Dark Star, 30th Anniversary Special Edition [DVD] [1974]

I have seen some rubbish films in my 73 years but "Dark Star" takes the top prize. I am a well spoken septuagenarian who very rarely swears, and then only minor blasphemies but, this total unadulterated piece of C**P deserves every one of the very worst and negative Anglo-Saxon vernaculars. I realised almost immediately that I had bought a load of rubbish and by 8 minutes in I had to give up otherwise I might have thrown something at the TV screen.The plot was very very tenuous, almost unfathomable, the script was boredom incarcerate, the acting was wooden in the extreme, the special effects were less than basic and, if it was directed then the director did not know the first thing about directing a film. In fact, I reckon he must have been either an amateur or this was his first film as director but he was working with the wrong script, that is if there was a script.If you want to ask me where the Blu-ray disk is now I would have to tell you that I have destroyed it out of complete disgust. If you are reading this review before purchasing "Dark Star" then please take my advice - DON'T.

I first saw this on BBC2 in the mid-70s. It was part of a SF season that also featured Silent Running. While that was worthy, this was very funny too: instead of the gleaming white future of 2001, this is 'truckers in space'.There are lots of DVDs out there with varying quality vision and sound. This is easily the best of the half dozen I've seen *and* has some very worthwhile extras, such as the tighter original student version and a genuinely interesting documentary on the film - and that's despite the way that sadly the great Dan O'Bannon is no longer with us and John Carpenter was... too greedy? to appear.As more devices get some serious computing power, the problem with bomb #20 will be repeated again and again and again...

Dan O’Bannon plays the leading role in this low budget student film directed by John Carpenter. O’Bannon is also the co-writer of the piece as well as the co-writer of the original Alien Screenplay. Whilst he was still with us, to O'Bannon's ongoing irritation Ridley Scott was always awarded the lion’s share of the credit for Alien, whilst John Carpenter shoe-horned his name above the title for Dark Star. This gives the uninitiated viewer the impression that John Carpenter should also take sole credit for this picture also. True, he is the co-writer, the director and the producer of the film, but this doesn’t mean that the other creatives on the movie shouldn’t have received the recognition they deserve. It should have become known, and officially listed as simply ‘Dark Star.’ John Carpenter’s desperation to access the film business lead him to forcibly install his name above the title on every picture he produced subsequent to Dark Star, and it simply wasn’t necessary. Talent will out eventually and on Dark Star Dan O’Bannon was a key player. In the story the crew of a deep space vessel are tasked with destroying unstable planets in systems which are due to be colonised and are slowly going stir crazy whilst they’re doing it. They intermittently chat to their dead commander in cryofreeze, chase around an alien in the form of a beach ball, cope with malfunctioning computers and converse with a bomb that not only perceives itself to be a deity but is also determined to explode! It is quite impressive that a student film was considered to be of such high quality that it earned itself a theatrical release to the general public, and to this day classic status. But in this low budget independent feature the seeds of Alien were sown. You can spot the beats of Alien in the first act as O’Bannon hunts down the rogue beach ball alien in the ship’s hold and it is here where Dan O’Bannon’s talent as a writer shines through. So too in the existential discussion the ship’s computer engages in when attempting to prevent the erstwhile self-aware bomb from detonating itself, whilst simultaneously sealing the crew’s fate. Whether this movie was influenced by the sense of negativity circling US culture during the late 1970’s after the events of The Vietnam War and The Watergate scandal is debatable. Nevertheless, all the creatives that were a part of the film-making process with Dark Star managed to create an undeniable cult classic. The DVD disc contains both the original 68-minute student film cut as well as the extended version which is 10 minutes longer after more visual effects were added for it’s theatrical release. Given that the idea of DVDs and their extras did not exist at the time, extra features are thin on the ground. Yet you do still have filmographies, trailers and publicity stills included as extras on this special edition DVD. The disc is also presented in a very smart cardboard slip box.

A very enjoyable student film with zero budget with cast and crew pitching in to make it long enough for general release. A laudable effort by all concerned. This new master is probably the best that it's ever going to look / sound and with loads of interesting extras is well worth adding to your collection. Being a comedy / parody I can't really understand the one / two star reviews apart from the bad transfer from a few years ago with missing scenes etc. It was made on a shoestring budget for goodness sake and we should be encouraging this type of thing instead of settling for overblown Hollywood ' Blockbusters'.

Bomb #20 grapples with phenomenology.In it's context and for how I remembered it, Dark Star 1974 was needed on Bluray.A John Carpenter film school project - I somehow saw it on TV in the seventies.The film itself is a mixture of Python meets Kubrick through the medium of John Carpenter and low budget [$60K]The transfer to Bluray is watchable.There's not a bundle of extras here - considering that John Carpenter went on to be very successful and the film was co scripted and greatly involved Dan O'Bannon.The film itself parodies 2001 a Space Odyssey as well as Dr Strangelove - but also prefigures Alien as well as Big Brother. That's the TV show not the holding company.

I remember seeing this at a late night movie in a cinema in the mid 70's. An early John Carpenter film that set him up as a director of Sci Fi films like the later Escape from New York, Escape from LA, Ghosts of Mars and The Thing. This was made in 1974 on a low budget and it shows as the special effects are nowhere near todays standards. However, once you get over that what you have is a reasonable Sci Fi black comedy. The stand out scenes are when the pet alien runs amok, (a large red inflated balloon with big feet) and the conversations with bomb No 20 that keeps wanting to detonate. It will raise a few chuckles and I guess it will be better appreciated by old Sci Fi buffs like me. It should not cost a fortune on Amazon about £3 odd including post.