How is this his ONLY Oscar-nominated Film?!?
After making a great (but impossible to market) Film in The Thing, Carpenter needed to do some more commercial stuff. As such, he agreed to do Christine and then this Film.
1984's Starman was long gestating (pun fully intended), but thankfully it came into his hands. Thanks, Producer Michael Douglas.
It did quite well, thankfully, and even got 2 Oscar nominations. Shockingly, neither was for Carpenter. To pile on the insults, the Film's Composer WAS nominated- only this was one of the rare times that Carpenter didn't Score/Co-Score his own Film.
Ouch.
To be fair, it is a great Score too.
The Film is about the titular Starman who comes to check out the Earth. Naturally, the US Government views him as a threat and tries to capture him. You can blame this on Cold War Panic, but, honestly, imagine it happening today. Would it be any different?
How is the Film? Let's check it out...
In 1979, we sent a Satellite out into Space broadcasting a signal of 'Welcome' to Alien Races, showing our Culture and the like.
One Alien does show up.
Meanwhile, poor Karen Allen is mourning her dead Husband.
The Alien- which seems to be just energy- shows up at her Hourse (it wouldn't be a Film if it didn't) and takes on the form of said Husband.
This is because she is watching footage of him.
Imagine if she was watching
Friday the 13th!
The Starman needs to go cross-country to go where the Mothership is going to be in 3 days.
She's...not happy about the whole thing- and with good reasons.
She keeps trying to find a way to get away from him or to get help.
She tries to call for help, leave a note and even slip out the back door of a Diner.
Things change when she sees him bring a deer back to life!
The duo stay on the run as the government is in pursuit.
Kind of ironically, the Lead Agent is named Fox and is played by Richard Jaeckel.
That's almost Jackal, you see.
I'll see myself out.
Along the way, the pair fall in love.
Him having her dead Husband's face is probably a factor.
They have sex on the train, which is shown via this shot and then a train entering a tunnel.
Cliche ahoy!
The friendly Scientist- he has a name, but do you care?- works against Jaeckel Fox when he learns that they plan to dissect Starman.
He happens to meet up with the pair first and convinces the Police that they are not the ones they are looking for.
He didn't even need to do the Jedi Mind Trick.
The stalling doesn't last long and they have to go to a giant Crater to meet the Ship.
Starman's body is breaking down and he needs to leave- stat!
The Ship arrives and takes Starman aboard.
Allen can't leave with him, sadly, but she is pregnant with his baby.
Thanks to the alien technology, it is technically her dead Husband's.
There's no time to unpack that- or how the Government would treat her- since the Film ends right here.
The End.
I'm kind of annoyed at myself for taking so long to see this one. In case you're new here, I'm a huge John Carpenter fan.
For starters, Jeff Bridges is really good as the Title Role. He definitely deserved that Oscar Nomination.
Did Kurt Russell deserve one, for, one example, The Thing? Yes.
Karen Allen is really good here, as is pretty much everyone here. Jaeckel is good fun as the Evil Bureaucrat is always good too.
The whole package is great and is probably a good Intro to John Carpenter for your friends/family/what have you that aren't Horror Buffs. It really is good.
As a Carpenter Fan who likes his Horror and hard Sci-Fi, it is nice to see him play with a much less dark tale. The man has range.
That said, whoever made the DVD Menu really did Jeff Bridges dirty here...
Next up, I'll switch from a Director I love to an Actor. Let me get my money's worth out of that latest Vincent Price Boxset. Stay tuned...
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