Starman (1984)
Columbia DVD (region 4)
d. John Carpenter; pr. Larry J. Franco; scr. Bruce A. Evans, Raynold Gideon; ph. Donald M. Morgan; m. Jack Nitzsche; ed. Marion Rothman; cast. Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Phalen, Tony Edwards (115 mins)
John Carpenter’s film of Starman posed an intriguing initial production dilemma for its studio. The film was set up by Columbia Pictures who were sometime earlier approached by director Steven Spielberg with the script for E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Columbia Pictures declined the Spielberg offer, apparently citing as a reason that they had their own alien on Earth plot currently in development. Subsequently, Spielberg went to Universal who eagerly took on the project which, of course, became an enormous box-office success, thus making Columbia known to insiders as the studio that had passed on what became at the time the most profitable film ever. Hence, Starman was seen by some as the losing studio’s by-then rather desperate attempt to win back some of what they missed. However, John Carpenter was a director more associated in the public mind with his horror movies, although in the few years since his earlier runaway success with Halloween he had crossed over into science fiction and alien landing themes with his 1982 version of The Thing, a notable financial flop. Carpenter apparently saw in Starman the opportunity to broaden his range and establish himself as a director of more than low-budget genre pictures and to bring his perspectives to the mainstream. Sadly, this did not eventuate and Carpenter went into something of a career decline throughout the rest of the decade.
Starman concerns an alien landing on Earth. The film begins with the late 1970s’ launch of Voyager 2 into space, carrying invitations, in a variety of forms and languages, for aliens to visit Earth. Apparently, it reached intelligent life some years later and was indeed answered. A spaceship thus enters the Earth’s atmosphere only to be then shot down by the American military. It crashes and a mysterious light emerges, travelling to a house nearby. The house belongs to Karen Allen, a grieving woman who has recently lost her lover (Jeff Bridges). The alien (who is never shown) takes the physical form of Bridges, in effect cloning him from a strand of his hair that Allen keeps in a photo-album / scrapbook. Bridges sends a message into space that he is down in hostile terrain and that he should be picked up at a designated rendezvous point. Allen is scared and Bridges in effect forces her to drive him to the retrieval area, several states away. However, the military and the scientists are soon on his trail. On the road, they start to bond, Allen especially almost wishing that this “man” is indeed her lover come back to life. On the road, Bridges experiences what it is like to be human and indeed reveals himself as very humane. Allen thus faces a dilemma when the chance to flee arises, whether to abandon the person she has grown to care for, or see him through to a safe return before the military can get him. read more