Starman ****½ (1984, Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel) – Classic Movie Review 2043

Director John Carpenter delivers a stupendous, electrifying 1984 adult sci-fi fairy tale that’s tense, touching and thrilling throughout.

Bruce A Evans, Raynold Gideon and Dean Reisner’s screenplay follows the story of the titular alien Starman, who is played so memorably by Jeff Bridges. He lands on earth and takes the human form of the husband an appealing young widow called Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen) and kidnaps her to drive him from Wisconsin to a rendezvous with his spaceship in Arizona. Excitement comes as the US Government forces try to stop them.

In an endearing action drama movie with an underlying love story, Starman Bridges is adorable as he discovers what it’s like to be an Earthling. The two highly attractive and charismatic stars make a lot of the fallout from the complications over the extra-terrestrial assuming the form of the woman’s late husband and the inevitable ensuing idea that soon they are falling in love.

It was a costly film to make at $22million but it was a deserved, much-admired big hit, taking $28,700,000 at the US box office. Bridges notched up deserved Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actor nominations, and Jack Nitzsche’s score was Golden Globe nominated. A short-lived TV series (1986-87) followed, starring Airplane!’s Robert Hays.

Also in the cast are Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Phalen, Tony Edwards, John Walter Davis, Ted White, Dirk Blocker, M C Gainey, Sean Stanek, Buck Flower, Russ Benning, Ralph Cosham, David Wells and Mickey Jones.

The producer is Michael Douglas, the score is by Jack Nitzsche and the excellent special effects work is by Industrial Light & Magic. Tony Scott was originally attached to the movie as director and wanted to cast Philip Anglim as the Starman.

The Last Picture Show (1971) is Bridges’s first Oscar nomination, followed by Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), Starman, The Contender (2000) and True Grit (2010). He won Best Actor for Crazy Heart (2009).

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2043

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