Dark Star (1974)

Cheepnis

Four seventies style burn outs roam the galaxy in what seems like a weaponized version of a Volkswagen bus searching for unstable planets. Their government mission to destroy these planets with the help of a HAL style computer (undoubtedly running MS) and artificially intelligent bombs.

Anyone remembering the cartoon Colonel Bleep might appreciate Dark Star for the same reason Frank Zappa might have enjoyed it... cheepnis. Dark Star drips cheepnis from the special effects to the choice of monster (pet actually).

The attitude taken by every facet of artificial intelligence (you can't have self realization without attitude) is similar to that of bureaucrats throughout the centuries and typical of today's corpopath. It's very difficult to argue with artificial intelligence as anyone ever having dealt with a government employee can tell you. When you're in space no one can hear you scream... or curse. Easily as disorganized and unaccountable (even to itself) as any 'official' operation Dark Star's mission should be a belly laugh for anyone ever having to argue with an automatic banking machine for their money or otherwise discuss reality with an electronic entity.

The biological intelligences consist of:

Boder - disinterested, self obsessed Texan style narcissist
Pinback - insecure and friendless, overweight, neurotic, arrested adolescent
Doolittle - lieutenant leader who spends time reminiscing his surfing day in Malibu
Talby - reclusive, philosophical observations/navigational officer
pet alien - mischievous beach ball with claws

The discussion with the smart bomb regarding Phenomenology is priceless.

"What is the one purpose in life?"

"To explode of course!"

If computers and artificial intelligence ever discover religion and decide to become born again we're in very serious trouble. June 16, 2008

Dark Star Shines A Bright Light

Who says you have to have a big budget to make a very funny 70's Sci-Fi movie spoof. The instrument panel on the spacecraft was egg cartons with lighting underneath. I have not seen many films before or since where the space alien is an oversized beach ball. And, as a surfer, I loved the ending. But I'm not telling. If you want to know how it ends, buy the DVD.

This would be a cult classic even if it had not been done by John Carpenter. Brian Narelle is now an Emmy award winning television writer and an illustrator/cartoonist. May 26, 2008

Hippie-era humor at its finest

I first saw "Dark Star" at a mid-1970s sci-fi convention, not long after it had come out. I was a kid back then, but I was instantly hooked, and 30+ years later I still appreciate the intelligence and mordant, dark humor of the script. The film is decidedly anti-establishment, with a crew of shaggy, longhaired astronauts working as science grunts for an expanding galactic empire, blowing up "unstable" planets to clear a path for colonization.

Although people often compare it to "Star Wars" (which came out a few years later), "Dark Star" is much more a precursor of the "Aliens" series, in which everyday people work for and chafe against vast, anonymous, amoral bureaucracies. As in the "Aliens" films, the crew of the Dark Star live in a cramped, sweaty, claustrophobic environs, where the vacuum of space is filled with frustration and paranoia. The confrontation with the damaged, sentient thermonuclear explosive recalls, of course, HAL in Stanley Kubrick's "2001," but whereas "2001" was a very serious film, with Kubrick seeking to blow people's minds with his kaleidoscopic filmmaking, "Dark Star" is a satire, tempered by dark comedy and outright farce. It's a very funny, very intelligent film, definitely worth picking up! (Joe Sixpack, Slipcue film reviews) May 23, 2008

Dark Star- The Other One

"Dark Star" isn't a movie version of the beloved Grateful Dead song (just as "The Passenger" isn't a Phil Lesh biopic). It's John Carpenter's directorial debut, a darkly hilarious comedy about boredom in space. It was made on a shoestring budget, and rightly shines as a low-budget classic. A crew of planet destroyers have gotten incredibly bored. One longs for surfing. Another is in the deep freeze. Yet another contends with an alien that looks like a giant inflatable beach ball. There's an angsty bomb.

"Dark Star" doesn't idealize life in deep space. It's a look at boredom, existential and otherwise. It's funny as well. Let it shine! April 14, 2008

Dark star

I liked it more 35 years ago, but it is still amazing how well it describes the engineering problem of maintenance under time pressure by ignorant management March 25, 2008

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