Dark Star (film)

Last updated

Dark Star
DarkStarposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Carpenter
Written by
Produced byJohn Carpenter
Starring
  • Dan O'Bannon
  • Brian Narelle
  • Cal Kuniholm
  • Dre Pahich
Cinematography Douglas Knapp
Edited byDan O'Bannon
Music byJohn Carpenter
Production
companies
Distributed by Bryanston Distributing Company
Release dates
  • March 30, 1974 (1974-03-30)(Filmex, Los Angeles)
  • January 16, 1975 (1975-01-16)(Theatrical, Los Angeles)
Running time
83 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60,000 [2]

Dark Star is a 1974 American independent science fiction comedy film produced, scored and directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. It follows the crew of the deteriorating starship Dark Star, twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets that might threaten future colonization of other planets.

Contents

Beginning as a University of Southern California student film produced from 1970 to 1972, it was gradually expanded to feature-length until it appeared at Filmex in 1974, and subsequently received a limited theatrical release in 1975. [3] Its final budget is estimated at $60,000. [4] While initially unsuccessful with audiences, it was relatively well received by critics, and continued to be shown in theaters as late as 1980. [5] The home video revolution of the early 1980s helped the movie achieve "cult classic" status. [6] [3] O'Bannon collaborated with home video distributor VCI in the production of releases on VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, and eventually Blu-ray.

Dark Star was Carpenter's feature directorial debut; he also scored the film. It was the feature debut for O'Bannon, who also served as editor, production designer, and visual effects supervisor, and appeared as Sergeant Pinback. [3] [7]

Plot

In the mid-22nd century, mankind has begun to colonize interstellar space. Armed with artificially intelligent Thermostellar Triggering Devices, which can talk and reason, the scout ship Dark Star searches for "unstable planets" which might threaten future colonization.

Twenty years into its mission (the crew only aging three years in that time), the Dark Star has aged and suffers frequent malfunctions of most systems. Commanding officer Powell has died in one such event (electrocuted by his malfunctioning chair), but remains aboard in cryogenic suspension. Lieutenant Doolittle, a former surfer from Malibu, has taken over as commander. The tedium of their work has driven the crew of Pinback, Boiler, and Talby "around the bend", so they have created distractions for themselves.

Pinback plays practical jokes, maintains a video diary, and has adopted a ship's mascot in the form of a mischievous beach-ball-like alien who refuses to stay in a storage room. After it attempts to push him down an elevator shaft, he eventually accidentally kills it with a tranquilizer gun (which pops the alien like a balloon). He claims to really be Bill Froug and says that the real Pinback committed suicide prior to the mission, and he inadvertently took Pinback's place.

En route to their next target in the Veil Nebula, [8] the Dark Star is hit by electromagnetic energy during a space storm, resulting in another on-board malfunction. Thermostellar Bomb #20 receives an erroneous order to deploy, but the ship's computer talks it back into the bomb bay, which it reluctantly does. Subsequently, Pinback's alien activates the bomb circuits while loose from the storage room, causing Bomb #20 to again emerge from the bomb bay. Once again, the computer is able to convince the bomb to return to the bomb bay, which the bomb again reluctantly does, but not before warning, "This is the last time." An accident with a laser while the ship's crew is preparing for a real bomb run causes mayhem, seriously damages the ship's computer, and damages the bomb-dropping mechanism, causing Bomb #20 to become stuck in the bomb bay while counting down to detonation. This time the crew cannot convince the bomb to stand down. Doolittle revives Powell, who advises him to teach the bomb phenomenology. Doolittle space walks out to have a philosophical conversation with the bomb, but accidentally teaches it Cartesian doubt. With seconds left until detonation, the bomb agrees to suspend its countdown for the moment while it ponders Doolittle's ideas.

Pinback opens the airlock to admit Doolittle back into the ship, but accidentally ejects Talby, who was in the airlock attempting to repair the laser. Doolittle uses his rocket pack to go after Talby, who is in a space suit but has no maneuvering device. The bomb, having learned Cartesian doubt, trusts only itself. It is convinced that only it exists, and that its sole purpose in life is to explode, and it does so. Dark Star is destroyed, along with Pinback and Boiler. Talby and Doolittle, at a distance from the ship, are thrown clear. The former drifts into and is taken away by the Phoenix Asteroids, a travelling cluster with which he has long been fascinated. Doolittle, falling toward the unstable planet, finds an oblong hunk of debris, and surfs into the atmosphere, to die as a falling star.

