Starman (1984) analysis: Gender Roles

***SPOILERS***

***Spoilers for The Thing and E.T. and Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2***

Starman (1984), dir. John Carpenter

This is another brilliant film by John Carpenter. Well constructed in the horror style, but focusing on science fiction themes. It's the adult E.T. (1982). That beautiful optimism versus fear of the Other. Humanity's search for other sentient life, but also our instinct to destroy the unknown. 

The film opens with Jenny (Karen Allen, Indiana Jones) who is grieving the loss of her husband Scott (Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski). And the alien mimics Scott in order to gain acceptance and reassure her, but it is his likeness that is terrifying to Jenny. All the set up is there in the first sequence with Jenny, as the alien looks at photograph albums and objects and videos in order to mimic him. But first it is like the birth of man. Jenny witnesses the growth from baby (which looks horrifying! See below) morphing into this Scott-like being.

John Carpenter set's up the ball obejcts in the birth scene which plays out throughout the film as his weapons and healing power (interpret that as you will! Jokes aside). I also love love love the weird 80s visual effects that are part maybe early digital effects and part puppets that John Carpenter was fond of, see The Thing (1982). I feel this film is positioned as an optimistic response to The Thing, but also a adult companion/ response to E.T.  which is very similar in terms of wanting to destroy the alien and one human teaches it human kindness and helps it reach it's people back in space.

Jenny's first response to the man is to take on a phallic object of the gun (a Checkov's [literal] gun in order to protect herself as a vulnerable female. 

A beautiful shot (above) or the gun mirroring his foot as Scott-alien learns to be a human and shoots the gun learning which will come into play throughout the rest of the film.

Jenny leaves a note saying she's kidnapped but Scott-being can't understand/ read and then it's shown he takes down the note and asks her what it means to be "kinapped". He holds the gun to her head but unloads the clip stating that "I mean you no harm". (See below).

This is an amazing sequence (see above) where Scott-being doesn't understand the killing of deer and heals the dead body, which is a precursor and Checkov's gun to healing Jenny when she is shot.

See above Scott being is shown as a fully grown man naked. This completes the birthing scene. I want to reference a great video blog on youtube I saw stating a concept of "Born sexy yesturday" (see link) it's a great film analysis. Talking about the objectification of women as aliens or robots that are childlike and "innocent" but also sexualised as adult females. It mentions this reverse of this trope of males and says that it is the opposite and that men child figures are not sexy. I argue against this concept. The analysis mentions Starman specifically (see video). And for the most part I agree with his analysis. Scott-being is a child and Jenny acts as a mother figure teaching him to speak and do everything. But about half way through the film he becomes the traditional hero archetype after she gets shot. She gets shot because she tries to stop him from shooting at the cops.

 

 

Above: Jenny shot dead in the car chase with police. 

A beautiful iconic hero shot of Scott-being walking out of the explosion carrying Jenny's body/ saving her.

Scott healing Jenny (who is shirtless) becoming an object. This mirrors the deer scene (above).

This sequence after Jenny and Scott-being escape he becomes the child-like object where she helps him undress. However he becomes sexualised as a full herolike man after he saved her life. All this despite her feigned anger at him leaving her behind.

Jenny undressing Scott-being as he doesn't know how to undress himself and her ramblings about him catching cold with "pneumonia".

Scott-being earlier talks about remembering everything and copies her. This begins the sex scene and you have to give it to John Carpenter's wink to the audience and tropes having a shot of a train travelling. Much like the scenes where they showed trains going through tunnels to symbolise sex.

The scene scene has a number of changing positions basically equal in power status between male and female with roles reversing.

After the sex scene Scott-being becomes the true hero archetype positioning Jenny as the object. And also he impregnates her after a conversation saying that she was unable to have children, but he said basically his magic alienness means that she can now have a child that will be like him, but also human and he hopes that she will tell the child about him.

There is also something of a religious themes to Starman in that he is like Jesus with his powers of healing. Also the more recent film Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 (2017) makes a nod to this because it shows Starlord's father as Kurt Russel's character, a celestial being that impregnates a woman in the 80s.

