By John J. Joex
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
The names John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon ring familiar to most genre fans because of their involvement writing/directing/producing numerous Science Fiction and Horror classics such as Halloween, Alien, Escape from New York, Total Recall, The Thing, Blue Thunder, and many more. But these two genre outrés got their start together with a fun little film called Dark Star which came out in 1974. This movie, originally conceived as a film-school project, offers a spoof of sorts on science fiction standards like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Trek. It follows the crew of the space ship Dark Star whose mission it is to seek out and destroy unstable planets that may threaten human colonization, a counterpoint of sorts to the Trek mission to “seek out and find new life and civilizations”. They carry out their objective by launching “intelligent” bombs whose only purpose in life is explode once they reach their target. However, the ship passes through an asteroid storm which damages some of the internal systems and one of the bombs, after several false starts, insists on detonating even though it fails to launch and will destroy the ship. This forces the acting captain, the actual captain is mostly dead though kept in a state of limbo in suspended animation, into an existential conversation with the bomb to convince it not to detonate and destroy the ship and its crew.
Made in the early 70’s on a very slight budget (of around $60 thousand), this one obviously looks quite cheesy compared to the more polished product that comes out of Hollywood today, but the creative team makes the most of what they have and deliver an enjoyable romp that will generate more than a few well deserved laughs. Some may take issues with the acting, which includes Dan O’Bannon playing Sgt. Pinback (or liquid fuel specialist Bill Frug, depending on which story you believe) and which seems more than a bit unpolished at times. But then this also lends an air of authenticity to the film in its almost documentary style that tracks the tedium the ship’s crew must endure during their twenty year mission. Unlike Trek where the crew encounters a myriad of alien civilizations from week to week, the men aboard the Dark Star must deal with mundane problems like the storage locker self-destructing and destroying all of the ship’s toilet paper. Carpenter and O’Bannon key in on the fact that long distance space travel would be monotonous and dull and they derive much of the humor of the film from that. Nor does Dark Star try to deliver a broad send-up of the genre like Spaceballs, instead it taps into more subtle sources for its satire and delivers its humor mostly through dry wit. It does veer into slapstick a bit with the alien beach ball sequence (and if that seems like a comedy twist on Alien, remember who wrote both), but it succeeds best when focusing on the monotony of the day to day life on the ship and how the crew deals with it and also on how poorly prepared they are to deal with the crisis at the end of the film.
The film was originally shot as a 45 minute student production and made the rounds of several festivals before a financer decided to pick it up for release, though he wanted it extended to feature length. This resulted in the inclusion of the alien beach ball scene which has a tacked on feel to it and does not gel as well with the rest of the film. Of course neither does it sink the film and it adds a few laughs in the process. The movie also has a toned down Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy feel to it at times, especially during Doolittle’s conversation with the bomb, though it’s a bit less frenetic than that classic sci fi spoof. It’s definitely rough around the edges, considering its inauspicious beginnings, but still a must-see for Science Fiction fans.
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