'Starman' stands the test of time, 'E.T.' comparisons
If you know anything about me, you know there are two things in this world I hold in extremely high esteem: the 1980s and Jeff Bridges.
Watching Colin Firth and “The King’s Speech” walk away with Oscars on Sunday — however well-deserved — it saddened me to see the Dude go home empty-handed.
So to take away the pain, I decided to pop in 1984’s “Starman,” starring, you guessed it, Jeffrey Leon Bridges.
Director John Carpenter said he was trying to do something different from his 1982 commercial disaster “The Thing” (though it was going up against juggernaut “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” so it’s not like it stood much of a chance.)
Interestingly enough, both “The Thing” and “Starman” are about alien beings that can morph themselves into humans, so I guess Carpenter didn’t try too terribly hard to be different.
What does separate these movies is tone. While “The Thing” features a very hostile, savage creature, “Starman” is much closer to the “E.T.” side of the spectrum, albeit from a bit more practical viewpoint.
In 1977, NASA launched the Voyager 2, a space probe to study the outer Solar System and interstellar space. Riding along with the craft is a gold-plated record with greetings from over 50 languages, pictures of humans and a selection of music from Bach to Chuck Berry. This disc, if ever found by extra-terrestrials, is meant to be a representation of Earth and an invitation of sorts.
In “Starman,” that invitation is accepted. An alien scout is sent to Earth to observe the planet and species that inhabit it. Upon entering the Earth’s atmosphere, on a trajectory to Arizona, the United States attacks the unknown craft and sends it off-course to Wisconsin.
Surviving the crash, the alien approaches the first house it sees, that of Jenny Hayden (played by the oh-so-gorgeous Karen Allen). Taking the form of Jenny’s dead husband (Jeff Bridges) in an attempt to make Jenny more comfortable, the alien asks her to help him get to Arizona in three days so that he may catch his ride home.
I’ll be honest, the plot is kind of silly, and a little cliché (“Staman phone home” anyone?), but what makes the movie interesting is it’s two main characters and how they interact.
The dialogue between Allen and Bridges as she tries to introduce him to concepts like love, gasoline and “bozos” is fantastic. Bridges does an excellent job of appearing to be alien, with rigid movements, broken speech and a curiosity that really brings the character to life. He did so well in fact, he was rewarded for his efforts with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Of course, he didn’t win (that wouldn’t come for another 25 years with the film “Crazy Heart.”)
“Starman” is kind of an oddball film. It, like “The Thing,” will forever be overshadowed by “E.T.,” and rightly so. But despite the silly story and outrageous extraneous characters, the two lead performances make this a movie that still holds up today.
