've got to be in the mind for but it is funny, the music has the characteristic Carpenter style, is very hippyish in a lot of ways and the low-budget style works very well. The alien is great - apparently its feet are the ones used in "The Creature From The Black Lagoon"

It's a shame the DVD doesn't have any extras. I suppose there isn't much left lying around for them to use!

It's also incredible to think that it was only 5 years between the release of this and the release of Alien. Pinback is one of the characters in Dark Star, played by Dan O'Bannon and he is also the co-writer. Then he went on to write Alien!

Do see this film - but be in a laid-back mood when you do.

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20 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Astronauts on a senseless mission through Space, Philosophic Bombs, a lot of subtle humor, and those bearts oh my, oh my.., 27 March 2005

Author: cgibin from Germany

A Great Movie, i think it was made in Film School and is the first Movie available by John Carpenter.. The great thing besides the Humor, are those little typical low-budget Mistakes like the actor in the "lift" scene who is pretty clearly just lying on a common Floor.. The "mOnster" is amazing too its funny to see how a Ball with gloves can actually act, and a little music makes it scary..

The Last Scene is clearly inspired by Ray Bradburys (Fahrenheit 451) Short Story "Kaleidoscope"..

Sorry for my poor English, but i just had to write something to this incredible piece of film..

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21 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
The captain is dead, but that is no problem, 27 September 2004
Author: flingebunt from Harbin, China

It all started out as a short film made at film school made by the now legendary John Carpetenter, but then they wanted to make a longer version, however they couldn't get money to remake it, so they simply added extra scenes in the middle (example, the beach ball alien).

The story is this, on a ship where the captain is dead (but you can unfreeze to ask him questions) and the rest crew are going basically crazy they have problem. One of their bombs has become sentient and is busy contemplating the nature of existence.

The effects are OK, and who would have thought the beach ball would become the inspriration for the movie Alien.

Over all one of the great classics of science fiction and of low budget film making.

I heard of this movie a long time ago and it took me over 10 years before I finally found it in my local video shop. Great and amazing movie.

What will bomb number 20 do, now it is intelligent...watch the film and find out.

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16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
I Get It & I Don't!, 15 July 2004
Author: BaronBl00d (baronbl00d@aol.com) from NC

When one takes into account that this was the first real film venture of John Carpenter and Dan O' Bannon, two incredibly influential and talented movie personas, Dark Star is not all that bad. It has some imaginative camera shots, an intriguing storyline, and some unique, definitely not mainstream humour. The story about the humdrum nature of flying in space for an interminable time has several layers peeled in the script. If I judged the film solely on those merits, it would indeed do well. However, the film has a snail's pace and some uneven plot twists, not to mention some not very good acting. Many of Carpenter's soon-to-be-signature trademarks are clearly evident in this film. No denying it, the man has talent. The film was made with a shoestring budget, but Carpenter and crew do a workmanlike job with the resources they had. Clearly, the greatest appreciation for this film is not for the product itself but for the potential and early, evident development of Carpenter and to a lesser degree O' Bannon.

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17 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Science fiction with a funny bone, 7 April 2004

Author: Klaatu-18 (b5guy@aol.com) from Dallas, TX USA

I saw this movie for the first time at the USA Film Festival. Held here in Big D every spring, the USAFF showcases films produced here in the USA. (No foreign films)

Each night they would show two new films, plus a retrospective film from the actor or director being honored that year. After the film, the film critic who selected the film would interview one or more of the people involved with the film's production.

Towards the end of the week, I arrived at the Bob Hope Theatre (on the SMU campus) to find a notice on the chalkboard: one of the films had cancelled out, and "Dark Star" a "sci-fi comedy" would be shown in its place.

Bringing science fiction and comedy together is a tricky business: usually either the SF content or the humor suffers. Or both.

I ended up being pleasantly surprised. The special effects were a little cheesy (Carpenter originally shot it as a film student, on a film students "budget"), but the characters were funny, and they got off some nice riffs.

Carpenter and O'Bannon (who also co-wrote the first "Alien" movie) produce a collection of odd characters on an extended mission. For the last 20 years they've been travelling the galaxies in search of "unstable planets" to destroy.

