Dark Star (film)
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- This page is about the film Dark Star. For other topics, please see the disambiguation page at Dark Star.
| Dark Star | |
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 Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | John Carpenter |
| Produced by | John Carpenter |
| Written by | John Carpenter Dan O'Bannon |
| Starring | Dan O'Bannon Brian Narelle Cal Kuniholm Dre Pahich |
| Music by | John Carpenter |
| Cinematography | Douglas Knapp |
| Editing by | Dan O'Bannon |
| Release date(s) | 1974 |
| Running time | 83 min. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Dark Star is a 1974 sci-fi tongue-in-cheek comedy motion picture directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O'Bannon. Dark Star was ranked #95 on Rotten Tomatoes' Journey Through Sci-Fi. [1]
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[edit] Production
Although destined for eventual theatrical release in 1974, this was only possible as a consequence of a successful series of showings at a number of film festivals in 1973. Originally the film was a 45 minute student short filmed on 16mm film. The movie was seen by producer Jack H. Harris, who gained the theatrical distribution rights to the film, and arranged for it to be transferred to 35mm, and paid for the addition of 38 minutes which brought the movie up to feature film length.
Director John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon wrote the screenplay. Six years later, the basic "Beachball with Claws" subplot of the film was reworked from comedy to horror, and became the basis for the O'Bannon-scripted science fiction horror classic, Alien.
The special effects in the movie were done by Dan O'Bannon, ship design by Ron Cobb, model work by O'Bannon and Greg Jein, and animation was by Bob Greenberg, all of which are considered impressive for a student work. O'Bannon starred in the film in the role of Sgt. Pinback.
[edit] Analysis
Carpenter has described Dark Star as "'Waiting for Godot' in space." [2]
[edit] Soundtrack
The theme song played during the opening and closing credits is "Benson, Arizona". The music was written by John Carpenter, and the lyrics by Bill Taylor. [3]
[edit] References
- ^ ROTTEN TOMATOES: RT's Journey Through Sci-Fi. RottenTomatoes (2007-05-11). Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
- ^ Dark Star movie review - Film - Time Out London. Time Out. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
- ^ IMDB.com: Dark Star (1974) - Soundtracks. IMDb. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
[edit] External links
- Dark Star (1974) at the Internet Movie Database
- Dark Star at the TCM Movie Database
- Dark Star at The Official John Carpenter
- Bomb #20 learns a little phenomenology
- Dark Star film script
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