Overall I love this film. My only real criticism is the cheesy 80s music which is a disappointment because John Carpenter films usually have brilliant dark themed music. And while the music is thematically pertinent it is just a little too light and fluffy for my taste and differs from his stuff.  I think the themes of humanity's search for intelligent life in the universe is great and also fear of the Other. While the interesting roles of strong female character is great, it is unfortunate because she becomes the mother figure, but is the "Final girl" much like in horror films, but is not in fact surviving anything, she is left behind as a future single mother. She is healed of her grief, and given a new grief of losing Scott-being. But now she will have a child to focus on and becomes a mother figure as can be seen through the progression of the film.

Sunshine (2007) Analysis: Positioning Sunshine as a remake of Alien (1979) and the space horror genre

***SPOILERS***

***Trigger Warning***

Sunshine (2007), dir. Danny Boyle

This film has a lot in common with the classic crew science fiction in space, but it also has the horror genre tropes enmeshed in it. 

The film has an interesting premise, the sun is dying and thus throwing earth into a "solar winter". 

I argue that this film could not have been made without Alien (1979) in terms of the horror in space genre. It even goes down to the camaraderie around the mess table. Except instead of an alien (xenomorph) being the "monster" it is a former crew member of Icarus 1 turned zombie that is the monster killing off the crew. Like the age old tale of Icarus who flew too close to the sun, it is the captain who decides to sabotage. 

It follows the same general plotting of Alien in terms of finding a beacon and going in search of it on the behest of the Captain. Saving the old crew members is the ethical dilemma, but that's not enough, as an additional payload would be more important to the mission. It is the philosophical thought experiment of the "trolley" where you have to choose who dies based purely on numbers.

Having the annoying psychologist Doctor Searle on board who becomes obsessed with the sun, he becomes like the Ash character somewhat, in that he instigates the decision to detour the mission.

Colour is beautifully used in this film. Mainly blues and reds with some green. Of course the longer into the film the more yellow there is, to reflect their journey to the sun.

In terms of sound it is one of the few space films that doesn't have sound in space, making it lean towards the "hard" scifi genre, despite the fact that the premise that you can put a bomb in the sun and re-birth it, but I'm no physicist! Instead of sound in space the film uses the sound from inside the ship and space suits to compensate and works effectively.

In terms of romance in this film, it differs from Alien although originally there was to be a romance between Ripley and the Captain in Alien. Unlike Alien, Sunshine focuses on a male hero, but it does have Cassie (Rose Byrne) as "the final girl" from the horror genre. In Sunshine it is implied that Capa and Cassie are in a relationship.

Similar to Alien the computer system is positioned as female, where in Alien it is called "Mother" in Sunshine it is called Icarus (a male name), with a female voice. In Alien Ash acts as disembodied "father" figure who is murderous and the ship is "Mother" who fails to help Ripley. In Sunshine it is the Captain of the Icarus 1 that seeks to destroy them and the female disembodied voice that fails to help them. 

Even the space suits are a nod to the Alien films in terms of their ugly bulkiness and style, although Danny Boyle states in the DVD special features that he was inspired by characters from Southpark. 

Just like in Alien the Captain dies early in a self sacrificing manner. 

Dreams of the surface of the sun. This film is about humanity's age old fascination with the sun worshiping it as a god. Also I argue that the "Final girl" Cassie, is based on the prophet/ prophetess "Cassandra".

It also reminds me of Solaris in it's claustrophobia. Even in the cinematography and set design, but also similar to Alien (1979). Although perhaps they all have in common due to the physics of space shuttle travel based on current technology. Also the look is quite clinical and also womb-like.

Weird angle of the spaceship coridoor of the Icarus. 

George Clooney in Solaris. 

Solaris spaceship. 

Aliens coridoor

 

"Don't kill yourself man, we got this" Mace says to Trey who does in fact kill himself out of guilt later in the film. Trey is put on suicide watch after the captain dies.

There is a Checkov's gun showing the scalpel that he is going to use to kill Trey but is also a Checkov's gun to Cassie getting the knife that Trey used to commit suicide to attack the "zombie"/ monster.

You can see two scalpel's are missing, Trey used one to commit suicide and the monster/ zombie took the second and then Mace takes a third. So there are three knives in play. 

Someone who we later find out is Cassie takes the scalpel from Trey's bodies side to attack the monster. 

This film also has a lot in common with Serenity (2005). Particularly about the idea of going mad in space.

When the oxygen garden burns up

First view of the monster

Reaver from Serenity.

in terms of structure, it turns horror about mid way same as Alien.

