Starman (1984)

Director:

John Carpenter

Writers:

Bruce A. Evans (written by) &
Raynold Gideon (written by)

Release Date:

14 December 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Drama | Romance | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

In 1977 Voyager II was launched into space, inviting all lifeforms in the universe to visit our planet. Get ready. Company's coming.

Plot:

An alien takes the form of a young widow's husband and asks her to drive him from Wisconsin to Arizona. The government tries to stop them.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Crater | Widow | Sex With Alien | Roadblock

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win & 5 nominations

Cast

Jeff Bridges	...	Starman
Karen Allen	...	Jenny Hayden
Charles Martin Smith	...	Mark Shermin
Richard Jaeckel	...	George Fox
Robert Phalen	...	Major Bell
Tony Edwards	...	Sergeant Lemon
John Walter Davis	...	Brad Heinmuller
Ted White	...	Deer Hunter
Dirk Blocker	...	Cop #1
M.C. Gainey	...	Cop #2
Sean Stanek	...	Hot Rodder (as Sean Faro)
George 'Buck' Flower	...	Cook (as Buck Flower)
Russ Benning	...	Scientist
Ralph Cosham	...	Marine Lieutenant
David Wells	...	Fox's Assistant

Also Known As:

John Carpenter's Starman (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Dolby (35 mm prints)

Certification:

Ireland:PG | Australia:PG | Iceland:L | West Germany:12 (f) | Netherlands:12 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Norway:15 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Arizona, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Jeff Bridges' character (Starman) walks in and buys a Cadillac "cash". In the film Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Bridges character (Lightfoot) exclaims that one day he would like to walk up and buy a Cadillac with cash.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Starman clones himself a body from the dead husband's hair keepsake in the photo album. But hair doesn't contain DNA at all. Only the hair roots have DNA.

Quotes:

Cook: [to Starman] You're not from around here, are you?

Movie Connections:

Featured in John Carpenter: Fear Is Just the Beginning... The Man and His Movies (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

What Would Your Memories Do

Better than Dutch apple pie OR cherry cobbler.

Quite possibly director John Carpenter's most benign movie, this sweet, simple story is a combination of science fiction, road movie, and love story. Gentle alien travels to Earth, only to have his craft shot down by stereotypically ignorant military types. He assumes the form of a recently deceased house painter (Jeff Bridges) and abducts the man's widow (Karen Allen) so she can drive him cross country to a rendezvous with his rescue ship. Along the way they fall in love.

Although in some ways unoriginal, this movie travels very far on the endearing performances of Bridges and Allen. I believed that Bridges was an alien masquerading as a human (I'm not the only one - Bridges was Oscar nominated for his performance) and I believed that these two gentle souls were coming to care for each other very deeply. I also came to hate the variety of human creeps that we see in this film, particularly the nasty government guy (Richard Jaeckel). They kind of destroy one's faith in humanity.

I did feel rather manipulated by Jack Nitzsche's saccharine music score; other things in the film seem subtle compared to that.

The Starman transformation scenes combined the talents of three makeup effects masters - Dick Smith, Rick Baker, and Stan Winston. Other visual effects are decent if unspectacular.

Followed by a short-lived TV series with Robert Hays (Ted Stryker in "Airplane!") as Starman.

All in all, it's a big contrast to Carpenter's other memorable alien visitation movie, "The Thing".

Maybe not a truly great motion picture but pretty darn good.