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Dark Star, 1974
Deep in outer space, a small crew trudges along on a long (20+ years!) mission to destroy unstable planets. Things onboard are ramshackle, and we mainly follow a crew member named Pinback (Dan O'Bannon) who, among other things, pals around with a beach-ball-like alien and undergoes slapstick-like adventures trying to chase it down. Things really get rough as the ship's bombing system goes on the fritz.
I was very much ready to write this movie off. Yes, there were moments of fun in it, but they were sporadic and overall I just was not vibing with the film. And then the last 20 minutes.
SIGH. Do you ever have that experience where you are ready to dismiss something, and then you come to realize that you probably need to watch it again from the beginning? That's how I feel about Dark Star at this point. Now, do I think I will rewatch it and discover amazing depths? No. But I do wonder if one a rewatch I might gel a bit better with the film's sense of humor.
The best moments of the film are those that mix comedy and horror. For example, a sequence in which a crew member has a conversation with the ship's former captain, Powell, who was mortally wounded and is now kept in cryogenic storage on the ship. The conversation is both funny and creepy, and this was the part in the film where I felt my feelings begin to swing more toward the positive.
And despite the movie aiming for a dark comedy, I am not embarrassed to say that I was kind of moved by the film's last 10 minutes or so. It all kicks off with a straight-up funny sequence in which the crew has to talk one of their sentient bombs into not exploding. But then it goes to an unexpected, and kind of moving place. I thought that the last 10 minutes were funny and horrible and kind of powerful. In some ways it made me think a bit of Miracle Mile.
I wasn't feeling like this film was the best use of my time, but the final act really redeemed it. On that basis alone I would recommend it.
Dark Star, 1974
Deep in outer space, a small crew trudges along on a long (20+ years!) mission to destroy unstable planets. Things onboard are ramshackle, and we mainly follow a crew member named Pinback (Dan O'Bannon) who, among other things, pals around with a beach-ball-like alien and undergoes slapstick-like adventures trying to chase it down. Things really get rough as the ship's bombing system goes on the fritz.
I was very much ready to write this movie off. Yes, there were moments of fun in it, but they were sporadic and overall I just was not vibing with the film. And then the last 20 minutes.
SIGH. Do you ever have that experience where you are ready to dismiss something, and then you come to realize that you probably need to watch it again from the beginning? That's how I feel about Dark Star at this point. Now, do I think I will rewatch it and discover amazing depths? No. But I do wonder if one a rewatch I might gel a bit better with the film's sense of humor.
The best moments of the film are those that mix comedy and horror. For example, a sequence in which a crew member has a conversation with the ship's former captain, Powell, who was mortally wounded and is now kept in cryogenic storage on the ship. The conversation is both funny and creepy, and this was the part in the film where I felt my feelings begin to swing more toward the positive.
And despite the movie aiming for a dark comedy, I am not embarrassed to say that I was kind of moved by the film's last 10 minutes or so. It all kicks off with a straight-up funny sequence in which the crew has to talk one of their sentient bombs into not exploding. But then it goes to an unexpected, and kind of moving place. I thought that the last 10 minutes were funny and horrible and kind of powerful. In some ways it made me think a bit of Miracle Mile.
I wasn't feeling like this film was the best use of my time, but the final act really redeemed it. On that basis alone I would recommend it.