Cast

Production

Screenplay

Director John Carpenter in 2011 John Carpenter.JPG
Director John Carpenter in 2011

The screenplay was written by Carpenter and O'Bannon while they were film students at the University of Southern California. [9] [3] Initially titled The Electric Dutchman, the original concept was Carpenter's, while O'Bannon "flesh[ed] out many of the original ideas" and contributed many of the funniest moments. [13] The title was changed to Planetfall, before settling on Dark Star. [14] According to O'Bannon, "The ending was copped from Ray Bradbury's story 'Kaleidoscope'", found in the short story collection The Illustrated Man (1951). [15] O'Bannon references one of his USC teachers, William Froug, when Pinback says in a video diary entry, "I should tell you my name is not really Sergeant Pinback, my name is Bill Frug." [16]

Filming, reshoots, and edits

The film began as a 45-minute 16mm student project with a final budget of six thousand dollars. [17] [18] Beginning with an initial budget of one thousand dollars from USC in late 1970, [19] Carpenter and O'Bannon completed the first version of the film in early 1972. [9] Carpenter had to dub his own voice over that of Pahich, who had a thick accent. [18]

With no money left, they needed an investor to achieve feature film length, and Jonathan Kaplan gave them $10,000 in financial support, [20] which with the support of Canadian distributor Jack Murphy (credited as "Production Associate") allowed them to shoot an additional fifty minutes in 1973. These scenes included the asteroid storm, Doolittle playing bottles on strings as a musical instrument, the scenes in the crew sleeping quarters, the scenes in the hallways of the ship (Pinback with the sunlamp, Boiler with the laser gun, etc.), and, importantly, all the scenes featuring the beach ball alien. Kuniholm and Pahich had shorter hair by this time, and wore wigs for continuity with the 1971 footage. [9] [21]

Through John Landis, a friend of O'Bannon, the movie came to the attention of producer-distributor Jack H. Harris, who obtained the theatrical distribution rights. Deeming about 30 minutes of the film "boring and unusable" (including a protracted scene of the crew sleeping in their quarters, not responding to the computer voice), he insisted that cuts be made, and additional 35mm footage be shot to bring the movie back up to a releasable length. [22] [12] Other edits that Harris mandated, in order to secure a more marketable G rating, toned down rough language, and blurred of a wall of nude centerfolds. O'Bannon later lamented that as a result of the alterations for commercial distribution, "We had what would have been the world's most impressive student film and it became the world's least impressive professional film". [23]

Special effects

O'Bannon created many of the special effects. Ron Cobb designed the ship, O'Bannon and Greg Jein did the model work, and Bob Greenberg did the animation. [9] Cobb drew the original ship design on a napkin while eating at the International House of Pancakes. [24]

To depict the transit of the Dark Star into hyperspace, O'Bannon devised an animated effect in which the stars in the background turn into streaks of light while the ship appears to be motionless. He achieved this by tracking the camera while leaving the shutter open. This is considered to be the first depiction in cinema history of a spaceship jumping into hyperspace. It is thought that O'Bannon was influenced by the striking "star gate" sequence created by Douglas Trumbull for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The same effect was later employed in Star Wars (1977). [25] [26]

Soundtrack

Dark Star's score mainly consists of electronic music created by Carpenter, using a modular synthesizer. [27] In 1980, subsequent to the film's re-release the previous year, a soundtrack album was released, containing not only music, but also sound effects and dialogue from the film. The album was remastered for a limited 2016 vinyl rerelease, which included an additional seven-inch record containing remakes and other bonus tracks. [28]

The song played during the opening and closing credits is "Benson Arizona". [29] It concerns a man who travels the galaxy at the speed of light, while missing his beloved back on Earth. [30] The music was written by Carpenter, and the lyrics by Bill Taylor. The lead vocalist was John Yager, a college friend of Carpenter. Yager was not a professional musician, "apart from being in a band in college". [31] Benson, Arizona is a real-life location, and has named a county road "Dark Star Road" in honor of the film. Additionally, the famous reverb/delay VST Valhalla Supermassive includes a preset called Benson Arizona in tribute to the movie.

