Review of Dark Star (1974) by Adrienne M — 09 Sep 2012

Straight from the beginning I knew I was going to be a fan of Dark Star. John Carpenter was obviously a huge fan of 2001: A Space Odyssey and this is more of a loving spoof along the lines of Blazing Saddles than one that tries to point out flaws (like Scary Movie, Epic Movie, etc).

The beginning takes note of the many shots of ships flying in space to distance the audience in 2001. What they do, instead of having one long shot of the ship is have multiple long shots of the ship cut together.

Dan O'Bannon and John Carpenter show their understanding of the genre, which makes Dark Star so enjoyable. I'd probably give O'Bannon more of the credit there, considering he went on to write more sci-fi such as Alien and Total Recall.

I also loved him as Pinback, who was easily my favorite character (other than Bomb 20). The spaceship Dark Star is on a mission to blow up unstable planets. At the opening we discover they are so far from Earth that it takes 10 years to send one transmission.

And when they do, even though it's been 10 years, they talk about Pinback being afraid of sitting next to the seat where Commander Powell died. His seat malfunctioned so Pinback's afraid of dying too.

The transmission ends with Doolittle saying Sector 9 self destructed, which had all their toilet paper. None of the jokes fall out of place. It's funny when Doolittle talks to Talby because he has alienated himself from the rest of the crew.

Speaking of Talby, I thought the opening of Dark Star that showed Talby in his dome looked like it was spoofing Star Wars, especially since he just makes beeping noises at first until he finally says he can't hear Doolittle.

It seemed like a reference to R2D2, even though Star Wars came out 3 years later. Crazy. Anyway, Doolittle's worried about Talby and then when Pinback brings it up we just laugh again. It's a film filled with dry and intelligent humor.

I mean, come on, the big climactic scene ends with a guy asking a bomb existential questions about what the real truth is and how we perceive reality. I laughed every time the main computer had to argue with Bomb 20 to go back into the chamber because it got an error code.

And the beach ball alien was perfection. That whole sequence was just great. "If I may quote you, you said this ships needed a mascot." Pinback has to feed the alien, which escapes and he has to chase it down, eventually getting himself stuck in an elevator shaft.

I loved the revelation of Pinback's story that he wasn't smart enough to be on Dark Star, but by accident found himself in Pinback's suit and the people rushed him on board the ship. Boiler and Doolittle are just bored by the story because they heard it 4 years ago.

There's a scene when they are wondering what's going on with Talby and Boiler asks what's Talby's first name, in which Doolittle replies that he forgets his own first name. I loved when Pinback shoots the alien with a tranquilizer and it blows away and he explains to the crew that the alien was just made of gas.

But the real plot itself is actually interesting. These guys go from planet to planet and blow it up if there's any chance that it could disrupt the Earth one day. It works because it has such a great plot and then continues to play jokes here and there.

It's a great start for John Carpenter. How can you not love when the bomb decides it's God and blows up the entire ship? Doolittle surfs to his death because he loves surfing, and Talby gets to follow the Phoenix Astroids the rest of his life, glowing like a rainbow around the universe.