Capital Celluloid 2016 - Day 291: Tue Oct 18

Dark Star (Carpenter, 1974): BFI Southbank, BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.55pm



This screening is part of the BFI Southbank's John Carpenter season. Tonight's programme includes an extended introduction to the season by Michael Blyth. Full details here.


Chicago Reader review:
In John Carpenter's witty and stylish 1974 sci-fi satire, the Dark Star is an intergalactic bomber wandering through the universe on a vaguely Nixonian mission to destroy unpopulated planets that might stand in the way of space travel. The ship's crew is variously bored, blissed out, and restlessly rambunctious. By introducing human eccentricities (mostly southern Californian in nature) into the cold structure of science fiction, Carpenter creates a vision of the technological future that is both disillusioned and oddly affirmative in its insistence on the unscientific survival of emotional frailty. Amazingly, the film (Carpenter's first) was made on a reported budget of $60,000. With Dan O'Bannon (also the coscenarist) and Brian Narelle.
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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