I loved it. Great plot hook, great FX for the day, and Robert Preston basically playing Robert Preston and hamming it up.
Nobody has mentioned? How about in the original post! âa sound track that still inspires todayâ
1 Like
Last Starfighter was assuredly NOT done on an Amiga, nor anything remotely resembling a desktop system. All the CG was done by John Whitney Sr.'s company, Digital Productions, on a Cray X-MP supercomputer.
DP was eventually bought out and merged with Robert Able productions, another early pioneering CG company.
Iâve worked with a number of folks who were on this. Itâs a respected and loved film, both for its cinematic and technological achievements. The effects look deeply dated today, but at the time, they were mind-blowing. Thereâs even an industry joke about it:
How do you know youâve been doing computer graphics for too long?
You can remember sitting alone in a theater watching âThe Last Starfighterâ and thinking âWow. This is even cooler than Tron!â
3 Likes
ty. I play the theme while driving all the time. It is great for going fast.
Winning/Losing?
One coin.
That is all.
VICTORY OR DEATH! VICTORY OF DEATH! That would have scared the heck out of me too. It is a fun movie with Robert Preston playing his conman character to the hilt. It has some flaws but it is a good story and has a good soundtrack.
1 Like
I get what youâre saying. I also saw it in the theater but in '84 I was ten, so I was 'bout it 'bout it. I havenât seen it as an adult (or teen) so I really canât say if it was actually any good or not but knowing me Iâd probably go along with my nostalgia.
âWhat do we do?â
âWe die.â
One of the best movie lines of all time.
I also liked the alien vocoder voices.
I did not like as a kid, and it still kinda bugs me and makes me hesitate having my kiddo watch, the scene where they kill the spy. That screaming was a little too real and too long.
3 Likes
Yep. I really miss Amiga, though.
1 Like
Hello,
All things considered, Iâm actually kind of glad that a sequel (or, even worse, a series -shudder-) of âThe Last Starfighterâ was not made. It was a good story when it came out in the mid-1980s, partially because it had a beginning, a middle and an end.
I think one of the things lost today with many action, fantasy and SF films is that they arenât self-contained; instead, they are episodic. While thatâs okay for some stories (âThe Lord of the Ringsâ, âStar Warsâ and its two sequels, etc.), there are times when I think Hollywoodâs over-reliance on properties means we just end up with unmitigated crap: In particular, I am thinking of two of Paul Verhoevenâs films, âRoboCopâ and âStarship Troopers.â Both appeared to be fun, campy action-SF films at first glance, but they both contained darker, more satirical elements nested in them. Not so for any of their follow-ons.
Now, one thing I would not mind is a modern, contemporary re-make of âThe Last Starfighter.â If nothing else, they could do something about all the alien lifeforms with faces that are arranged in familiar configurations and, even worse, having human eyes (in many cases). Personally, that has always been a pet peeve of mine.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
Siskel and Ebert listed âThe Last Starfighterâ as one of their guilty pleasures along with âThe Last Dragonâ
4 Likes
Iâve worked with a number of folks who were on this. Itâs a respected and loved film, both for its cinematic and technological achievements. The effects look deeply dated today, but at the time, they were mind-blowing.
Last Starfighter was, absolutely, the film that made child-me want to grow up to be an animator.
(The initial hangar scene with all the parked Gunstars was the most complex scene that had ever been rendered - over 10 million polygons at the time. It doesnât sound so impressive now, of course, but it was almost unbelievable back in 1984.)
2 Likes
Not trying to piss on anyoneâs party, but
âŚthis sums up pretty well how it struck me at the time; although it wasnât a waste of a movie ticket by any means, âunforgettableâ isnât the word Iâd use. I donât have any particular hankering to watch it again⌠I think I saw it a second time 15-20 years ago.
But for some reason* Iâm reminded of Enemy Mine (b-grade mid-80s SF connection?), which I would be interested to see again; IIRC that flick had something to say.
(IMDB rates The Last Starfighter 6.5 and Enemy Mine 6.7; less daylight between than EM deserves IIRC)
*heh - that reason would appear to be subliminal reading, now that I look at the next commentâŚ
1 Like
Not to piss on your party, but when I first saw Enemy Mine in the theater I thought it was awesome. Seeing it later as an adult I found its âCanât we all just get along?â message overly simplistic and even pretentious. But still a hell of a lot of fun to watch. There were some pretty major changes from the original novella, but I thought Dennis Quaid did a good job capturing Davidgeâs brusque character. And Louis Gossett Jr. was very entertaining too.
But then Iâd say the entertaining quality is the one thing both films have in common. One tried to sell us a franchise, one tried to sell us a simple moral, and both have fun details and performances that make me remember them fondly even if they donât hold up so well.
And itâs been a while, so you know how that goesâŚ
I guess IMDB is more accurate than my nostalgia; that certainly stands to reason
That last post was meant to be in reply to you, but this board canât walk and chew gum yet.
DMK?!?!?! Who is DMK?!?!?!
1 Like
Fun IMDBish fact: The kid running around the trailer park in the red sports jersey during the opening scenes was Wil Wheaton.
If I remember correctly, it even got into the credits as âSupercomputerâ
I really loved this movie when I was a kid⌠Saw it at the drive-in, read the novelization (Alan Dean Foster), the comic, the storybook. My memories of this movie are so golden that Iâve been apprehensive of ever returning to it in order to protect that time. Maybe when my son is old enough weâll watch it together. Krull on the other hand, another favourite from that time, Iâve shamelessly watched a billion timesâŚ