Release

The completed film premiered on March 30, 1974, at Filmex, the Los Angeles International Film Exposition. At the time, Carpenter described the movie as " Waiting for Godot in outer space." [32] [33] Harris sold it to Bryanston Pictures, [22] which opened it in fifty theatres on January 16, 1975. [34] [30]

In June 1979, after Carpenter and O'Bannon had found commercial success with other films, Atlantic Releasing Corporation rereleased Dark Star, noting on a promotional poster that it was "from the author of Alien & the director of Halloween ", and including the tag line, "The Ultimate Cosmic Comedy!" [35]

Home media

In August 1983, VCI Entertainment released a theatrical cut of Dark Star on videocassette. [36] It was criticized by O'Bannon. A new video master was sourced from O'Bannon's personal 35mm print,[ citation needed ] and a widescreen "Special Edition" of the film was released by 1986. [37]

O'Bannon later re-edited the movie into a seventy-two minute director's cut, removing much of the footage that had been shot and added after Harris had bought the distribution rights. This version was released on LaserDisc in 1992. [38]

The film was released on DVD March 23, 1999. Both the original theatrical version and a shorter, sixty-eight minute "special edition" were included. [39]

A two-disc "Hyperdrive Edition" DVD set was released on October 26, 2010. Along with the two versions of the movie previously released on DVD, it included a feature-length documentary, Let There be Light: The Odyssey of Dark Star, which explores the origins and production of the film. [40] [41]

In 2012, a "Thermostellar Edition" was released on Blu-ray. It included the special features of the 2010 release, but not the shorter special edition of the movie, only the theatrical version. [42]

Reception

Audience reactions

While greeted enthusiastically by the crowd at Filmex, the film was not well-received upon its initial theatrical release. Carpenter and O'Bannon reported nearly empty theatres, and little reaction to the humor in the movie. [43] However, the home video revolution of the early 1980s saw Dark Star become a cult film among sci-fi fans. [44] [34] Director Quentin Tarantino called the film a "masterpiece." [45]

Critical response

An early review from Variety , recalled by Carpenter as "the first bad review I got", described the film as "a limp parody of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey that warrants attention only for some remarkably believable special effects achieved with very little money." [46] [4] After its re-release in 1979, Roger Ebert gave the movie three stars out of four, writing: "Dark Star is one of the damnedest science fiction movies I've ever seen, a berserk combination of space opera, intelligent bombs, and beach balls from other worlds." [5] Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 74% "Fresh" score based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "A loopy 2001 satire, Dark Star may not be the most consistent sci-fi comedy, but its portrayal of human eccentricity is a welcome addition to the genre." [47] Leonard Maltin awarded it two and a half stars, describing it as "enjoyable for sci-fi fans and surfers", and complimenting the effective use of the limited budget. [48]

Legacy

Influence

The "Beachball with Claws" segment of the film was reworked by O'Bannon into the science fiction-horror film Alien (1979). [7] [49] [3] After witnessing audiences failing to laugh at parts of Dark Star which were intended as humorous, O'Bannon commented, "If I can't make them laugh, then maybe I can make them scream." [50] Doug Naylor has said in interviews that Dark Star was the inspiration for Dave Hollins: Space Cadet , the radio sketches that evolved into science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf . [51]

Dark Star has also been cited as an inspiration for the machinima series Red vs. Blue by its creator Burnie Burns. [52] Metal Gear series creator Hideo Kojima revealed the iDroid's voice was inspired by the female computer voice from Dark Star. [53] Benson, Arizona, has a Dark Star Road, referencing the film's song named after the city.[ citation needed ]

Indie rock band Pinback adopted its name from the character Sergeant Pinback, and often used samples from the movie in its early work. [54] Synth-pop band Erasure sampled dialogue from this film (along with Barbarella ) in their song "Sweet, Sweet Baby", the B-side to "Drama!", the debut single off their album Wild! (1989). The Human League used a sample from the film at the end of "Circus of Death", the B-side of their debut single, "Being Boiled".

Cem Oral, under the alias Oral Experience, sampled dialogue from this film in his song "Never Been on E". The name of Pinbacker, the antagonist in Danny Boyle's film Sunshine (2007), also was inspired by Sergeant Pinback. [55] [56] Trevor Something used samples from Doolittle's conversation with the bomb in his 2014 mixtape Trevor Something Does Not Exist.

