Jack H. Harris Presents Dark Star!

If ever there was a movie about entropy it's Dark Star. Some of its creators refer to it as a version of Waiting for Godot but in space. It's not quite that, but it's close. It's a movie in which space travel has become so mundane and commonplace that the thrill of being among the stars is lacking from most of these astronauts. Their job in space is pretty thrilling really, exploding planets which seem unstable or pose some risk to potential colonizers. But they've been doing it so long, it's lost its romantic luster. The creators imagined truck drivers in space, but really these guys are more like bulldozer and crane operators. They plow the way forward and make the path smooth for those to come. 

When we encounter them, they have been twenty years in space in Earth time but for these blokes only about three years have passed thanks to the mysteries of faster-than-light travel. They have blown up eighteen planets using intelligent talking bombs which trigger a chain reaction on the planet in question shattering it to smithereens. We see them drop "Bomb 19" and then speed out of the way of the result. After this momentary thrill the ennui of unchanging experience traps them once again inside their flawed personalities. The excitement heats up when they try to drop "Bomb 20". We worry about A.I., well this movie shows that dilemma off in spades. 

"Captain Powell" has "died" though they keep him on ice for extreme emergencies. The second in command is named "Dolittle" and lives up to his name, constantly shirking his responsibilities and pining for home. There's "Talby" who lives apart from the others aboard a ship which is bigger than it appears (Tardis anyone?) and is the only one of this sordid batch who looks to the stars for inspiration.  "Boiler" is a taciturn ogre who is just trying to live minute to minute with pointless and violent diversions. And finally, there's "Pinback" who is not really Pinback but a low-level service tech named "Froog" who stumbled into the mission when the real Pinback committed suicide in front of him. Pinback is a constant whiner who bemoans most all aspects of his fate and reads romance comics. But weirdly he's the only one who still cares about the mission. There's an alien too, but it has to be seen to be believed. 

I find Dark Star a delightful satire which uses men in space to showcase men and women on Earth who approach life with different strategies and most of which are ultimately of little comfort. Made by John Carpenter and the late Dan O'Bannon with much help from their friends this is a student movie that escaped the USC campus (with some help from Carpenter himself by raiding the USC film vault it seems) and with some doctoring by the ubiquitous Jack Harris tiptoed into theaters and made little money. Harris is the only distributer who showed any interest in the movie, and while he and Carpenter have different reflections of their time together, Carpenter admits the movie and possibly his career might have taken a different turn. All you folks who love Halloween the movie, tip your hat to Jack H. Harris. 

Cal Kuniholm (Boiler) and Brian Narelle (Dolittle) above 

Dan O'Bannon (Pinback) and John Carpenter kneeling

O'Bannon who played Pinback seems to be the heart and soul of this project and it's due to his efforts that the movie has remained viable long enough for a cult audience to discover and cherish it. I'm among that number.

Be back next week for another John Carpenter project (of sorts) which Jack H. Harris was instrumental in -- The Eyes of Laura Mars. 

Rip Off

Vampires From Space!

Lifeforce is one of those movies which sits between genres. It's clearly science fiction with shuttles full of astronauts exploring the depths of space and Halley's Comet where they discover an enormous alien craft full of dessicated bodies and three humanoids who would strike most anyone's fancy. And the movie then is also clearly horror as the three humanoids turn out to space vampires, the very source of the Earth legends about bloodsuckers, who have returned to ravage the planet and extract not blood exactly but "lifeforce"-- hence the title.

The title is largely the problem with this movie I suspect, at least as regards its meager box office. Lifeforce could be about anything and sadly sounds like it could be about nothing much as well. I didn't see this one in the theater at the time and I don't know exactly why, because it was released when I was devouring most any movie in the genre. I missed it and I bet the vague title has a lot to do with it. It's based on a Colin Wilson novel title The Space Vampires, that's a much better title.

As well as this poster which seems like the title not to be about anything in particular. It's going for a Space Odyssey vibe I guess, but it ends up being a collection of images which don't compute. A hairy eyeball sees the Earth -- so what! It's horrible! I'd rather have seen the gloriously exotic poster at the top of this post with naked girls strapped to indistinct space pods flying away from some Lovecraftian thorne-themed spacecraft. That's an attention getter.

The movie itself though is a compelling bit of cinema directed by Tobe Hooper and offers up a slathering of classic sci-fi smeared onto a horror yarn with great all-around effect Lots of folks get totally distracted (as do almost all the characters) by the insanely nubile naked body of Mathilda May who plays the key "Space Girl" and head vampire. But if you can take your eyes off the delicious Miss May, you'll find a robust Hammeresque fear-fest with rampaging zombies, grotesque bat-creatures, and a solid cast of Brits more than capable of standing toe-to-toe with the utter destruction of the planet.