"we are dust, and to this dust we will return" - religious themes. The monster refers to himself as an angel.

Harvey functions as the hysterical person in the film that replaces the hysterical woman in Alien. I like that he dies silently in space and he is frozen to death. Punished for his hysteria. Mace also freezes to death in the coolant of Icarus. Playing on the contrasts between the coldness of space and the heat of the Sun. There is a Checkov's gun near the start of the film where Mace drops a wrench or something in the coolant and reaches hand in and we see how cold it is, which is at the end where he fully submerges himself into the coolant and dies (see below).

This film is a brilliant addition to the scifi horror canon and while there are weaknesses there are strengths. The cinematography, set design, soundtrack and performances are all stunning. The only main weakness that actually also follows the Alien films is the reveal of the monster. While Alien reveals itself in a stunning and horrifying way all about the fear of the unknown and the unseen as more terrifying than what we do see I think Danny Boyle tries to do this most of the second half of the film. However we have this blurred sunlight visions of the zombie/ monster but it comes off looking un-scary and fake in my opinion.

Jurassic park (1993) analysis: Gender roles and female as monster

Jurassic park is a brilliant film and a childhood favourite of mine. It is a great scifi and action adventure blockbuster, but it has really interesting themes. Ethical dilemmas and issues of gender and sexism.

Traditionally female characters have been divided into the trifecta of evil: mother, monster and whore. In Jurassic Park the focus is on monster and mother. All the dinosaurs in the park are cloned "bred" to be female. This is discussed as a Checkov's gun in the early part of the film, but Alan discovers later in the film that the dinosaurs have in fact been breeding, due to (suspend your disbelief) amphibian DNA changing the sex from female to male. (see pictures below).

However there is a strong female character in the film in Ellie. She shows strength in the face of the dinosaurs, but becomes the hysterical woman when the raptors are chasing her. (See below). This is after the overt discussion and Checkov's gun where Hammond states it should be him going not her, because he implies that he's a man and she's a woman. To which Ellie replies: "we can discuss sexism in survival situations when I get back". (see below).

Ellie has become the hyseterical woman after being chased by the raptors (fair enough!)

Hammond is sexist

In the scene where Muldoon is hunting the raptors, when in actual fact they are hunting him in a trap, there is a lot of phallic imagery. There are a number of close ups of his gun and then the line "clever girl" when he sees that she is about to kill him (See below). It is a reversal of the traditional gender roles of the man "hunting" a woman, instead the female "beast" i.e. the raptor as "monster" attacks him and kills him. Then we see a short sequence of a snake slithering alongside a raptor's face (see below). Imagery that speaks both to sexual gender roles as well as linking it to the obvious Adam and Eve symbols that perforate the film. 

"Clever girl"

Adam and Eve reference with the raptor murder scene. 

 While the film follows the horror/ thriller genre tropes, it really follows the themes of family and mother and father. At the start of the film Ellie and Alan have a conversation about him not wanting children, he says they "smell" and "they're expensive". From the beginning section at the park Ellie tries to get Alan to spend time with the kids and he ends up becoming the protector and father figure "hero" for them for the rest of the film.

The framing a shots of the end sequence with the T-Rex center them as a family unit. Through the film Alan's character has become "hero" and "father" figure. (see below). While the T-Rex has in fact become saviour and mother figure by killing the raptors and saving the family. (See below). In addition the female characters have a role to play in saving the "family" from the female monsters. Ellie says to Alan that he cannot hold the door alone when the raptors are attacking it and she helps them. Then Lex who has mostly been afraid and hysterical throughout the film, becomes "hero" by using her hacking skills to put the computer systems back on line (hilarous computer graphics by the way! Way worse than the dinosaurs which actually stand the test of time).

So the film ends with Alan become the father figure in the traditional sense through his experience and Hammond is the reverse he leaves his creations. I haven't delved into the religious themes of the film, but there is a lot! He acts like God and his creations escape his control. A frequent theme in science fiction and horror films and stories that acting like God will kill you or you will be punished. This film indicates that cloning is against God and thus punished. But interesting I feel the end of the film is melancholic, but freeing because the dinosaurs are set free of human interference (despite all the fences and locks back on line) and can live in a "natural" ecosystem, returning the film to the repeated theme "life finds a way" as Malcolm states early in the film.