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Dark Star
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List Price: $9.99
Our Price: $9.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: VCI Entertainment
Starring: Dan O'Bannon, Dre Pahich, Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm, Adam Beckenbaugh
Directed By: John Carpenter
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0089859820526
Format: Color
Label: VCI Entertainment
Manufacturer: VCI Entertainment
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: VCI Entertainment
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 1999-03-23
Running Time: 83
Studio: VCI Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
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Editorial Reviews:
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DARK STAR was originally intended to be a 68 minute film. Jack Harris, the Hollywood producer, convinced the filmmakers to shoot 15 minutes of extra footage and he released the expanded version theatrically in 1975 through Bryanston Pictures. In 1983, DARK STAR was re- issued to home video as a "Special Edition," created under the supervision and authorization of the filmmakers. This special version, featuring a new technically superior video transfer, had been edited by the filmmakers though, virtually removing all the extra footage. Now, once again for all DARK STAR purest, here is the full length theatrical release version, painstakingly restored, and sporting a new Dolby Digital Hi-Fi stereo sound track. Enjoy! In the mid twenty-first century, mankind has reached a point in its technological advances to enable colonization of the far reaches of the universe. DARK STAR is a futuristic scout ship traveling far in advance of colony ships. Armed with Exponential Thermosteller Bombs, it prowls the unstable planets. But there is one obstacle that its crew members did not count on -- one of the ship's thinking and talking bombs is lodged in the bay, threatening to destroy the entire ship and crew! Bonus Features: Contains 2 Versions: Longer Theatrical & Original Shorter Version| Trailer| Scene Selection| Actor Bios| Remixed 5.1 Track. Specs: DVD5; Dolby Digital 5.1; 83 minutes; Color; 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio; MPAA - G; Year - 1974; SRP - $9.99.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Short, cheap, funny film.
Comment: If you don't "get" this movie, it's understandable. If you simply "don't like it", you have no sense of humor. Give up.
Now...Where's that damned "Special Edition"??
Customer Rating:
Summary: Cheepnis
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dark Star Shines A Bright Light
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Hippie-era humor at its finest
Comment: 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)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Dark Star- The Other One
Comment: "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!
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