Starman (1984/Sony Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B-     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Film: C

 

 

After Halloween in 1978, John Carpenter was on a roll, but then child like (and too often, childish) fantasy films became the rage and his films were not finding the audience they deserved.  His still-impressive remake of The Thing (1982, reviewed elsewhere on this site) was overtaken by E.T. – the Extra-Terrestrial at the box-office, then his mixed adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine (1983) died quickly.  The result was he tried to do a fantasy film intended for a broader audience, but was also for adults.  Starman (1984) was the result and it is an interesting, uneven film that fails more than not.

 

Like E.T., it is about an alien from another planet that visits ours, but has a subtext that owes more to Philip Kaufman’s Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978, also reviewed on this site) and his own Thing than a Lucas/Spielberg production.  Karen Allen plays a lonely widow whose husband (Jeff Bridges) is dead, but when an alien comes seeking a way to find secret entry into our civilization, it quickly takes on his form.  She is shocked and he does not know how to figure out our species.  However, he has been detected and the film goes between wonderment/discovery and chase sequences.  The darkness and starkness of Carpenter is here, but it keeps getting interrupted by a love story and they never gel.

 

De Palma learned from this a few years later when his Untouchables sent up the 1980s feel-good formula and produced an impressive film.  I think Carpenter wanted to go all dark and had he been able too, this could have been an R-rated (or PG-13, depending on if it was out for that new rating) hit and even classic adult equivalent of an E.T., but he was trying to stay alive commercially and this compromised film was the result.

 

However, Bridges and Allen are very good in their roles, Charles Martin Smith and Richard Jaeckel are a plus and though some visual effects have dated, others are still decent.  Still better than anything Carpenter has done since the 1980s, Starman was also Columbia’s way of trying to make up for passing on E.T. (Universal got it) and is one of the most ambitious attempts to make money on its success.

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image was shot Director of Photography Donald M. Morgan in real 35mm anamorphic Panavision and was also blown up into 70mm prints.  The visuals can be impressive, but this transfer is on the noisy side and simply does not always look as good as it could, though color does come through very well.  The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 is a little harsh and shrill on the edges, but is a remastered upgrade of the 4.1 70mm Dolby magnetic stereo soundmix that shows Carpenter’s grasp of film sound.  Jack Nitzsche (One Flew Over The Cookoo’s Nest, Blue Collar, Hardcore, Cruising) delivers an odd score that is dark, yet also tries to be a fell good score in a way so odd that it deserves its own long analysis, but also suffered the harshness troubles noted.  Despite being a big production for the studio, there are no extras.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo