Science Fiction Cult Movies – Dark Star (1974)

John Carpenter Movie That Became a Low Budget Sci-fi Movie Classic

Jun 14, 2009

John Carpenter's low-budget movie debut is one of the quirkiest science fiction movies ever made. Dark Star movie was released in 1974 and has a large cult following.

Dark Star was the first movie made by John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon back in their student days at the University of Southern California. This film school has also had Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola as students. Since then both Carpenter and O’Bannon have both gone on to have significant influence in the science-fiction and horror genres.

The movie was made on a shoestring budget and the special effects are quite impressive for their time, even though the pet alien is clearly a blow-up beach ball with claw feet. The movie is irreverent, satirical, absurd and funny yet quite thought-provoking. Dan O’Bannon has credited Dark Star as an inspiration behind Alien. It is not a film for everyone, but most hard-core sci-fi fans love it.

Dark Star Movie Plot

During the 22nd century the spaceship Dark Star is on a mission to destroy "unstable planets" which could threaten future colonization of the outer universe. Planets are blown up using Exponential Thermostellar Bombs which have a degree of sentience. During the 20 year mission the members of the small crew have well and truly had enough of each other and the boredom of their work, and the ship is dirty and falling to pieces.

The four crew members are totally dysfunctional and are supported by their commander who has had an accident but is kept partly alive in a state of suspended animation in a cryogenic chamber where they can still ask him for advice. When the bomb release mechanism is destroyed in an asteroid storm, Bomb Number 20 tries to detonate in the bomb bay chamber and has to be talked out of it.

Dark Star's Characters

The ship's crew consists of Lt. Doolittle (Brian Narelle), Sgt. Pinback (Dan O’Bannon), Boiler (Cal Kuniholm) and Talby (Andreijah Pahich). Commander Powell (Joe Saunders) exists only via cryogenic support. Doolittle is acting captain and is obsessed with the surfing he did back in Malibu. Pinback is actually an impostor who put on the real Pinbacks spacesuit just before the mission and inadvertently took his place.

Pinback has adopted a pet alien that wreaks havoc when it gets loose in the ship. Boiler is obsessed with weapons; and Talby has become a recluse and spends all his time in the ships dome watching the stars. The computer (voiced by Cookie Knapp) has become dysfunctional, and seems to hold the crew in total contempt. Bomb number 20 (voiced by Adam Beckenbaugh) is one of the most cheerful characters in the film.

Dark Star Film Production

Originally the film was created on 16mm film and was 45 minutes long. John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon both worked on the screenplay, and Carpenter was director, producer and did the music. It was shown at a couple of film festivals in 1973 where it was seen by producer Jack H. Harris who paid $60,000 for the distribution rights, transfer to 35mm, and the addition of 38 minutes to bring it to feature film length.

It was released in 1974 and picked up a cult following.The theme song, "Benson Arizona", is a warped country songs by Carpenter, and SF fans have been adding verses to it for years. It contains some “in” SF jokes and has an apocalyptic ending based on Ray Bradbury's story "Kaleidoscope”. The Dark Star DVD is a must see for every hard-core science fiction fan and you can buy Dark Star from most online DVD stores.

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