Progressive metal band Star One used the plot of the movie for their song "Spaced Out," with the name take from the film tagline "The Spaced Out Odyssey". German Digital Hardcore artist Bomb 20 is named after Bomb #20 from this film. Gravity Wine Co., based in Victoria, Australia, produces a red wine blend of Syrah and Grenache that is called Dark Star and which has "Dark Star - Phoenix Asteroids" written as a title at the top of the information section on its label.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Carpenter</span> American filmmaker (born 1948)

John Howard Carpenter is an American filmmaker, composer, and actor. Most commonly associated with horror, action, and science fiction films of the 1970s and 1980s, he is generally recognized as a master of the horror genre. At the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, the French Directors' Guild gave him the Golden Coach Award and lauded him as "a creative genius of raw, fantastic, and spectacular emotions".

<i>Farscape</i> Australian/American television science fiction series (1999–2004)

Farscape is an Australian-American science fiction television series conceived by Rockne S. O'Bannon and produced by The Jim Henson Company and Hallmark Entertainment, originally for the Nine Network. It premiered in North America on the Sci-Fi Channel's SciFi Friday segment on 19 March 1999,, as the network's anchor series. The Jim Henson Company is credited with the many alien looks, make-up and prosthetics; two regular characters on the show, the animatronic puppets Rygel and Pilot, were entirely Henson Creature Shop creations.

<i>They Live</i> 1988 American science-fiction action film

They Live is a 1988 American science fiction action horror film written and directed by John Carpenter, based on the 1963 short story "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" by Ray Nelson. Starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, the film follows a drifter who discovers through special sunglasses that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to consume, breed, and conform to the status quo via subliminal messages in mass media.

<i>Satyricon</i> (Meat Beat Manifesto album) 1992 studio album by Meat Beat Manifesto

Satyricon is the fourth studio album by British electronic music group Meat Beat Manifesto.

<i>Battle Beyond the Stars</i> 1980 American space opera film by Jimmy Murakami, Roger Corman

Battle Beyond the Stars is a 1980 American space opera film produced by Roger Corman, directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, and starring Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, John Saxon, Sybil Danning and Darlanne Fluegel. Intended as a futuristic "Magnificent Seven in outer space", the screenplay was written by John Sayles with the score by James Horner and special effects designed by filmmaker James Cameron. The film was theatrically released by Corman's New World Pictures and was a moderate box office success, despite receiving mixed reviews from critics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dan O'Bannon</span> American screenwriter, director & visual effects supervisor (1946–2009)

Daniel Thomas O'Bannon was an American film screenwriter, director and visual effects supervisor, most closely associated in the science fiction and horror genres.

<i>Tripping the Rift</i> Television series

Tripping the Rift is an adult CGI science fiction comedy television series. It is based on two short animations published on the internet by Chris Moeller and Chuck Austen. The series was produced by CinéGroupe in association with the Syfy network. Following its cancellation by that cable network, CinéGroupe continued producing the series for the other North American and international broadcasters. The series aired on the Canadian speciality channel Space in 2004. Canada's cartoon network Teletoon began airing the series in August 2006. Teletoon participated in the production of the third season, and aired it in 2007. A feature-length movie version was released on DVD in 2008.

<i>Assault on Precinct 13</i> (1976 film) 1976 film by John Carpenter

Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American independent action thriller film written, directed, scored, and edited by John Carpenter. It features Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against a relentless criminal gang, and Darwin Joston as a death row-bound convict who assists him. Laurie Zimmer, Tony Burton, Martin West, and Nancy Kyes co-star as other defenders of the precinct.

<i>The Fog</i> 1980 film directed by John Carpenter

The Fog is a 1980 American independent supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote the screenplay and created the music for the film. It stars Adrienne Barbeau, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Atkins, Janet Leigh and Hal Holbrook. It tells the story of a strange, glowing fog that sweeps over a small coastal town in Northern California.

<i>Quark</i> (TV series) 1977 American science fiction sitcom

Quark is a 1977 American science fiction sitcom starring Richard Benjamin. Broadcast on Friday nights at 8:00–8:30 p.m. on NBC, the pilot aired on May 7, 1977, and the series followed as a mid-season replacement in February 1978. The series was cancelled in April 1978. Quark was created by Buck Henry, co-creator of the spy spoof Get Smart.