Lone American Steve Railsback charges through this movie getting ever more intense, but I find the likes of Peter Firth, Frank Finlay, and future "Jean Luc Picard" himself Patrick Stewart much more compelling with half the screaming. The story is pretty simple one actually. Astronauts find those alien vampires in the tail of Haley's Comet and under their hypnotic influence bring them to Earth where they ransack London and call out to their brethren to come and share in the feast. Along the way the police try to track the aliens with little effectiveness.

There are lots of back end explanations and without some convenient psychic flashes the story would grind to a halt pretty quickly, but when it's all said and done, I find Lifeforce to be a moody and involving horror show. The gorgeous Mathilda is just cream on an already tasty cake.

But The Space Vampires would have been a much much better title.

NOTE: This is a Dojo Revised Classic Post. 

Rip Off

Alien!

Dan O'Bannon said of the failure of the movie Dark Star, a movie which he wrote and was instrumental in getting made alongside director John Carpenter, that if he couldn't make people laugh
using a story set in outer space, he'd scare them instead. With the movie Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, but written by O'Bannon, he did just that. Alien is one of the scariest damn movies I've ever seen in the theater.

I am not a person who seeks out the dark of the cinema to watch really frightening stuff, rather saving that material for the comfort and security of my home, but Alien was the exception. The movie brilliantly paced and the short glimpses of the implacable predator from the depths of space are more than enough to feed the eager imagination about what it was. We all know now with many films and comics and such, but not then. It was a furtive creature, constantly changing its shape and size and tactics as it relentlessly killed off the crew of the space ship Nostromo.

I assume everyone has seen this, so I will not belabor things with a reprise. But it's impossible for me to watch Alien anymore without reading the subtext of female empowerment the movie pushes forward. Ripley is almost always the crew member who is properly cautious and properly bold in response to the threat which comes from both outside the crew and from its membership. The symbolism of the movie forces the viewer to see the Alien as an enormous phallus penetrating and striking down people indiscriminately though saving Ripley for the last. Ash the android tries to push a penis-looking rolled up porn magazine into Ripley's mouth to end her threat to the masculine warlike agenda of the owners and masters of the Nostromo. Only Ripley and her cat, her pussy if you will, survive the assault. In the next movie she will become a mother, but many things will have happen before she's ready to assume that role. In this movie she lives and that's enough, barely.

And if that ain't enough to sell you did I mention it's a damn scary movie. It also was exceedingly well served by an outstanding comic book adaptation which I'll take a glance at tomorrow.

Rip Off

Dark Star!

If ever there was a movie about entropy it's Dark Star. Some of its creators refer to it as a version of Waiting for Godot but in space. It's not quite that, but it's close. It's a movie in which space travel has become so mundane and commonplace that the thrill of being among the stars is lacking from most of these astronauts. Their job in space is pretty thrilling really, exploding planets which seem unstable or pose some risk to potential colonizers. The creators imagined truck drivers in space, but these guys are more like bulldozer and crane operators. They plow the way forward and make the path smooth for those to come. 

When we encounter them, they have been twenty years in space in Earth time but for these blokes only about three years have passed thanks to the mysteries of faster-than-light travel. They have blown up eighteen planets with intelligent talking bombs which trigger a chain reaction on the planet in question shattering it to smithereens. We see them drop "Bomb 19" and then speed out of the way of the result. After this momentary thrill the ennui of unchanging experience traps them once again inside their flawed personalities.

Captain Powell has "died" though they keep him on ice for extreme emergencies. The second in command is named "Dolittle" and lives up to his name, constantly shirking his responsibilities and pining for home. There's "Talby" who lives apart from the others aboard a ship which is bigger than it appears (Tardis anyone?) and is the only one of the batch who looks to the stars for inspiration.  "Boomer" is a taciturn ogre who is just trying to live minute to minute with pointless diversions. And finally there's "Pinback" who is not really Pinback but a low-level service tech who stumbled into the mission when the real Pinback committed suicide in front of him. Pinback is a constant whiner who bemoans most all aspects of his fate and reads romance comics.  There's an alien too, but it has to be seen to be believed.

I find Dark Star a delightful satire which uses men in space to showcase men and women on Earth who approach life with different strategies and most of which are ultimately of little comfort. Made by John Carpenter and the late Dan O'Bannon with much help from their friends this is a student movie that escaped the USC campus and with some doctoring by the ubiquitous Jack Harris tiptoed into theaters and made little money. O'Bannon who plays Pinback seems to be the heart and soul of this project and its to due to his efforts that it's remained viable long enough for a cult audience to discover and cherish it. I'm among that number.

Rip Off