Review of Starman (1984) by Philip O — 21 May 2009

The 80s are filled with all kinds of wacky "aliens are ugly but misunderstood so we must learn to love them" type movies. Alien Nation and Enemy Mine are excellent examples of good and thought provoking ideas with poor execution.

I expected Starman to be more of the same. And in the end, the story felt like a combination of E.T. and Short Circuit. But there is so much heart and emotion to this film. It involves an alien learning and mimicking - and this stuff never ends well.

I always find myself groaning and rolling my eyes because humans always use retarded slang and the alien or robot gets confused and hilarious hijinks ensue. It's always crap. Starman passes right through this territory and manages to swerve around all the crap.

And the special effects were amazing. Some involved animating lights and such as the 80s liked to do. But this is John Carpenters Starman. So he pulls out the same kind of amazing conventional effects that made The Thing so awesome.

Karen Allen is heartbreaking as the widow who just lost her husband and can't seem to get over it. Jeff Bridges is amazing as he points out both the savage illogical brutality of humankind, while also falling in love with the beauty of it, and learning what it means to love.

The music was beautiful The score made me weep. I never would have seen this movie if it wasn't for Netflix. And I'm better for having watched it.