<i>Lifeforce</i> (film) 1985 British science fiction horror film by Tobe Hooper

Lifeforce is a 1985 British science fiction horror film directed by Tobe Hooper, adapted by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby, and starring Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, Mathilda May, and Patrick Stewart. Based on Colin Wilson's 1976 novel The Space Vampires, the film portrays the events that unfold after a trio of humanoids in a state of suspended animation are brought to Earth after being discovered in the hold of an alien space ship by the crew of a European Space Shuttle.

<i>Sunshine</i> (2007 film) 2007 British-American science fiction film by Danny Boyle

Sunshine is a 2007 science fiction psychological thriller film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland. Taking place in the year 2057, the story follows a group of astronauts on a dangerous mission to reignite the dying Sun. The ensemble cast features Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh, Cliff Curtis, Troy Garity, Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Chipo Chung, and Mark Strong. The director cast a group of international actors for the film, and had the actors live together and learn about topics related to their roles, as a form of method acting.

<i>Planet of the Vampires</i> 1965 film by Mario Bava

Planet of the Vampires is a 1965 science fiction horror film produced by Fulvio Lucisano, directed by Mario Bava, that stars Barry Sullivan and Norma Bengell. The screenplay, by Bava, Alberto Bevilacqua, Callisto Cosulich, Antonio Roman and Rafael J. Salvia, was based on an Italian-language science fiction short story, Renato Pestriniero's "One Night of 21 Hours". American International Pictures released the film as the supporting film on a double feature with Daniel Haller's Die, Monster, Die! (1965).

Alien is a science fiction horror and action media franchise centered on the original film series which depicts warrant officer Ellen Ripley and her battles with an extraterrestrial lifeform, commonly referred to as the Alien ("Xenomorph"), and the prequel series following the exploits of the David 8 android and the aliens referred to as the "Engineers".

<i>Alien</i> (film) 1979 film by Ridley Scott

Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. It follows a spaceship crew who investigate a derelict spaceship and are hunted by a deadly extraterrestrial creature. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler, and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions and was distributed by 20th Century-Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was the executive producer. The alien creatures and environments were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while the concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the other sets.

<i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> 1968 film directed by Stanley Kubrick

2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and it was inspired by multiple short stories by Clarke, including "The Sentinel" (1951). Clarke also published a novelisation of the film, in part written concurrently with the screenplay, after the film's release. 2001: A Space Odyssey stars Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, and Douglas Rain and follows a voyage by astronauts, scientists, and the sentient supercomputer HAL 9000 to Jupiter to investigate an alien monolith.

Foster's Release is a 1971 American short film directed by Terence H. Winkless. The film has been credited with inventing many of the tropes of horror later used in films such as Black Christmas, Halloween and He Knows You're Alone.

<i>Outer Touch</i> 1979 British film by Norman J. Warren

Outer Touch is a 1979 British science fiction sex comedy film directed by Norman J. Warren and starring Glory Annen, Barry Stokes and Ava Cadell. The screenplay was by Andrew Payne from a story by David Speechley.

