Anyone seen John Carpenter's "Dark Star" ? (1 Viewer)

[Kirk Gunn]

Saw it listed for 5.32 at:
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=VCI008205
Looks interesting for a "C Grade" movie, reminiscent of BBC's Red Dwarf. Made while he was still in college, so I imagine the FX are beyond cheesy.
Here's a summary:
The first film from John Carpenter is a hilarious romp in a not-so-glamourous spaceship into the outer reaches of space. A team of astronauts manning the beat-up spaceship Dark Star are on a mission across the universe to seek out and destroy unstable planets. The journey is wrought with mishaps and danger seems to come from the most unexpected places. There are misbehaving pet aliens, suicidal bombs that see no reason to live and want to blow themselves up, frozen crewmates dispensing advice from beyond the grave and a surly, unhelpful main computer that holds the men it serves in total contempt. Despite all these problems, the crew is still bored to the brink of madness. Co-written by Dan O'Bannon, who would go on to write the script for ALIEN, the film is brimming with jabs at the science fiction genre. John Carpenter cut his directing teeth on this film, which he also co-wrote. Made while Carpenter was a college student and produced for very little money, DARK STAR is considered to be the most successful student film ever made.

 

[Jeff Pryor]

It's a good movie, but not great. Worth a DVD purchase, I say.

 

[Chris Moe]

It is not a bad movie but the alien creature is litterally a big beach ball with feet attached to it. For $5.32 its probably worth a purchase if you go into it knowing that it is a very low budget movie.

 

[Steve Christou]

I first saw Dark Star at a SF convention in the late 70's, loved it, I couldn't stop laughing, it only cost about 50p but still worth seeing for SF fans, the sultry female computer voice, the frustrated talking bomb who's one object in life is to blow up, the panic stricken crew have to talk it out of blowing itself up while still attached to the ship, the stoned hippie crew who can't even remember their real names, the alien that looks suspiciously like a beachball with claws, the elevator scene, a 70's cult classic.
[Pinback wants the bomb to disarm.]
Pinback: All right, bomb. Prepare to receive new orders.
Bomb#20: You are false data.
Pinback: Hmmm?
Bomb #20: Therefore I shall ignore you.
Pinback: Hello...bomb?
Bomb #20: False data can act only as a distraction. Therefore, I shall refuse to perceive.
Pinback: Hey, bomb?!
Bomb #20: The only thing that exists is myself.
Pinback: Snap out of it, bomb.

 

[John CW]

This is definitely a cult movie... you should either LOVE it or not care for it. Not much of an inbetween. Personally I LOVE it (but only the shorter "Director's Cut" - I hate the longer version) but, like most cult movies, it may take a while to fully savour the comedy. I'd definitely recommend it for that price, though (although there is a Special Edition in the works (thank God!)).

If you like Red Dwarf, you should like this (RD pretty much ripped off the whole "stuck in space" idea and expanded on it).

~ John

 

[Edwin-S]

I saw this film years ago. I had read about how funny the film was and rented it out of curiousity. It was nowhere near as funny as it was made out to be, except for the bomb sequence. The bomb sequence was hilarious, at least for me. It is worth seeing for the bomb sequence. The rest of it you would have to judge for yourself.

 

[Stephanie T.]

Yes, any movie featuring a rectangular thermonuclear weapon in the midst of an epistemological crisis is worth a look-see!
I believe Dan O'Bannon played the guy who first found (and then took care of) the beachball alien.
First hilarious bit: when the crew is just getting on each other's nerves, and listening to the same, worn-out 8-tracks that they've listened to too many times already. I bet Wolfgang Petersen was influenced by this before he made "Das Boot". You see, although they have a mission (to traverse the universe, blowing up unstable planets along the way), most of the time they just sit around, in transit, with absolutely nothing to do. This is the essence of great "stoner" humor; the shaggy hairstyles and tatty Hawaiian shirts just clinch it.
Just when you think things can't get any more depressing for the guys, one of them accidentally jettisons their supply of toilet paper.

Then, there's that grim surfing bit at the very end, presaging same in "Apocalypse Now!". Gad, this flick was just so influential!
So yeah, go for it, man...

 

[Kevin M]

It was nowhere near as funny as it was made out to be,

That's really the problem with discovering a film on your own with no preconceived expectations and hearing raves from people who discovered it with no preconceived notions.
Suspiria IMO suffers under this same snowballing, taken with little fanboy influence (as I did when I first watched it) it is a fine thriller but if you go in with undue expectations (like say Phantom Menace) after all the fanboy build up...well nothing can hold up to those kind of exaggerated expectations.

 

[Steve Christou]

Found an early draft of the Dark Star screenplay online, here's an excerpt.
DOOLITTLE
What do you have for us now Boiler?
BOILER
(checking his readouts)
Not much. Nothing at all in this sector.
DOOLITTLE
Find me something, I don't care where it is.
BOILER
Well, I show a 95% probability of sentient life in the Horsehead Nebula...
DOOLITTLE
Fuck that shit.
BOILER
Well, it is kind of a long shot...
DOOLITTLE
It's a goddamn wild goose chase. Remember when Commander Powell found that 99% plus probability of sentient life in the Magellanic Cloud?
BOILER
Well, there's the possibility of...
DOOLITTLE
Remember what we found? Fourteen light years for a fucking mindless vegetable that looked like a limp balloon and went squawk and let out a fart when you touched it. Remember?
BOILER
All right, then...
DOOLITTLE
Don't give me any of that sentient life crap. Find me something I can blow up.

