Dark Star (5 Stars)

After watching "Assault on Precinct 13" last week I thought it would be a good idea to watch "Dark Star" again. As I said in my post, the three films "Dark Star", "Assault on Precinct 13" and "Halloween" build a minimalist trilogy.

This film has the smallest budget of John Carpenter's films, an estimated $60,000. It was barely shown in cinemas, and it received little attention. John Carpenter claimed that it was mostly shown in empty cinemas. People didn't know what to make of it. It wasn't until it was released on video in the 1980's that it developed a cult following. It's a film that fans love but make fun of anyway.

At an unspecified time in the future, a space ship called Dark Star has been sent into deep space to prepare for human colonisation. If a planet is found that's suitable for colonisation, nearby planets deemed unstable are destroyed with thermostellar bombs. The crew of five has been away from Earth for 20 years. There's a 10 year delay before messages to Earth are answered.

The ship's captain was killed when there was an electrical malfunction behind his seat. The remaining four crew members request an improvement to the ship's safety, but the request is denied because of budget cutbacks on Earth. Now they just have to hope they'll survive.

This is where the crew members sleep. What a dump!

The crew have adopted an alien as a pet. It's friendly but playful. Too playful.

Three of the crew members, Doolittle, Pinback and Boiler, enjoy their chicken dinner.

The fourth remaining crew member, Talby, spends most of his time alone looking at the stars since the captain died.

"Dark Star" has been called a parody of "2001: A Space Odyssey". I don't know whether that was John Carpenter's intention, but I see a similarity between the two films. A magnetic storm causes a malfunction in the laser that triggers the bomb launches. The bombs are smart bombs with an inbuilt artificial intelligence. When a bomb is triggered by accident, the bomb argues with the crew about whether it's allowed to detonate or not.

The film is simple, but it's very well written. 20 years ago I used to consider it my favourite film. That was before I bought my first DVD player in 2003. Since then I've watched a lot more films. Maybe I should have included it in my top 100 list. I'm not sure.

The remastered Blu-ray is better quality than the DVD, but don't expect any miracles. It's an old film made with a small budget, and the source tapes are poor quality. The Blu-ray offers the best possible, which is still slightly blurred in places.

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