Message-ID: <16344@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Feb-84 16:15:36 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16344
Posted: Thu Feb  2 16:15:36 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 8-Feb-84 08:39:56 EST
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The more you know about SF and SF movies the funnier Dark Star is.  If
you don't know about the scene that a scene in Dark Star is satyrizing,
you will certainly not think it is funny and might well wonder what is
going on.  And since it has a basically nihilistic underlying theme, it
could easily stike one as so-so without the knowledge of all the gung-ho
heroics it is parodying.

I really like the dead captain in the block of ice (preserved in a semblance
of alive by elctrical current through his brain) complaining that his
crew didn't come to visit often enough.  The talking bomb that had to be
persuaded to do what it was supposed to and kept spouting philosophy (not
quoting, it had arrived at its conclusions independently).

I was in stitches!  Just the parody of the noble "boldly go where no man
has gone before, seek out new life" .... and kill it before it gets dangerous!

With the world acting so much like a parody, intentional parody gets harder
to recognize every day, but parody Dark Star is!

                                - Suford

Message-ID: <446@topaz.ARPA>
Date: Wed, 30-Jan-85 12:12:53 EST
Article-I.D.: topaz.446
Posted: Wed Jan 30 12:12:53 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 31-Jan-85 06:42:55 EST
Sender: daemon@topaz.ARPA
Organization: Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick, N.J.
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From: William M. York 

    From: usceast!ted@topaz (Ted Nolan)
    Date: 26 Jan 85 05:41:19 GMT
   
       jjchew@utcs.UUCP (John Chew) writes:
       What?  A discussion on bad SF movies without one mention of John
       Carpenter's "Dark Star"?  An alien mascot made out of a
       spray-painted beach-ball?  Space effects where they don't bother
       trying to hide the wires?  And Alan Dean Foster's ... er,
       marvellous novelization which... er... captured the flavour of the
       movie exactly!

    Not quite fair, _Dark Star_ was, I believe, a student production and
    quite good , that considered.  My favorite moment was when the
    audience realized that the back packs on the space suits are muffin
    tins, but given the budget that implies they did very well.

Very well indeed.  Don't let the low-budget sets fool you.  This is a
real movie, played for laughs.  When the spaceship comes to a halt in 0
time, you KNOW it's a joke, not a mistake.  That alien beachball had
more personality than most of the human actors in "Just Imagine" (and
maybe even "Alien").  One of my favorite scenes is the review of a video
diary kept by one of the crew members, Pinback.  This very funny 5
minute segment shows the character's decent into parinoia over the
course of the mission, while at the same time filling the audience in on
the events of the past few years.  Another classic is acting-captain
Doolittle's attempts to teach one of the "smart" bombs phenominology in
order to convince it that its orders to destruct may have no basis in
reality.  GO SEE THIS MOVIE.  ("Contratulations!  You have decided to
clean the elevator!")

Several years ago Dark Star showed up at a local theater in Cambridge.
Some idiot of a movie critic at the Boston Glob wrote the whole thing
off as a cheap attempt to capitalize on the success of the big-budget SF
movies like Star Wars and Alien.  Unfortunately for him, Dark Star was
made in 1974 or '75.

    BTW, did anyone notice that part of the ending is stolen directly
    from a Ray Bradbury story?

Yes, the story is "Kaleidoscope".  I still have vivid memories of the
emotional impact of the story.

"Benson Arizona, the warm wind through your hair.
My body flies the galixy, my heart longs to be there.
Benson Arizona, same stars up in the sky,
But they looked so much brighter when we shared them, you and I."
	-the theme song from Dark Star