JOHN CARPENTER’S STARMAN (1984)
Label: Scream Factory
Region Code: A
Rating: PG
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, and Richard Jaeckel
In 1977 we launched the Voyager 2 space probe into outer space, inside it was a peaceful message inviting alien life to visit us back here on Earth. John Carpenter's Starman (1984) examines what might happen if alien life took us up on that offer, and as you can well imagine, we aren't as hospitable as the invitation might have suggested. The film opens when an alien object is detected entering our atmosphere, jets are scrambled to intercept and launch a missile at it, with the ship crashing in a fiery ball in the mountains of Wisconsin. From the wreckage arises a blue ball of energy, it's the alien life form, which then floats to the nearby home of recent widow Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen, Scrooged). Exploring the home the alien clones itself a humanoid body, from DNA found in strands of hair that belonged to the woman's late husband. She awakens from a grief stricken night of drinking to the startling sight of the cloning process, an infant lays on the floor, transforming before her very eyes into the form of her deceased husband.
Terrified by what she sees she tries to run away but is kidnapped by the "starman" (Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski) who forces her to drive from Wisconsin to the Barringer Crater in Arizona where he will rendezvous with alien rescuers, having already determined that Earthlings are not very friendly. From here the film turns into a road trip movie with Jenny as his unwilling driver, she makes several attempts to escape her alien captor, but over the course of a few days they begin to bond and indeed fall in love. John Carpenter made a love story about an alien explorer and grief stricken human coming together, it's actually pretty warm and fuzzy, but also other worldly and strangely uplifting for a Carpenter film.
Jeff Bridges is fantastic as the naive and curious alien spirit who landed on Earth, speaking in a stilted sort of way and acting peculiar, as a new to the human form and emotions alien would be. The relationship with Karen Allen's character is well developed and really pulls at the heartstrings, with her struggling to cope the grief of her late husband while having to travel with the alien likeness of him via Bridges character.
The baddies in the film are the U.S. government, of course,this by way of NSA Director George Fox (Richard Jaeckel, Grizzly), along with SETI scientist Mark Shermin (Charles Martin Smith, Trick Or Treat) who is also pursuing the alien, but is more sympathetic to his plight and comes around to aid him on his journey.
I've loved this film since I was a kid, back when I wasn't really aware of the Carpenter's body of work as a whole, and once I started following his career I think I still didn't think it was odd film for him, it still has his visual style, it feels like a Carpenter film without the menace. What sort of makes it stand apart is how damn uplifting and positive it is, it's not your typical dark Carpenter film. It's a love story wrapped in a science fiction film, and it really works, thanks in large art to the chemistry between Allen and Bridges, the pair together really pulled on my heartstrings when I was a kid and even still now brings a tear to my eye. Their performances really hold up, I think this film easily has the best performances of any of Carpenter's films.
The special effects are quite good too, from the transformation/cloning scenes on through to the alien ship arriving at the meteor crater during the finale are top-notch and hold up. The cinematography from Donald M. Morgan (Christine) is gorgeous, a particular favorite of mine in the scene of Jenny and the Starman saying goodbye at the crater, with red lighting in the background and lit by a blue laser from above filtered through wafts of smoke, it's a rather stunning image.
Audio comes by way of an English DTS-HD 5.1 with optional English subtitles. Everything sounds great in the mix, well-balanced and clean, no issues with distortion whatsoever. The score from Jack Nitzsche (Cruising) sounds fantastic with some nice presence in the mix, it's so good that I don't even care that Carpenter didn't score the film himself.
Onto the extras we get a new 24-min making-of doc 'They Came from Hollywood: Re-visiting Starman' featuring interviews with director John Carpenter, actors Jeff Bridges, Charles Martin Smith and script supervisor Sandy King-Carpenter. It's a nice retrospective, everyone seemed to love working on the film, too bad no new interview with Karen Allen. She does show up on the 11-minute vintage EPK also found on the disc. There's also a audio commentary with John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges which I do not believe was on the previous Sony Blu-ray, but it was on an import version some years back, I am pleased to see it carried over for this release, Recorded in 2000 the track is very pleasant and congenial,, the two have a relaxed chemistry and have fun reminiscing about the film, it's right up there with the Carpenter/Russell commentaries in my opinion.
The disc is buttoned-up with trailers, TV spots, and a gallery of images including posters, press books, lobby cards, behind-the-scenes pics, including some of Jeff Bridges own photos he shot on set. The single-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of reversible artwork, and a slipcase, featuring a new illustration from The CRP Group as well as the original movie poster. The new artwork really does capture the vibe of the film, the disc itself features an excerpt of the new illustration.
Special Features:
- NEW They Came from Hollywood: Re-visiting Starman – featuring director John Carpenter, actors Jeff Bridges, Charles Martin Smith and script supervisor Sandy King-Carpenter (24 min) HD
- Audio Commentary with director John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges
- Vintage Featurette (11 min)
- Teaser Trailer (1 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- TV Spots (2 min)
- Still Gallery (8 min)
Starman (1984) is a strong sci-fi story, an emotional love story, and a fun fish out of water, road trip movie all wrapped up in a visually dazzling Carpenter film. While Scream Factory's Blu-ray doesn't improve on the A/V from the Sony release from 2009 they have added some great new and vintage extras that make this an essential buy for any Carpenter fan. Scream Factory continue to do good work bringing the films of John Carpenter to market with good looking transfers and spiffy new extras, this one is very east to recommend.
