Product Details

• Actors: Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Phalen
• Directors: John Carpenter
• Writers: Bruce A. Evans, Dean Riesner, Raynold Gideon
• Producers: Barry Bernardi, Bruce A. Evans, Larry J. Franco, Michael Douglas
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: June 4, 1996
• Run Time: 115 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (152 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303589170
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,453 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

While most movie buffs are likely to call Halloween the best movie from John Carpenter, others--die-hard romantics and anyone who cried while watching E.T.--might vote in favor of the director's 1984 hit Starman. It's easily Carpenter's warmest and most beguiling film, and the only one that ever earned an Oscar nomination. That honor went specifically to Best Actor nominee Jeff Bridges for his performance as an alien visitor to Earth who is knocked off course and must take an interstate road trip to rendezvous with a mothership from his home planet. To complete this journey he assumes the physical form of the dead husband of a Wisconsin widow (Karen Allen) who responds first with fear, then sympathy, and finally love. Carpenter's graceful strategy is to switch the focus of this E.T.-like film from science fiction to a gentle road-movie love story, made believable by the memorable performances of Bridges and Allen. It's a bit heavy-handed with tenacious government agents who view the Starman as an alien threat (don't they always?), but Carpenter handles the action with intelligent flair, sensitivity, and lighthearted humor. If you're not choked up during the final scene, well, you just might not be human. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great movie--revised review for Blu-ray. Looks great but lazy effort from Sony in every other area, March 12, 2006

By 

WTDK "If at first the idea is not absurd, the... (My Little Blue Window, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Starman (Full Screen Edition) (DVD)

Movie-5 stars, extras 0 stars, tranfer for Blu-ray (anamorphic widescreen I might add) 4 stars


Really what is Columbia thinking? "Starman" is one of John Carpenter's finest films with an Oscar nominated performance by Jeff Bridges, a moving score by Jack Nitsche and a clever, thoughtful script that takes the same themes as Spielberg's "E.T." and develops them better. We get no extras. Nada. Nothing. We also get to pay a fairly hefty amount for the Blu-ray (it's retailed at $29.00). Warner does a better copy of releasing their Blu-rays. Heck, even Fox and Universal have been making an effort to do a decent job with their films and TV shows on Blu-ray of late. "Starman" on Blu-ray is at least in widescreen and has a nice presentation with nice detail.

Sony didn't really have to do much. England got a DVD edition of this with a commentary by John Carpenter. All they had to do was port that version over for this edition and throw on the original promotional featurette made back in the day. It wouldn't have been hard. Don't get me wrong, this is a terrific movie and it looks great but it's a LOUSY effort on behalf of Sony. That's surprising given that they won the format war. You'd expect a better effort than this truly lazy package.


What can you do? I suppose write Sony or wait to see if the UK version has the commentary track and other extras ported over to the Blu-ray. Since it'll be region free buy that. If you must buy this cheap edition of the film try and pay as little as possible as this nearly bare bones (it has BD Live capacity and-whoopee!--trailers) editon of an exceptional film SHOULD retail at about $15.99 for what we get.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "This Film Has Been Formatted ...( yadda yadda)"...What's Up With That?, February 14, 2006

By 

L. Shirley "Laurie's Boomer Views" (Huntington Beach,CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Starman (Full Screen Edition) (DVD)

This review refers to the DVD edition of "Starman"(Columbia/Sony)....

I love this film. It's a film I can view often and never tire of it.Beautifully directed by John Carpenter, wonderfully photographed with great music, and stars Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen have a terrific on screen chemistry. It's got something for everybody. Great Sci-Fi, Romance, some Action/Adventure, Drama and Comedy as well. It's a film that the entire family may enjoy together(may not be suitable for the very young, as there is mild language and violence). The story of a romance between an Earth woman and an alien that looks just like her dead husband, and the ensuing chase as the government tries to capture him, is one that captivates and will keep you under it's spell, time and again. But Sony..what's up with this DVD????

"This film has been modified..., and formatted to fit your screen"..UGH!! Don't ya hate that? The buying info here shows the aspect ratio of this DVD to be 2.35:1, which is the original specs. But beware, it also says full screen and does not say widescreen or letterbox anywhere. On the back of the DVD box it says 1.33:1.This is a film that really should be seen in it's original form. The way the director and cinematographer wanted you to see it. There are some spectacular scenes of the alien ship coming down, an explosion, and some wonderful scenery that begs to be seen from edge to edge. I even checked over at the Internet Movie Data Base, and they also show the DVD with both the original aspect ratio and full screen, but I could not locate a DVD like that anywhere. Maybe it was available once and has gone out of print, but if that is the case, a new edition needs to be released in widescreen, and Sony..some commentary or one or two bonus features for Sci-Fi fans on the "making of" might do nicely too.

That being said, the rest of the transfer to DVD of this fabulous film was well done. The picture is crystal clear,colors wonderful, and the sound in Stereo Surround(2.0) was actually very good. There are subtitles in English Spanish, and French and may be viewed in those languages as well. Or any combination of the languages and subtitles.

I love the film enough to go 5 stars for it, but taking off one for not even having a choice as to how I want to view it.
Sony....Puhleeese! Reissue this film in the original widescreen format. Thanks!....Laurie

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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impossible not to like--a love story with a twist., January 1, 2004

By 

Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Starman (Full Screen Edition) (DVD)

This film is simply impossible not to like. Jeff Bridges is unforgettable as an alien from an incomparably advanced race who is stranded on Earth (after taking human form) and seeking to return to his own civilization, and his excellent performance as such earned him an Oscar nomination. He really gets into the role, and plays it to perfection. His gestures and mannerisms as the alien trying to understand human beings are uncannily plausible. Karen Allen is also superb in her role as an ordinary human being caught up in the struggle between Bridges, seeking to escape the Earth, and those darned nasty Big Government agents who fear the alien and seek to capture and destroy him. Darned gummint, isn't that just like them?

There are few special effects in the movie, and none are needed--this is a movie that gets through by sheer excellent storytelling and wonderful acting by Bridges and Allen. It manages to be touching without being sappy, and although our human government is viewed as being narrow-minded and overly paranoid, the alien in the end forms a high and joyous opinion of mankind, which I found uplifting and optimistic.

Well worth watching and owning.