Dark Star

A million suns shine down

But I see only one

When I think I'm over you

I find I've just begun

The years move faster than the days

There's no warmth in the light

How I miss those desert skies

Your cool touch in the night

The men sit in a tin can called "Dark Star", combing the universe for planets deemed unstable, to be destroyed.  Planets containing life forms that might prohibit man from colonizing them.  It's the year 2150 and artificial intelligence has allowed the creation of bombs that can think and speak, though slavishly follow orders, even ones due to the multiple malfunctions of Dark Star's rampant disrepair.  This causes problems like Thermostellar Triggering Device #20's habit of lowering out of the bay even when not officially instructed to do so.

The crew is made up of four weary souls: Lt. Doolittle (Brian Narelle), Sgt. Pinback (Dan O'Bannon), Cpl. Boiler (Cal Kuniholm), and Talby (Andreijah Pahich).  They have been on their mission for twenty years, and they're losing their minds. One plays pranks, one uses a laser for target practice in the hallway, another attends to his facial hair with fastidiousness.  Talby is content with sitting above in the observation dome and waiting for the Phoenix Asteroids.  Dark Star has an alien "mascot" - a mischievous beachball with legs that likes to send Pinback on chases.  A HAL-like computer runs the ship, also sporting a soft, reassuring voice, though this one is female.

#20 will lower again after another malfunction and refuse to abort a countdown even after its release mechanism is damaged by an on-board laser.  It will take the efforts of Doolittle to engage the stubborn bomb in a lengthy discussion of subjective experience to save the day.  But will #20 begin to question existence?

I've said too much.  Director John Carpenter's debut 1974 film DARK STAR, expanded from a film made at the University of Southern California, is loopy, goofy, and droll, and a lot of fun.  2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is effectively spoofed but Carpenter and O'Bannon's script has its own fascinating ideas, even if it cribs everything from Howard Hawks to Ray Bradbury.  The film was shot on sixteen millimeter and cost about ten dollars (actually 60 K), so a certain no-budget charm exists (O'Bannon also did the effects).  I consider myself one of its loyal cult.

Maybe the hunt for the alien sequence goes on too long, but it is very well done and probably inspired O'Bannon for 1979's ALIEN.   The philosophical discussion with the bomb is solid gold. Doolittle also gets to reminisce about surfing in Malibu in an amusing scene.  This will also figure into the finale, which was surprisingly effective.

The cherry on top is the Country & Western tune called "Benson, Arizona", played during the opening and closing credits.  The musical style is incongruous to the setting, becoming quite hilarious.  But read those lyrics.  DARK STAR is a lark, a silly trifle, but at its heart are the same existential dilemmas seen in the Serious Science Fiction in print and in the films of Kubrick and Tarkovsky.  Yessir.