Starman
Science fiction movies depicting the story of an alien visitation (or invasion) have traditionally gone the route of having the aliens in question usually wind up being of the malevolent sort (none more spectacularly so than in Independence Day) with the occasional ambivalent type (Klaatu in The Day The Earth Stood Still) as well. In 1982 along came Steven Spielbergâs E.T., a woefully overrated mess featuring a squeaking midget wearing a complex latex costume and hiding in a boyâs closet for much of its running time. However, it did deliver with clear eyed precision the concept of an alien species that harbored an attitude of total benevolence towards humanity despite the film taking the cheap sentimental route every chance it got. What many donât know was that Spielbergâs film going into production caused the delay of what many felt was a very similar project (executive produced by Michael Douglas) resulting in it being made 2 years later and then released in 1984. It is certainly the better film of the two, not the least of which because Douglas as producer had the foresight to hire on the legendary John Carpenter (making a rare foray into directing a film which he didnât actually write) who relished the chance to expand his horizons by directing something that not only was certainly not classifiable as being a horror movie, but was really more of a gentle drama / love story with the obvious sci fi slant, a departure that was such a success for Carpenter both box office wise and artistically that it resulted in becoming the only film of his to earn an actual Oscar nomination and one that was for Best Lead Actor at that: Jeff Bridges had already built a career at that point as being a charismatic yet iconoclastic leading man who proudly marched to his own drummer in Hollywood, here playing a recently deceased housepainter in Wisconsin whose widow (Karen Allen in one of her prime starring roles) spends her nights getting drunk and watching old home movies of him. When an alien being who has been pursued by the U.S. military has its spacecraft shot down near her home, it emerges from the ship as a ball of light (possibly a creature composed of pure energy) and enters her house, finding strands of her dead husbandâs hair and thus using his DNA to clone itself into his form, giving the poor, grieving woman quite a shock to see her late husband walking around again only for her to realize that itâs actually NOT him even as he expects her to drive him to a specially designated rendezvous point where his species plans to scoop him up and take him home, a mission that turns out to be time sensitive also since even in this fresh new human body, he is still dying and will die if he fails to make the connection. In a nutshell, thatâs the plot we get here, with elements of a road movie, an action adventure and even some comedy thrown in as Bridgesâ Starman comes across as being socially awkward to a tee, trying to use goony smiles and any sort of catch phrases he hears to navigate himself amongst humans and Bridges himself is extraordinary in the performance, having very little in means of past characterizations to have been inspired by or to build upon, instead just taking on the difficult role and building it from the ground up, first with the uncertainty of actually being INSIDE a human body for starters and eventually being relaxed enough in his own skin to at least try and relate to others, none moreso than Allen who seems to spend half the movie reeling from the fact that an exact replica of her dead husband is really a person from another world. And hereâs where the filmâs most interesting dilemmas (good and bad) start getting played out, most notably the implied idea that Starman (as benevolent as he is) is not necessarily an alien from another world per se, but almost rather a celestial being in reality, one who is capable of performing what can only be described as miracles up to and including literally bringing the dead back to life (the famous scene with the deer might be the most emotionally resounding sequence that Carpenter or anyone else for that matter has ever shot), something that even most friendly aliens are not really known for doing. Of course, this pushes the envelope of making the Starman character into something of a Christ figure, a metaphor driven home by the idiot military commanders who want to hunt him down and even do a forced autopsy on him for the purposes of research. But the even more complex idea here is that of having a simple, singular man (Scott Hayden) who had died before the events of the film had even taken place literally being resurrected (admittedly more out of necessity) through the act of creating a clone out of his pure DNA and itâs been said (depending on who you believe) that creating a clone of a particular person can also recreate that same personâs memories and original consciousness, leading one to wonder if this miracle working alien can actually give this poor, grieving young woman back her true love (Scott) at some point or at least have her be able to temporarily reconnect with him in order to gain some closure. But no: Scott the loving human husband she once had really is dead dead, and one wonders if earlier incarnations of the screenplay through the development process may have considered the notion of the resurrected husbandâs body possibly also carrying some of his own personality traits mixed in unknowingly with the sensibilities of the alien hence truly presenting the character as a hybrid being rather than what we get which is a straight up alien visitor struggling to adjust in our world with no showing or semblance of anything resembling a human mentality. But that in no way takes away from Bridgesâ amazing work here, in many scenes putting across the character in such a way that a viewer can only sit there in awe while wondering where and how exactly Bridges is actually getting any of this from within himself as an actor. As the chase continues, the local law enforcement are alerted to look out for the couple if they come across them, leading to the filmâs worst scene where two rogue cops go so far as to literally ambush them in order to attain themselves some âgloryâ, but the staging and shooting of this particular scene can best be described as sloppy. However, we do get some nice, solid character acting / supporting work from Charles Martin Smith (aka Terry Toad) as the SETI UFO researcher who genuinely wants to connect with and learn from the interstellar visitor, only to constantly butt heads with the moronic military commander (Richard Jaeckel) who considers the Starman to be a threat to national security. But in the end, this will remain a showcase for both John Carpenter, coming on as a director for hire while proving in the process that his overall range was impeccable and of course Jeff Bridges, easily one of the most quality actors the world has ever seen managing to break new ground at that time in order to deliver a performance which literally had little to no precedent at all before itâŠ
8/10