 

[Stephanie T.]

Yes, that captures the essence of it.
I liked the realistic sordidness of the set -- IIRC, the crew's living area was thoroughly dishevelled, with well-worn porno mags, empty food serving containers, the 8-tracks, and probably some dirty laundry scattered about on the floor. Very eau de dorm room.
Steve, would you please excerpt from the bomb's philosophical dialogue? Classic argument, that one... Thanks!

 

[Kirk Gunn]

Thanks - I'm ordering it !!!! (and will try to view with no preconceived expectations...)

 

[Steve Christou]

Stephanie here's the excerpt from the early draft, which is very similar to the finished film.
EXTERIOR - BOMB BAY
Doolittle floats into shot, jets himself up until he is facing Bomb #20.
DOOLITTLE
Hello, bomb, are you with me?
BOMB #20
Of course.
DOOLITTLE
Are you willing to entertain a few concepts?
BOMB #20
I am always receptive to suggestions.
DOOLITTLE
Fine. Think about this one, how do you know you exist?
INTERIOR - CONTROL ROOM
BOILER
What's he doin'?
PINBACK
I think he's talking to it.
EXTERIOR - BOMB BAY
BOMB #20
Well of course I exist.
DOOLITTLE
But how do you know you exist?
BOMB #20
It is intuitively obvious.
DOOLITTLE
Intuition is no proof. What concrete evidence do you have of your own existence?
BOMB #20
Hmm... Well, I think, therefore I am.
DOOLITTLE
That's good. Very good. Now then, how do you know that anything else exists?
BOMB #20
My sensory apparatus reveals it to me.
DOOLITTLE
Right!
BOMB #20
This is fun.
DOOLITTLE
All right now, here's the big question: how do you know that the evidence your sensory apparatus reveals to you is correct? What I'm getting at is this: the only experience that is directly available to you is your sensory data. And this data is merely a stream of electrical impulses which stimulate your computing center.
BOMB #20
In other words, all I really know about the outside universe relayed to me through my electrical connections.
DOOLITTLE
Exactly.
BOMB #20
Why, that would mean... I really don't know what the outside universe is like at all, for certain.
DOOLITTLE
That's it.
BOMB #20
Intriguing. I wish I had more time to discuss this matter.
DOOLITTLE
Why don't you have more time?
BOMB #20
Because I must detonate in seventy-five seconds.
DOOLITTLE
Now, bomb, consider this next question, very carefully. What is your one purpose in life?
BOMB #20
To explode, of course.
DOOLITTLE
And you can only do it once, right?
BOMB #20
That is correct.
DOOLITTLE
And you wouldn't want to explode on the basis of false data, would you?
BOMB #20
Of course not.
DOOLITTLE
Well then, you've already admitted that you have no real proof of the existence of the outside universe.
BOMB #20
Yes, well...
DOOLITTLE
So you have no absolute proof that Sergeant Pinback ordered you to detonate.
BOMB #20
I recall distinctly the detonation order. My memory is good on matters like these.
DOOLITTLE
Yes, of course you remember it, but what you are remembering is merely a series of electrical impulses which
you now realize have no necessary connection with outside reality.
BOMB #20
True, but since this is so, I have no proof that you are really telling me all this...
INTERIOR - CONTROL ROOM
Pinback is pawing frantically through the control room, searching for the key. Boiler is apoplectic.
BOILER
The key, goddamit, the key!
PINBACK
Christ, twenty seconds, Christ!
[exciting stuff eh?]

 

[Josh Lowe]

my dad, ever molding me, hit me with that film when i was about 10 years old. he warped my fragile little mind.

 

[Stephanie T.]

Thanks, Steve! To paraphrase the bomb, that was fun!

 

[Steve Christou]

You're welcome.
"Ship's log, entry number 1,943.
Storage Area 9 self-destructed last week, destroying entire ship's supply of toilet paper. That's all." Beep.

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

Where the heck is Benson Arizona, and what does it have to do with surfing?
http://www.freshmonsters.com/kalital...tructures.html

 

[JeremySt]

DOOLITTLE'S VIDEO DIARY. Expletives deleted.




DOOLITLE(snickering, and pointing at the camera): I saw commander Powell in the hall today! He said ************, and I said *********Powell! and he said *******!

Doolittle snikers, regains his composure, and continues


DOOLITLE: And I said ********* (gesture deleted) ***! And HE didn't get it!

 

[Kevin M]

DOOLITLE: And I said ********* (gesture deleted) ***! And HE didn't get it!

Yes, that diary scene is my favorite in the film. Very dead-pan and funny as hell.

 

[Steve Christou]

Yep only problem is it was Pinback (Dan O'Bannon) not Doolittle who was snickering and gesturing in the diary room, also loved Pinback's encounters with the alien beachball when he gets stuck in the elevator shaft.

 

[Kevin M]

Hey, I didn't say it , I just quoted it....(cough)...um..yeah...:b :wink: