The Top 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies You've (probably) Never Heard Of
#2: Dark Star (1974)
What It Is
Dark Star is the directorial debut of horror and sci-fi legend John Carpenter (if you need me to explain who this is, you probably shouldn't be reading these posts), and while of some of the concepts within can be recognized in his later work, this movie is entirely unlike anything else I've seen him do. The project was the result of a labour of love by Carpenter and co-writer Dan O'Bannon (sfx wizard and writer of Alien), and ran on a teeny tiny budget of only $60,000.
The only comedic film on my list, Dark Star tells the story of a crew of four spaced-out blue collar astronauts onboard the titular Dark Star spacecraft, whose mission is to seek out strange planets and blow the ever-loving crap out of them with artificially intelligent smart bombs. The reason for doing this is that humanity is seeking to colonize outer space, and potential "rogue planets" (like the kind seen in the recent movie Melancholia) pose a hazard to that expansion plan. As the crew of the Dark Star operate on the fringes of space, the only company they have is each other and the only home they know is the ship, and several years into their mission they've gone just a bit twiggy.
That's really it. There's a minor subplot involving their deceased commander, Powell, whose death precedes the action of the film, but who nevertheless remains frozen in ice belowdecks and communicates through a ghostly speaker, and another subplot about a beachball shaped alien that Sgt. Pinback (played by O'Bannon as well) brought onto the ship to serve as a mascot, but really the whole point of the movie is to watch the weird daily lives of these four men.
Why You've Never Heard of It
This one's gaining a little traction on the cult side, but even so it's not altogether surprising very few people have heard of it. $60,000, people! The only reason this movie got made at all was because O'Bannon and Carpenter were willing to do most of the work themselves. Even then, it had some bizarre marketing behind it that portrayed it as being a horror-thriller. Just check out the trailer:
Audiences were lead to believe they were getting something like Solaris or 2001 and what they ended up getting was...was...well, actually I don't think they had anything like this just yet. Which makes for a good segue into...
Why It's Worthy of Inclusion
Who here has seen Red Dwarf? Read a crazy book called Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Better yet, seen a little flick called Alien?
All of these things can find roots in this movie. It was oddball sci-fi humour before oddball sci-fi humour was even a thing yet. Seriously. Literature, film, comics, radio dramas...sometimes they had humorous plotlines, but they weren't navel-gazing parodies the way Dark Star is. This is the movie that first took a look at the pulp sci-fi of the 40s and 50s, the golden age of Star Trek, Flash Gordon, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, and said: "Man, isn't this a bit silly?"
And it is. It is kind of silly. But at no point in watching Dark Star did it feel mean-spirited or off-base. This is satire at its finest, a loving tribute to the space heroes that the creators grew up watching and reading.
What impresses me even more about this movie though, is that it is somehow so damn interesting to watch, and I feel like through its zaniness it captures a very unique look at the lonely nature of space travel. There's some oddly engaging moments in this, and some touching ones too.
Each of the crew members is distinct and easy to understand. Doolittle, the ex-surfer, is for all intents and purposes the new commander following Powell's demise, and all he wants is to do his job and go home to catch a wave. He finds solace playing a bottle organ of his own design. Talby, the ship's navigator, almost never leaves his post in the ship's observation dome, a tiny capsule of maybe 10 cubic feet. He watches the stars drift by and fantasizes about the Phoenix asteroids, a cluster of rocks that glow in luminescent colours. Boiler, Doolittle's right-hand man, is a filthy layabout who exercises his macho side by shooting at targets with the ship's laser. And finally there's Pinback, AKA that friend in a group of friends who nobody really likes for no particular reason but always tries in vain to be the centre of attention. He's not even who he says he is; the real Pinback killed himself to avoid going on the mission, and janitor Bill Frugge took his place.
They're all just so STRANGE, yet I think we'd all find a little bit of ourselves in at least one of them. As the movie progresses, we shift more and more away from thinking them oddballs and coming to like them, even sympathizing with their situation. It's clear that the lonely voyage is taking their toll. In one key moment, Boiler and Doolittle are discussing the solitary nature of Talby. "Talby," Boiler muses seriously, puffing on a cigar, "What's Talby's first name?" Doolittle thinks for a moment, but then a look of pure shock comes across his face. "What's MY first name?" He demands, gaping in honest, open-mouthed surprise at Boiler. Neither one has the answer.
You couldn't get away with that kind of exchange in a straight up sci-fi movie, and I think that's what makes Dark Star so great for me. It uses its comedy not only to poke fun at the genre, but to also ask some honest questions that the heros wouldn't ever have the doubt to think about. It takes a regular bloke, drifting through space on a ship loaded up with talking bombs and beachball aliens, to put aside his surfboard and ask "What's it all about, man?"
It's funny, that exchange about Doolittle's name, because ironically I have no idea how I heard about this movie. Seriously. I know that it came from a conversation I had with someone, because one day I was online and I said to myself, "You know, I should really look up that movie that person told me about, the one with the talking bombs. What was that called?" That's not something you just pull out of thin air. I didn't google "Dark Star" because I honestly didn't have the title. I googled "movie + talking bombs + science fiction". So yeah...if you're the person who first turned me on to this, thank you! And for everyone else out there, watch this movie. It's funny, it's weird, and it's backed up by plenty of heart in O'Bannon and Carpenter's writing and hard work.
Far out.
Far out.
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