| Product: |
Starman (DVD) |
| Date: |
07/07/03 (123 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Good story, Touching at times
Disadvantages: Hardly a blockbuster, Low key sfx
The 1970's were a watershed for the sci-fi genre. Having lived through the myth that all aliens are malevolent, along came Steven Spielberg with the seminal Close Encounters of the Third Kind followed by the equally family friendly, ET in 1982. Both well and truly smashed the previously accepted status quo that anything from another world took the form of a 1950's B-movie with aliens eating anything remotely humanoid to the backdrop of a billboard replete with a screaming female with a hand to her mouth. A couple of years later (1984), John Carpenter arrived on the scene with a curious build on this new ethos as well as a more than a passing resemblance to the ET formula but with truly touching results.
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Principal cast:
Jeff Bridges .... Starman
Karen Allen .... Jenny Hayden
Charles Martin Smith .... Mark Shermin
Richard Jaeckel .... George Fox
Robert Phalen .... Major Bell
Tony Edwards .... Sergeant Lemon
John Walter Davis .... Brad Heinmuller
Ted White .... Deer Hunter
Director: John Carpenter
Writing credits: Bruce A. Evans & Raynold Gideon
Running Time: 115 minutes
Cert: PG
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The movie opens with the dramatic images of the satellite, Voyager II hurtling through space, a perpetually looped message firing audio signals into eternity. These messages were intended as greetings to any extraterrestrial life in an open invitation to make contact with mother Earth.
Starman adopts the concept that one of the signals would have been successful resulting in a visitation to this planet of ours. An alien (Jeff Bridges) duly arrives in Winsconcin and adopts the human form of a young widow's (Karen Allen) husband. With only a finite time possible on Earth, the alien realises
that it needs to rendezvous with the mother ship before it dies. However, the landing zone is over in Arizona so it kidnaps the widow and forces her to drive across land to the pick up point. Needless to say, the ethereal authorities are aware of a visitation and keen to locate the alien in order to subject it to experimentation (cliché, I know).
Starman and his cohort, Jenny Allen, trek across middle America persued by the omnipresent men in black suits intent on catching up with this illegal immigrant to further human science. The implied threat is present that they will slap him on a Roswell couch and reach for the surgical implements borrowed from Steve Martin's dentist in Little Shop of Horrors (erm, another cliché, sorry).
On the face of it, the movie could have been seen as simply a replication of the ET fable. After all, there's a vulnerable alien trying to get home whilst being chased by the authorities. Substitute a squat creature with large eyes for the rather more mundane Jeff Bridges masquerading in a red chequered shirt and you could end up with a strong case for deja vous. However, the devil's in the detail and, for me at least, Starman plays on a subtly different set of emotions to the more publicly accepted institution that is ET.
Perhaps the biggest single difference is the developing relationship between the two leads. What starts as complete bewilderment to the fact that her dead husband has returned, slowly but surely turns to a full blown love affair between a curious alien visitor and a woman pining for her long lost partner. In essence, Starman is a love story and one carefully crafted to draw the audience in to what becomes a touching screen play that simply must touch the most hardened of cynics.
Bridges adopts the mantel of space creature with a curious mix of tics and flicks of the head to differentiate between run-of-the-mill humans and the suggestion of what a visiting alien might be lik
e should it somehow adopt a human host. The clicking of the roof of his mouth as well as some of the other mannerisms need a bit of getting used to to take them seriously but they do eventually work albeit with a modicum of reserve. There are some wonderfully observed challenges of what we take for granted e.g. Starman wanting to know why he can't start his meal with the dessert rather than a starter. Set in a typical all-American diner, Allen searches for a credible reason as to why things are as they are but eventually gives up as Bridges launches into his apple pie.
Both Bridges and Allen do create a certain chemistry on screen which makes the film work. Generally, wide eyed and incredulous, the audience can't help empathising with Allen's character as bemusement turns to love. Having come to terms with Bridges taking her hostage at gunpoint, she tries to give him the slip on a number of occasions whilst getting to like him more and more as her counter-part's naïve outlet on life draws her towards him.
The special effects are good enough without ever taking the roof off. Most of the slight of hand stuff revolves around what appear to be glowing spheres which Starman rolls around in his hand to make something happen. It's hardly Shwartzenegger-esqe although the resurrection of a dead deer kind of captures the mood of the movie and may leave a tear in your eye (if that doesn't, the finale might).
Special mention has to go to Jack Nitzsche for the original music. With a synthesiser-orientated score, it captures both the feel of that particular decade as well as providing the perfect backdrop to some of the thoughtful passages that build the storyline. It's a kind of Jean Michelle Jarre experience that fits the mood.
John Carpenter is something of a legend in the directorial world. Mainly associated with horror (Ghosts of Mars, The Thing), Carpenter pays more than a passing flirtation to the sci-fi genre
in a career spanning 5 decades. He's made movies I've loved (Halloween, They Live) and some I've hated (Ghosts of Mars) and on this occasion, it's a rare opportunity to find him using a deft touch in directing terms as opposed to the more usual application of visual violence and gore.
So would want to watch a movie like this? Well, there's some violence although only in the form of a few fisticuffs as Starman gets the tar knocked out of him for reviving a deer hunter's dead trophy. I guess, this movie is aimed at those who are looking for a bit of sentimentality with more than a passing interest in science fiction. Starman is an under-rated movie with Bridges being nominated for an Oscar for his role.
Personally, I'd recommend it to all but there will always be an audience seeking out bigger thrills and spills that this movie can deliver. Of course, there's always a plethora of films waiting to satisfy those who prefer not to have to think too hard. I tend to prefer movies like Starman.
Thanks for reading
Marandina
Starman retails at £15.99 for the DVD from Amazon whilst the video costs just £4.99 unless you can find it cheaper elsewhere.
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