Dark Star

Originally, this a student film by John Carpenter, it was released after a few tweaks and touch-ups to almost zero interest, but later gained cult status. Not many people know Dark Star, but it was pretty groundbreaking in its day, and was something of a counterpoint to the science fiction films of the time. The crew members of the titular spaceship were no adventurers exploring new worlds. They were bored and irresponsible slackers, getting on each other's nerves and doing tedious and monotonous work. The usual sterile spaceship interiors of earlier science fiction films were replaced by messy quarters and orchestral music was replaced by country music. It was also supposedly the first film to depict the hyperspace jump that we know so well from Star Wars, for example. There are many similarities with Alien, which similarly de-romanticised life in space and also involved screenwriter Dan O'Bannon, who was accused of ripping off It! The Terror from Beyond Space. The incompetent, dysfunctional crew of a spaceship and the humour coupled with philosophising were also major inspirations for the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf. The film doesn't deny its lo-fi setting (the alien here looks like an inflatable ball), but for the limited resources Carpenter and O'Bannon filmed it with (the ship's interiors were made from shoeboxes, the control panels from ice trays and the helmets from children's toys), the result feels quite realistic and you really do feel like you're in a spaceship. Dark Star can still entertain film buffs today with its psychedelic atmosphere, slapstick humour and witty dialogue, especially the memorable philosophical conversation with a talking smart bomb that a crew member tries to persuade not to detonate. (01/12/2023)

I thought of giving it a third star for the deactivation of the bomb with a phenomenological conversation, but no. It’s terribly B-movie like, Carpenter UnCarpenter. The awfully dry humour mostly didn’t work on me, and that alien with duck feet… well. (14/12/2012)