While John Carpenter is most notable for being a horror master, the acclaimed director did dabble in other genres throughout his directing career. Carpenter tried his hand at a crime-thriller with Assault on Precinct 13 in 1976, and then took a shot at comedy and martial arts with Big Trouble in Little China in 1986. However, between those two films, in 1984, Carpenter directed Starman, a lesser-known sci-fi film starring Karen Allen (Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Jeff Bridges (The Big Lebowski). With huge, sweeping extraterrestrial taking over the 1980s, like E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Aliens, Predator, Enemy Mine and The Abyss, Starman never really had a chance to compete, and felt a bit unknown, alongside Carpenter’s other now-loved alien flick, The Thing, which premiered only two weeks after E.T.
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One of the biggest reasons for its under-the-radar reception and viewing, was that unlike many of those films listed above, Starman was very much a romance film, though John Carpenter’s film was excellent, a slow romance couldn’t compete at the box office or with the masses against incredible practical alien effects from Stan Winston, explosions, and A-list directors like Steven Spielberg and James Cameron. While many of those highly-praised ’80s films were nominated for and won various Academy Awards in technical categories, Starman was the only one to be nominated for its acting (and the only Carpenter film to ever be nominated). We all need a reminder of just how good John Carpenter’s sci-fi romance tale was, and why it belongs among the top contenders of not only the best ’80s sci-fi films, but the best of all time.
A Highly-Emotional Story
Sure, giant spaceships and goop-covered aliens are great, but nothing truly captivates an audience like an incredibly relatable and emotional story, especially if the acting is spot-on. In Starman, Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) spends her nights drinking wine, smoking, and watching reels of her recently deceased husband. It’s clear that she is lost, and has all but given up on everything in life. When Star Man appears and takes the form of Jenny’s dead husband, Scott (Bridges), her mind is essentially broken. She’s forced to not only still grieve the loss of her most loved person in the world, but also see him in front of her, asking for her help. Later in the movie, it’s revealed that Jenny and Scott had tried to conceive for many years, but her body was unable to make children. This in itself if a massively sad and traumatic experience for people, and for Jenny to be holding onto the guilt that not only is her husband gone, but she also has no human connection to him, shows her emotional endurance throughout the film. These types of heart-breaking stories are really just now starting to pop up regularly in sci-fi films, like Arrival and A Quiet Place. In this aspect, Starman was well ahead of its time.
Incredible Performances
Columbia Pictures
While Karen Allen was an emotional powerhouse in the film (and deserving of a nomination), it was Jeff Bridges who actually received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Bridges’ portrayal of Star Man was incredible, as he was a human actor, acting as an alien, who was trying to act like a human. In fact, Bridges studied ornithology and bird behavior to use as the basis for his role. His layered performance ranged throughout the acting spectrum, forcing him to set aside many natural human elements of emotion. To start with, Star Man was cold, absurd, and uncaring. As the movie progressed, and he learned more about his company and surroundings, he became more human-adjacent, but never fully grasped the emotional construct of a man. His emotionally-absent and unaware prose was an amazing balance to Allen’s emotionally-gutting words and moments. The two performances were perfect counterbalances to each other, and although F. Murray Abraham took home to Oscar that year for Amadeus, his performance was not nearly as polished and layered as Bridges’. This was also the only time an actor was ever nominated, while playing a non-humanoid alien.
Excellent Special Effects
Many other heavy-hitter alien movies of the ’80s relied on huge budgets and groundbreaking practical effects for their movies. Starman, on the other hand, relied more on digital and lighting effects. There were some cool practical moments, like when the alien first transforms into a human by replicating Scott’s DNA from a hair strand, but most of the impressive effects came from gorgeous light changes, as lead cinematographer Donald M. Morgan would use six different camera operators and cinematographers to work in synchrony to find the best shots. While spaceship and space shots were done digitally, the film used its effects budget on providing some massive action-packed explosion scenes, including blowing up a tanker truck, and having helicopters shoot missiles in the desert.
A Memorable Score
Unlike most of John Carpenter’s films, Starman is one of the few movies that Carpenter directed, that he didn’t write the score for. Before Starman, Carpenter had scored every one of his films, with the exception of The Thing (Ennio Morricone). Using Carpenter’s style as an influence, Starman’s score was composed by Jack Nitzsche, who also composed the memorable scores from films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Cruising, and Stand by Me. A perfect blend of space-y synthesizer tones were used in more emotional moments, while scenes where the government was giving chase were almost rock. A few years ago, John Carpenter, his son Cody Carpenter, and Daniel Davies recorded a new version of the Starman main theme, which can be heard on Carpenter’s Anthology album.
A Great Blend of Comedy
For those that have seen Big Trouble in Little China, it’s no surprise that John Carpenter has some fantastic comedy chops in his directing style. Even before then, and before his 1992 Chevy Chase-led comedy Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Carpenter put some hilarious scenes in Star Man. We already know Bridges is a great comedic actor as well, and watching him try to mimic the human race throughout the movie is great. He repeats human mannerisms, like saying “Up yours!” and flipping the bird because he thinks it’s a greeting. He full-on mouth kisses strangers after seeing other people do it, and he even questions the reasoning of why as adults, we have to wait until we finish our meals to eat our desserts. The jokes land well, and they still hold up brilliantly.
A Satisfying Ending that Still Gives Us Hope
Not only is the ending of Starman beautifully shot, but it’s a beautiful conclusion to the story. As stated before Jenny and Scott never had the ability to conceive, and during the movie, her and Star Man have an intimate night, where Star Man heals her body, and impregnates her with a baby, that will not only hold Scott’s DNA, but will also grow to know everything that Star Man knows. Though Jenny wants to leave with Star Man, he tells her she couldn’t survive on his planet, as he cannot survive on hers. Star Man leaves Jenny with his last piece of alien technology, a sphere that can create miracles, and tells her that their son will know what to do with it. The film ends with Jenny healing with the prospect that a piece of both Scott and Star Man is within her, and that even though she’s lived through the worst loss imaginable, her story isn’t over.
