Dark Star (1974)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1974
Running Times: 83 mins
Format: Metrocolor     16mm     35mm (blow up)
Ratio: 1.85:1
Sound: mono

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Company: University of Southern California
Presenter: Jack H. Harris
Producer: John Carpenter
Associate Producer: J. Stein Kaplan

SCRIPT
Script: John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon
Creative Consultant: Craig Portman

DIRECTION
Director: John Carpenter
Assistant Director: J. Stein Kaplan

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Douglas Knapp
Additional Photographers: Cliff Fenneman, Dale Beldin
Assistant Camera: Nick Castle
Key Grip: Les Rumsey

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Dan O'Bannon

MUSIC
Music: John Carpenter
Song: John Carpenter, Bill Taylor (Benson Arizona)

SOUND
Sound: Nina Kleinberg
Engineer: Craig Portman
Sound Effects: John Brasher
Sound Effects Re-Recordist: Leslie Shatz
Sound Effects Editor: Nick Spaulding

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects Supervisor: Dan O'Bannon
Special Effects: Ron Cobb, Bob Greenberg, Greg Jein, Harry Walton, John Wash

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects Consultant / Optical Effects: Bill Taylor

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Dan O'Bannon
Associate Art Director: Tom Wallace
Chief Carpenter: David Seal

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Associate: Jack Murphy
Production Assistant: Terry Winkless

CAST
Brian Narelle (Lieutenant Doolittle)
Cal Kuniholm (Boiler)
Dre Pahich (Talby)
Dan O'Bannon (Sergeant Pinback)
Adam Beckenbaugh (voice of Bomb #20 (uncredited))

PLOT SUMMARY

Four astronauts are on a seemingly endless mission seeking out and destroying unstable planets to make way for further human colonisation of the stars. The crew are becoming increasingly unstable as the mission drags on and have some bizarre problems to contend with - Commander Powell is dead but can still talk to them after they put him in cryogenic suspension; there's a belligerent, beach-ball like alien pet to contend with; and then there's the A.I. controlled bomb who suddenly comes to believe that it's God...

AVAILABILITY

Canada
Theatrical Distributors: Astral Films

USA
Theatrical Distributors: Jack H. Harris Enterprises Inc; Bryanston Films Ltd; BijouFlix Releasing
Video Distributors: Liberty Home Video; VCI Home Video; Video Dimensions
Laserdisc Distributors: Image Entertainment (ID 6589 VC)
DVD Distributors: VCI Home Video (DVD 8205)

CENSORSHIP HISTORY

Norway
Rating: 11

UK
Rating: PG

USA
Rating: G

AWARDS

1976
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, USA
Golden Scroll: Best Special Effects (Douglas Knapp, Bill Taylor, John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon) - winner

Hugo Awards, USA
Best Dramatic Presentation - nominated

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, USA
Nebula Award: Best Dramatic Writing (John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon) - nominated

TIMELINE

1980
July
9: France – theatrical release

1992
March
9: USA - laserdisc release (Image Entertainment (ID 6589 VC))

1999
March
9: USA - DVD release (VCI Home Video (DVD 8205))

November
Day Unknown: Italy – shown at the Turin Film Festival

POSTER TAGS

What would you be like after 20 years aboard DARK STAR the spaced-out spaceship. The ultimate cosmic comedy!

Bombed out in space with a spaced-out bomb!

They're not lost in space, they're loose!

ALTERNATIVE TITLES

Aluniza como puedas: Dark Star - Spanish title
Ciemna gwiazda - Polish title
Dark Star - Finsterer Stern - West German title
Dark Star - L'étoile noire - French title
Estrela Negra - Portuguese title
Estrella oscura - Spanish title
Pimeä tähti - Finnish title
Temná hvezda - Czech television title

LINKS

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
Prison Ship (1984)

SEE ALSO
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Red Dwarf (1992 - )
Silent Running (1972)

REFERENCES

BOOKS

Cult movies 2: 50 More of the Classics, the Sleepers, the Weird and the Wonderful by Danny Peary (New York: Dell (1983); London: Vermillon (1984))
review

Omni's Screen Flights / Screen Fantasies: The Future According to Science Fiction Cinema (New York: Doubleday (1984) ISBN: 0385191995)
illustrated article (The Remaking of Dark Star by Dan O'Bannon)

KEYWORDS

aliens, artificial intelligence, asteroids, bombs, computers, cryogenics, cryonics, drugs, elevators, the future, lasers, space travel, spaceships, surfing

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009