Dark Star **** (1974, Brian Narelle, Andrew Dre Pahich, Cal Kuniholm, Dan O’Bannon) – Classic Movie Review 5367

Co-writer/ co-producer/ scorer/ director John Carpenter’s low-budget ($60,000) 1974 feature film début is a rollicking, anarchic trip into space that merrily debunks a host of other space movies, notably 2001: A Space Odyssey, and paves the way for Alien (1979.

Brian Narelle, Andrew Dre Pahich, Cal Kuniholm and Dan O’Bannon star as four bored astronauts – Lieutenant Doolittle (Narelle), Talby (Pahich), Bolier (Kuniholm), Pinback (O’Bannon) – whose mission is to destroy unstable planets. They try to fill their time between planet bombing missions by catching up on their tans with a sunlamp, playing with their suspiciously plastic-looking alien mascot, conversing with the computer Mother (voice of Cookie Knapp), their female version of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL, and ultimately space-surfing.

Carpenter’s movie is engaging stuff, thanks to the ultra-cheap but surprisingly passable effects, amateurish but appealing actors, and Carpenter’s and fellow writer O’Bannon’s knowing use of the genre’s clichés. Co-writer, set designer and actor O’Bannon cannily built on this story, developed from a student film, for his Alien screenplay. Mother is also the computer voice in Alien.

Also in the cast are Adam Beckenbaugh, Nick Castle, Joe Saunders, Michael Shaw and Miles Watkins.

The 2004 30^th Anniversary Special Edition contains both the fully restored 83-minute director’s cut and the 68-minute original theatrical version.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5367

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