References

  1. ↑ "Dark Star (PG)". British Board of Film Classification . January 3, 1978. Archived from the original on October 31, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
  2. ↑ Smith, Adam (January 1, 2000). "Dark Star Review". Empire . Retrieved October 31, 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Tripney, Natasha (April 3, 2024). "Dark Star at 50: How a micro-budget student film changed sci-fi forever". BBC Culture. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  4. 1 2 Variety Staff (1974). "Review: 'Dark Star'". Variety. Variety Media. Retrieved June 17, 2017. Pic began in 1970 as 45-minute USC Film School short. Final budget was $60,000.
  5. 1 2 Ebert, Roger (March 11, 1980). "Dark Star (***)". Chicago Sun-Times . Retrieved December 15, 2009.
  6. ↑ Bradshaw, Peter (April 18, 2011). "Dark Star gazing". Guardian Media Group. The Guardian. Retrieved April 20, 2023.
  7. 1 2 Maçek III, J.C. (November 21, 2012). "Building the Perfect Star Beast: The Antecedents of 'Alien'". PopMatters .
  8. ↑ Carpenter, John; O'Bannon, Dan. ""Dark Star", short film script" . Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Cumbow, Robert (July 16, 2002). Order in the Universe: The Films of John Carpenter. Scarecrow Press. pp. 11–14, 244–245. ISBN   978-0-585-38302-6.
  10. ↑ "Dark Star Soundtrack". The Official John Carpenter. John Carpenter. Archived from the original on July 6, 2016. Commander Powell, Talby – John Carpenter
  11. ↑ Hefley, Robert M. (June 1977). Zimmerman, Howard (ed.). "The Starlog Science Fiction Address Guide — Motion Pictures". Starlog . Vol. 1, no. 6. New York: O'Quinn Studios. p. 37 – via Internet Archive.
  12. 1 2 Zinoman, Jason (July 7, 2011). Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror. Penguin. pp. 56–59. ISBN   978-1-101-51696-6.
  13. ↑ Kane, Paul; O’Regan, Marie (October 28, 2010). Voices in the Dark: Interviews with Horror Writers, Directors and Actors. McFarland. pp. 117–. ISBN   978-0-7864-5672-7.
  14. ↑ Muir, John Kenneth. The Films of John Carpenter. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2005. Page 7-8.
  15. ↑ Fleming, John (December 1978). Skinn, Dez (ed.). "Dark Star Review". Starburst. Vol. 1, no. 5. London: Marvel UK. pp. 22–27 – via Internet Archive.
  16. ↑ Froug, William (2005). How I Escaped from Gilligan's Island: And Other Misadventures of a Hollywood Writer-Producer . Popular Press. pp.  258–259. ISBN   978-0-87972-873-1.
  17. ↑ Rausch, Andrew J. (February 7, 2008). Fifty Filmmakers: Conversations with Directors from Roger Avary to Steven Zaillian. McFarland. pp. 39–40. ISBN   978-0-7864-8409-6.
  18. 1 2 Fischer, Dennis (January 1, 1991). Horror Film Directors, 1931-1990. McFarland. p. 118. ISBN   978-0-89950-609-8. The original short was 45 minutes long and cost only $6,000 to produce using the equipment at USC.
  19. ↑ Stevenson, James (January 28, 1980). "People Start Running". The New Yorker. Condé Nast. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  20. ↑ Muir, John Kenneth. The Films of John Carpenter. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2005. Page 9.
  21. ↑ Fox, Jordan R. (1980). Kaplan, Michael (ed.). "Carpenter: Riding High on Horror". Cinefantastique. Vol. 10, no. 1. Oak Park, Illinois: Frederick S. Clarke. pp. 5–10. I financed it until the summer of 1972, when a man named Jack Murphy, who owned a small Canadian distribution company, came on the picture.
  22. 1 2 Weaver, Tom (January 1, 2006). Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls and Makeup. McFarland. pp. 205–. ISBN   978-0-7864-2858-8.
  23. ↑ Phipps, Keith (September 3, 2014). "Future Suck". The Dissolve. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  24. ↑ Cobb, Ron (2015). "Dark Star". RonCobb.net. Retrieved June 17, 2017. Sketched on a napkin over coffee with Dan O'Bannon at the House of Pancakes L.A.
  25. ↑ Taylor, Chris (2014). How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise. Head of Zeus. p. 115. ISBN   978-1-78497-045-1 . Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  26. ↑ "Dark Star". Kitbashed. August 9, 2013. Retrieved January 5, 2021.
  27. ↑ McConville, Davo (February 27, 2014). "John Carpenter Talks About Composing the Terrifying Scores for His Films". Noisey . Vice Media . Retrieved June 28, 2017. So I went out to his apartment and basically recorded the score on this ... it was very, very primitive. We did the whole thing in about four hours.
  28. ↑ Morgan, Lee (January 4, 2016). "John Carpenter's first film gets expanded vinyl reissue". Fact . VF Publishing . Retrieved April 23, 2022.
  29. ↑ Conrich, Ian; Woods, David (2004). The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror. Wallflower Press. pp. 51–55. ISBN   978-1-904764-14-4.
