{"id":347,"date":"2019-03-27T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/penguinpetes.com\/wordpress\/?p=347"},"modified":"2020-03-25T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-25T16:49:49","slug":"new-review-at-366weird-dark-star-1974","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/penguinpetes.com\/wordpress\/2019\/03\/27\/new-review-at-366weird-dark-star-1974\/","title":{"rendered":"New Review at 366Weird: Dark Star (1974)"},"content":{"rendered":"

After far, far too long a time, I finally popped the movie Dark Star<\/em> (1974) off the reader-requested review queue<\/a> at 366 Weird Movies. Not only is it a long-standing cult favorite for being the first theatrical release for both John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon when they were still film students, it’s also a quirky and unique sci-fi comedy whose “hippies in space” motif is just enough to flirt with the list of weirdest movies of all time.<\/p>\n

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I’ve always felt a connection with this movie. Not the least because I actually lived in Arizona, which the theme song mentions. In fact, Benson Arizona is a real place<\/a>, doubtless flabberghasted to have an obscure 1970s sci-fi movie reference them so randomly in a theme song. I suppose any resident of Benson should recognize this familiar landmark:<\/p>\n

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Which I can’t resist posting since I’m also a mid-century commercial sign<\/a> junkie, to name another popular viral post of mine.<\/p>\n

Anyway, that theme song is one of the only standing examples of nerd-country, if you can believe that’s a genre. It’s a country-and-western song which references quantum physics in space travel – which is also mentioned in the movie when Lt. Doolittle mentions that they’ve been in space for decades but have only aged a few years.<\/p>\n

Here’s a 2-hour documentary on the making of Dark Star<\/em>, lovingly done with a parody video log at the beginning.<\/p>\n