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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Dark Star (1974)

This started out as a college film, which was actually pretty good quality for a college film, but then some movie exec found out about it and got the rights to it and added a bunch of material to bring it up to a feature length film. Then a distributor got hold of it and put it in theaters. So, it was it was a nice college film but a really lousy commercial release.

Here are some sample clips from the film which illustrate the pacing problems that the film has. Apparently the college version was even slower paced than this theatrical release. It got released on VHS about a decade later and actually had quite a few sales/rentals and now people are calling it a cult classic.

It's funny to watch with a lot of geek humor, if you’ve got the time.

#science #fiction #ScienceFiction #SciFi #FTW #sfftw #independent #film #movie #space #spaceship #collegefilm #NoHelicopters #military #hair #1970s #BeachBall

accessible description:

Open with a computer screen that says “To scout ship Dark Star, Galactic sector”; Cut to an image guy in a uniform who is shown on a black and white video screen talking to the camera, there are real-to-real computer storage units in the background; then cut to a space scene with the Dark Star ship slowly moving past the camera and then moving towards a planet; then cut to a guy laying on some patio furniture in a small room, he is wearing huge sunglasses as if he's getting a suntan and another guy comes into the room dragging a big heavy metal door which he places up against an opening; then cut to a guy standing in a dark room with some blurry special effects in the background and a giant beach ball drops from the ceiling down onto the floor and starts making some alien noises and the guy talks to the beach ball; then cut to the beach ball again and a guy hanging in an air duct of some sort then cut to a sign that says emergency airlock interior door; then cut to a sign that says caution laser, then the beach ball forces open a door where the laser is; then cut to some guys with long 1970s hair sitting around playing cards and talking about intelligent life; then cut to an image of a planet slowly getting larger and a ship is approaching the planet and a guy says “There she is.”