Dark Star

Dark Star (1974)

image From IMDB

Before John Carpenter made The Thing, and Dan O’Bannon wrote Alien, the pair worked together on the fantastic (if not somewhat dated) no budget sci-fi Dark Star. I absolutely adored this movie in my college years. It was up there with El Mariachi, Reservoir Dogs, Cube, and Versus as movies which made me want to be a film maker. Those no budget movies that just done something unique in order to stand out and show you could make a film without millions or connections. I must have seen Dark Star at least ten times back then.

With my ambitions as a film maker somewhat eroded now, and being nearly twenty-five years older, the film does play slightly differently for me, but there’s still so much about it I find fascinating and enjoyable, despite a few dips in the pacing.

Dark Star is about a bored crew on the edge of space blowing up empty planets in order to protect… the galaxy I guess? There’s a little explanation as to why, but it doesn’t matter. The important thing is they’re bored out of their minds and probably should have been relieved a while back. To make matters worse, their Captain died in a freak accident, so crew morale is at an all time low.

I love seeing the boredom on the ship. The juvenile ways in which they annoy each other. The silly things they do to kill time. How agitated they have become with one another. It’s kind of sad, and depressing really, but because it comes across as childish you can’t help but laugh at them. In a different movie it could have been a serious character study on the loneliness and isolation of space, but this movie had talking bombs and a beach ball alien, so it was never going to be quite that, despite still respecting the themes.

The talking bombs for me were the highlight of the movie. Every time they popped out their containment ready to blow something up they made me chuckle. The philosophical conversation with the rogue bomb being a scene i’ve never forgotten. Yes, it’s a play on 2001 Space Odyssey, but who cares when they do it so well… And its not like Dan O’Bannon didn’t then spend the rest of his life with people copying his work.

The effects are what you’d expect from a no budget movie, and the alien was quite literally a beach ball with rubber feet, but that all added to the charm. The cramped spaces where shoot well. The dialogue and banter felt real. The ship looked lived in, despite the cheap sets. They made the most out of everything they had, and shot it like a real movie, which is why it was one.

I’ll always have a soft spot for Dark Star. The creative team went on their separate ways to do much more iconic work, but this is where it started. A great movie for any aspiring film maker, but also an important movie when you consider where it led too. Would we have had Alien and The Thing without Dark Star? Whatever the answer, i’m still pleased we got this zany little sci-fi with a beach ball alien.