Eye Candy #195 - "Dark Star"

Dark Star:  I’ve been a huge John Carpenter fan since my father first introduced me to “Escape from New York” as a child.    I’ve made a point to get through most of his oeuvre, with “Dark Star”, his first film director effort, a notable exception.  Real more a comedy than anything, “Dark Star” is the titular starship upon which our plot takes place.  It’s 20 year mission to destroy unstable planets continues with mind-numbing, sanity-shaking boredom.  The crew of 4 that’s still alive (the captain having died prior to the start of the film, but kept in cryogenic stasis),  keep on keeping on, until a combination of events throws their mission and lives into complete jeopardy.  Low budget in the extreme, the sole alien depicted in the film is literally a beach ball with rubber hands glued to it.  Some amusing vignettes, including one crew member arguing with an intelligent bomb about phenomenology.  Without this film, there would be no “Red Dwarf”.  No “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.  This is the combination of sci-fi and the absurd that heavily populated the 1980’s.  Hard to believe this was a student film that was optioned for wider release.  Definitely not for all tastes, but entertaining for those in that frame of mind.   And it’s a better Carpenter effort than say, “Vampires”, “Ghosts of Mars”,  or “The Fog”.  Woodchuck sez, “Carpenter fans will appreciate it.”