Classic Genre Films: Dark Star (1974)

Stoned in Space

This small budget production has achieved cult status and influenced later films and TV shows. It is perhaps best summed up by its tagline, “Bombed Out in Space with a Spaced Out Bomb”. Way back in the day (i.e. the late 1960s and much of the 1970s) there was a market for so-called “stoner” movies, initiated by Easy Rider (1969) and encompassing many of the road movies of the time such as Two-Lane Blacktop (1971). Pour something soothing into the glass or roll up a jazz cigarette, lay back and enjoy.

Grunge in Space

It’s this grungy aesthetic of having been cooped up in a tin can for months on end that is one of the most influential aspects of Dark Star. The four-man crew is bored, dysfunctional, unable to properly communicate with or (at times) even tolerate each other.

At about minutes 11-12, we learn that storage area nine “self-destructed last week and destroyed the ship’s entire supply of toilet paper”. It doesn’t bear thinking about! Their sleeping quarters have been blown up (c17m) and although Pinback (played by Dan O’Bannon) suggests they repair them, no-one can be bothered.

Boiler (Cal Kuniholm) smokes cigars in the communal areas. The aptly named Doolittle (Brian Narelle) is nominally in charge since the death of Commander Powell (Joe Saunders), but lacks initiative or leadership skills and his attention is prone to wandering. Talby (Dre Pahich) absents himself by sitting in the observation dome watching stars and dreaming of the Phoenix Asteroid cluster.

Apollo 11 it is not.

Clean lines in Space

Carpenter’s approach—that this is what lengthy space travel would really look, feel and smell like—was later picked up by Doug Naylor for the popular comedy TV show Red Dwarf (1988-2020). Later films such as Sunshine (2007) also hint at these deprivations. Co-writer Dan O’Bannon later reused a few ideas and gave us the haunted hulk of the ship in Alien (1979), complete with another dysfunctional and exhausted crew. And an extraterrestrial on the loose.

Aliens in Space

The longest sequence in Dark Star, approximately 19 minutes including one diversion, begins when the female-voiced sentient computer tells Pinback that he must feed the alien “mascot” he rescued at an earlier stage of the mission (c27m). Now, I’m a fan of old-style Doctor Who” original Star Trek, and before that The Outer Limits and 1950s creature-features—so, I’m quite tolerant. But the alien in Dark Star must be the cheapest-looking galaxy being you’ve ever seen. Clearly intended for comic effect, even if early audiences didn’t quite pick that up. 

All those light-years travelled, all that seeking exotic creatures and intelligent civilisations, and the alien is basically a fruit-patterned beach ball with a couple of claws attached, that squeaks and wants to play like a lively puppy.

Danger in Space

As we all know, comedy is right next door to horror, so at minute 27 we begin a part of the plot that endangers Pinback’s life in a slapstick yet still potentially lethal manner: the alien scoots off and takes Pinback to unexpected parts of the ship. I mean, an “Emergency Airlock” makes sense but why exactly does Dark Star require a “central trunk elevator shaft”?  The Grand Guignol continues as Pinback gets trapped within the escape hatch in this malfunctioning lift and, for no good reason, the shipboard computer starts playing Rossini’s lively The Barber of Seville whilst the poor guy’s legs are kicking frantically beneath the floor of the capsule. It’s farcical but almost fatal. 

Bombed out in Space

The spaceship’s mission has been to find unstable planets and destroy them ahead of later safe colonisation. Yes, I know, it doesn’t quite bear close analysis.

The other set-piece or series of linked scenes for which this film is most remembered concern “Bomb 20”. Essentially, these are an extended and hilarious parody of the famous sequence from 2001 where human astronaut Dave Bowman has to disable the super-computer HAL 9000. Folks, we are all worried about Artificial Intelligence and rightly so on this evidence. In Dark Star we have a self-aware talking bomb who won’t be disarmed or talked back into the bomb bay, and whose response to being taught the human academic thought experiments of phenomenology is to tell Pinback, “You are false data. Therefore, I shall ignore you” (c78m). It’s like arguing with a genius toddler… who is packing several megatons of nuclear weapons. 

Cults in Space

Here’s one reason why I would make such a statement. I was recently accused of being “London-centric”. Me? You’re having a giraffe, geezer! But seriously—my friend Gary Couzens reliably informs me that Dark Star was first broadcast in Britain on BBC-2 on 29 December 1977. Cheers, Gary. I’m pretty sure I first saw it on that date. It caused quite a stir and, relying on personal memory here, in a reversal of the usual template of cinema release followed by a much later TV screening, the film was then picked up by the independent Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley, north London, and enjoyed a decent theatrical run to good-sized audiences. This was way before iPlayer, YouTube, and so forth. It was often pretty hard to get a second look at a film in those days, so the High Road N2’s answer to Islington’s famous Screen on the Green was the place to go to.  

Director John Carpenter went on to make several further iconic SF/H genre films including Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New Yor” (1981) and The Thing (1982). But nothing is quite as loose, unusual and ‘out-there’ as Dark Star.

What did you think of Dark Star? Let us know in the comments below ⬇️