Unfortunately, the crew is falling apart. Boredom, apathy, mechanical malfunctions and a puckish alien mascot ensure that things only get worse and worse.

There's a clever parody of a scene from "2001" occurs when one of the bombs can't be released and has to be talked out of exploding.

And there's a reverse reference to one of O'Bannon's own script for "Alien" when the alien gets free and one of the crew has to track the thing down. (O'Bannon refers to this as "Alien" turned upside-down: instead of the alien chasing the crew, one of the crew chases the alien)

Lots of fun. Eight stars.

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15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
A silly little film, 2 August 2005

Author: tomimt from Finland

John Carpenter's first film. Must be horror you say, but you'd be wrong in that account. Dark Star is a parodied view of future, in where a group of astronauts travel in space, destroying unstable planets in danger of hitting in to the sun, thus making them in to novas.

One would think there's lots of special effects in a movie like this, and one would be right. Those special effects just aren't extremely good in any standard, but they do have lots of charm. And I actually do believe, that if this movie would have any better specials it wouldn't be as funny as it's now.

I won't spoil the movie for you, but if you like sci-fi this just might suit for you then. It gave me couple of laughs.

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
REAL astronauts have long hair and beards., 25 October 2005

Author: gingerpete from Yorkshire

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Don't give me any of that intelligent life stuff, give me something I can blow up!" Doolittle.

Lieutenant Doolittle is in charge of 'Dark Star', a ship on a lonely mission to destroy unstable planets in systems targeted for colonisation. The ship has been on it's mission for twenty years, but the crew have only aged three years. Doolittle has been in charge since an explosion killed Commander Powell, rendered the sleeping quarters uninhabitable and destroyed the ship's entire supply of toilet paper. In order to deal with the excruciating boredom of the mission and the frustration at having only three other astronauts for company the ship's computer, which has an alluringly soothing and sexy female voice, pipes in muzak and easy listening jazz. Doolittle misses surfing. Boiler has taken to shooting holes in things. Talby lives in isolation in the the observation dome. Pinback isn't really Pinback, not that anyone even cares. Excitement arrives when an asteroid inflicts damage on the ship's systems, prematurely activating one of the highly intelligent, eager and earnest planet killer bombs. To complicate things the alien needs feeding, and Bomb 20 just wants to do its job and is getting increasingly frustrated and belligerent.

"Bomb, are you willing to entertain a few concepts?" Doolittle

"I am always receptive to suggestions!" Bomb 20

'Dark Star' was made in 1974, initially as a college project, and launched the careers of John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon, amongst others (Tommy Lee Wallace and Nick Castle, long term Carpenter collaborators both, worked on 'Dark Star' and the ship's interior and exterior were designed by the great Ron Cobb). From the very start Carpenter's style is evident, the widescreen image is utilised to absolute maximum effect without a bit of wasted space on screen, the signature electronic music is present throughout (with the exception of the cheerfully optimistic trucker song 'Benson, Arizona' which serves as title song), and the pacing and editing are perfect. The film is not boring for a minute despite the lack of resources. The special effects, while cheap and cheerful, serve the film perfectly (I've always managed to suspend disbelief more easily in the face of cheap practical effects than I have when faced with unconvincing computer generated effects), particularly the psychedelic hyperspace sequences. The film as a whole is a tour de force of tricks and gags, a veritable 'How To' of practical effects that, once staples of cinema, are now being superseded by CGI. 'Dark Star' has influenced science fiction film-making ever since and just as 'Dark Star' tips it's hat to it's inspirations (for example 'THX1138'), it in turn will be referenced for many years to come.

I can't tell you how much I love this film. It's funny and moving (Pinback's video diary is burned in my memory), and, a groundbreaking movie in 1974, it still feels fresh 31 years later. The product of post-Vietnam and Watergate era America it still resonates today because in an age of ever smarter bombs and increasingly advanced technology we remain at the mercy of chance and human frailty.

It's also the only film in history to feature a man discussing phenomenology with a bomb. Priceless!

A perfect ten out of ten.

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