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Starman (John Carpenter, 1984)


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I have re-watched this film with my older kid. I hadn't seen it in decades, but it makes me remember how underrated cinematographer Donald M. Morgan [ASC] was. What a beautiful anamorphic photography, mostly in low-light, using the gorgeous Panavision Super High Speed lenses at very wide apertures, plus a few zoom shots here and there. Beautifully directed by Carpenter, brilliant acting by both Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen, and a nice main theme by composer Jack Nitzsche. ILM's vfx work seems quite outdated, happily the film relies as less as possible on the effects.

The funny thing is that Dean Cundey is mostly regarded as Carpenter's cinematographer of choice during that era (later on, they worked again on "Big Trouble in Little China", 1986, their last film together), but Donald M. Morgan had shot (very well) Robert Zemeckis’ two first movies, and had previously worked with John Carpenter for the TV movie "Elvis" (1979) and more recently adapting Stephen King's "Christine" (1983), which is very well shot too. So “Starman” was their third project together.

So somehow in 1984, Carpenter and Zemeckis switched their directors of photography, as Cundey shot "Romancing The Stone" for Zemeckis and Morgan did the same with "Starman". Michael Douglas was producing the two pictures. 

 

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