Classic Review - Starman

Today's classic review is 1984's Academy Award nominated Starman. Considering it's directed by John Carpenter (of The Thing and Halloween fame), Starman is a surprisingly touching tale.

The film opens in Wisconsin in 1984. An alien scout ship, responding to a welcoming message from the people of Earth, has been shot down (real welcoming, right?). It's pilot, seen only as a small blue light, finds it's way to the home of the recently widowed Jenny Hayden (Raiders of the Lost Ark's Karen Allen).

The alien starts up the projector Jenny had been watching, and seeing the images of her husband, begins to go through a photo album sitting on the table. It finds what it needs, what appears to be a lock of the husbands hair from his first hair cut. Using the pictures and the DNA in the hair as a guide, it transforms itself into a copy of Scott Hayden (Jeff Bridges), Jenny's husband, much to her surprise.

Once she has gotten over her shock, the alien commandeers her and her car, needing to reach his rendezvous point in Arizona in three days, or he'll die. She reluctantly accompanies him, first because he managed to get a hold of her gun, and later because she finds herself falling for him.

Meanwhile, SETI official Mark Shermin (Charles Martin Smith) is hot on their tail. His superior George Fox (Richard Jaeckel) wants to capture the "Starman" and dissect him, despite the message of peace Starman's people received on the Voyager II probe, launched in 1977. Shermin wants to fin him and ask him questions, but has absolutely no plans for violence.

Jenny and "Scott" hit a few roadblocks on their journey, and luckily he has a way to deal with them. He begins the film with several small orbs that he can use to accomplish amazing feats, including contacting his people and making a holographic map of the united states so Jenny will know where to go.

It would be hard to miss the film's main themes of hope and acceptance. Jenny learns these lessons as her adventure and relationship with this stranger who looks like her dead husband progress. She finds herself accepting him more and more as not just a clone of her husband, but as a decent person. Starman grows as the film goes on as well, learning about all the good and bad things about humanity. "Shall I tell you what I find beautiful about you?" he asks Shermin during the climax, sharing what he's learned of the human race. "You are at your very best when things are worst."

The film is not without humor, though. Possessing a very limited vocabulary, Starman gets himself and Jenny into quite a bit of trouble as they travel, including using one of his orbs to reanimate a dead dear, getting himself into trouble with the hunter who shot it.

It has it's slow points, but the film as a whole is pretty well paced. Allen and Smith turn in exceptional performances, but it's Bridges, who was nominated for best actor for his role, who really shines. He finds a perfect balance between naivete and altruism that makes his character extremely likable, but not annoying or too goofy. Overall, the film is an outstanding departure from horror/action director Carpenter.
Grade: 9
(All movies are graded on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being cinematic perfection, and 1 being worse than the accompanying video game adaptation.)