  30. 1 2 Muir, John Kenneth (2005). The Films of John Carpenter. McFarland. pp. 53–63. ISBN   978-0786422692.
  31. ↑ Hartmeier, Daniel. "Dark Star – Benson, Arizona". Benzedrine. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2010.
  32. ↑ Staff (April 19, 1974). "The '74 Filmex Breaks All Records". The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017. Retrieved June 24, 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  33. ↑ Boulenger, Gilles (2003). John Carpenter: The Prince of Darkness. Silman-James Press. ISBN   978-1-879505-67-4. And 'Waiting for Godot in outer space' was the best made-up I could come up with.
  34. 1 2 Konow, David (October 2, 2012). Reel Terror: The Scary, Bloody, Gory, Hundred-Year History of Classic Horror Films. St. Martin's Press. p. 248. ISBN   978-1-250-01359-0.
  35. ↑ Shannon, Eddie (August 4, 2014). "Dark Star /special /1979 re-release /USA". Film on Paper. Retrieved June 23, 2017.
  36. ↑ Bowden, Robert (August 13, 1983). "Vintage musical, space spoof and rockabilly exercises on new videocassettes". Tampa Bay Times. St. Petersburg, Florida – via Newspapers.com.
  37. ↑ Lovece, Frank (August 24, 1986). "Compleat Carpenter available on video" . The News Leader. Staunton, Virginia – via Newspapers.com.
  38. ↑ Mad Man From Mars (1992). "Dark Star". Pond Scum (Newsletter). Vol. 1, no. 29 – via LaserRot.
  39. ↑ Hunt, Bill (May 4, 1999). "Dark Star". The Digital Bits. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  40. ↑ Abrams, Simon (November 3, 2010). "Dark Star". Slant Magazine . Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  41. ↑ Reis, George R., ed. (2010). "Dark Star Promo". DVD-Drive-In. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  42. ↑ McKelvey, John (January 1, 2017). "Controversial Blus: Dark Star (DVD/ Blu-ray Comparison)". DVD Exotica. Tomorrow Wendy Productions. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
  43. ↑ Sherman, Craig (June 1, 2001). "Comedic Crewman". ArtsEditor.
  44. ↑ DiMare, Philip C. (June 17, 2011). Movies in American History: An Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO. p. 595. ISBN   978-1-59884-297-5.
  45. ↑ Leatham, Thomas (February 1, 2023). "The classic John Carpenter movie Quentin Tarantino called a "science-fiction masterpiece"". Far Out . Archived from the original on February 19, 2023. Retrieved February 19, 2023.
  46. ↑ Beahm, Justin (June 23, 2016). "On John Carpenter + Career Retrospective Interview". Justin Beahm. Retrieved June 27, 2017. That was the first bad review I got, in the Daily Variety
  47. ↑ "Dark Star". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved October 1, 2024.
  48. ↑ Maltin, Leonard (2009), p. 320. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide. ISBN   1-101-10660-3. Signet Books. Accessed May 8, 2012
  49. ↑ Konow, David (September 2004). "Alien, 25 Years Later: Dan O'Bannon Looks Back on His Scariest Creation". Creative Screenwriting. Vol. 11, no. 5. pp. 70–73. 'Beach Ball Alien' scenes in 'Dark Star' were an inspiration for 'Alien'.
  50. ↑ Puccio, John. J. DARK STAR - DVD review, Movie Metropolis
  51. ↑ Gilliam, JD (October 1, 2012). "Interview: RED DWARF Writer / Co-Creator DOUG NAYLOR". Starburst . Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved June 19, 2017. I remember remarking to Rob at the time that I couldn't believe no-one had done a sitcom like that because it seemed like such a good thing to do. So it was the old memory of Dark Star and the Dave Hollins sketch and we decided to try and write it.
  52. ↑ Gus Sorola (March 21, 2012). "Rooster Teeth Podcast". roosterteeth.com (Podcast). Rooster Teeth Productions. Event occurs at 33:46. Archived from the original on August 20, 2013.
  53. ↑ HIDEO_KOJIMA [@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN] (July 5, 2015). ""Donna-san's iDROID computer voice in MGSV wasn't inspired from HAL9000 in 2001 A Space Odyssey but the female computer voice in Dark Star" (Tweet). Retrieved July 30, 2015– via Twitter.
  54. ↑ Deusner, Stephen M. (October 11, 2004). "Pinback: Summer in Abaddon". Pitchfork. Retrieved June 28, 2017. Even the name Pinback – taken from the sci-fi movie Dark Star – suggests something mechanical, like a wind-up robot.
  55. ↑ Kermode, Mark (March 25, 2007). "2007: a scorching new space odyssey". Guardian.
  56. ↑ Raphael, Amy (January 6, 2011). Danny Boyle: Authorised Edition. Faber & Faber. p. 166. ISBN   978-0-571-25537-5. Sometimes you openly acknowledge the influence of other films: in Sunshine, Pinbacker's name is taken from Sgt Pinback in John Carpenter's Dark Star.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.