STARMAN **** USA 1984 Dir: John Carpenter. 110 mins.
Columbia Pictures passed on E.T. to make Carpenter’s least cynical, most tender movie – the director having endured a critical backlash thanks to the release of THE THING in the summer of the Spielberg picture. Far away from the nihilism of the Antarctic-set shocker, this echoes the sci-fi optimism of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, where extra terrestrial life was non-threatening and a wonder to behold.
Jeff Bridges “Starman” is from a pacified race that has no wars or conflicts, and he finds humankind intelligent yet savage, concluding we are at our best when things are at their worst. An alien taking the form of lonely widow Karen Allen’s late husband, Bridges’ role is initially played for culture-clash comedy, with Carpenter surprisingly adept at light hearted interludes of Bridges unnerving a trucker in the mens’ room (“Every goddam place you go…”) or robotically singing the Stones’ “Satisfaction”.
Pitched somewhere between a charmingly clueless foreigner on unfamiliar turf and an innocent child, Bridges turns in a remarkable physical, verbal and emotional performance. Carpenter gets to employ some of the techniques he perfected in his horror pictures (notably the ominous p.o.v. tracking shots, with blue-hued extra-terrestrial subjective framing replacing the mask holes of Michael Myers) to convey the Starman’s initial journey on Earth. Mostly, however, it’s a modest, appealing love story, anchored by Allen’s movingly vulnerable, charming performance: her on-screen chemistry with the handsome outsider is something special. Jack Nitzsche, aping the minimalist electronic approach of Carpenter’s own scores, contributes poignant themes that never swamp the movie with sentimentality. Like E.T., it climaxes with a farewell between Earthbound protagonist and extra-terrestrial – but, typical of Carpenter’s admirably restrained approach, it’s a low key, beautifully acted end note. Dick Smith, Stan Winston and Rick Baker all worked on the initial transformation sequence in a film that otherwise avoids showy FX set pieces.
Review by Steven West