Review of Dark Star (Director`s Cut Vanilla Version)

Introduction

This was the movie that effectively launched the movie career of director John Carpenter, and has influenced as many sci-fi movies as Kubrick`s 2001 which inspired it. Carpenter started the movie as his thesis project while at the University of Southern California`s film school. Dropping out of film school and taking the movie with him, he hoped to emulate fellow USCer George Lucas in getting a major studio to let him expand and complete the project. In the long run, the minuscule completion budger of $60,000 came from a Canadian investor, exploitation-movie distributor Jack Harris. The original 45 minute version completed at USC and shot in 16mm, comprises the beginning and the end of the movie. This footage was blown up to 35mm to match the forty minutes of new material. The credits for the movie read like a Who`s Who of Hollywood filmmakers with production illustrator Ron Cobb and effects guru Greg Jein contributing. The movie was written by Carpenter and fellow filmmaker Dan O`Bannon (who played crewman Pinback in the movie, designed and edited the picture as well.) O`Bannon is better known as the man who dreamt up the Alien (1979).

Making the movie out in the real world was a chastening experience for the young filmmaker, as the film (although now considered a cult classic) failed commercially and wound up making money for other people. The movie really reached its audience when Atlantic Releasing acquired the rights from bankrupt distributor Bryanston and it became a popular early video release.

Dark Star spoofs the realistic sci-fi of 2001: A Space Odyssey, concerning the drudgery and sheer boredom of a 20-year interplanetary mission to clear away unstable planets in star systems that are to be colonised. To this end, the ship is hauling around an enormous load of intelligent thermostellar devices which the four-man crew have to drop on their specially selected targets.

When the ship`s computer "Mother" is damaged in a meteor storm, Bomb number 20 becomes intent on detonating while inside the ship. Meanwhile, Pinback`s alien pet (a beachball with claws) is on the loose and causing havoc. All acting commander Lt. Doolittle wants to do is go home and surf off Malibu, and now he has to teach the Bomb the concept of phenomenology.

There is a strong absurdist thread through the movie that is reminiscent of Douglas Adams and one might surmise he was inspired by this movie. With touches of 2001 and Dr Strangelove, the movie also echoes a number of concepts that would later surface in O`Bannon`s later Alien. Of the leads, O`Bannon`s comedy turn as Sgt. Pinback and his battle with his alien mascot ("I thought you were cute!") keeps the movie bubbling along.

Video

Ah, now this is where things get a little sticky. The disc is flagged as 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, so it trips the widescreen format on both computer monitor and tv screen. Unfortunately the movie is very obviously originally presented in 1.85:1 and was mastered to DVD as letterboxed. The result is an alarming cod-2.35:1 presentation where everybody looks too damn squat and circles are flattened ellipses. I`d hope this oversight is corrected for the production run of the discs, because the incorrect flag is a really stupid mistake.

The movie itself (once the aspect ratio is corrected to the letterboxed non-anamorphic 1.85:1) looks just how you would expect and just how I remember it from past viewings - grainy, grimy and grungy. It`s partly this roughness of image that results in the top-rate bitrate of 9.20Mbps, which would do credit to a reference-standard movie.

Audio

Although the movie carries a full matrix Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, you`d hardly know it. It sounds as if somebody has simply re-recorded the original mono soundtrack in a theatre with a 5.1 microphone arrangement.

Features

One flavour - vanilla. That means no extras, not no way, not no how.

Conclusion

The one good thing I can say about this disc is it`s the director`s cut of the movie and includes footage that was previously only available in the full price Collector`s Edition. This budget edition doesn`t really save you much money and isn`t the best transfer of what is a genuinely funny and subversive piece of sci-fi history.