Christine (John Carpenter, 1983)

[AndyBlade]

On the surface, you'd think that in 1983, John Carpenter was still a big name director who made good films, and, for the most part, you'd be right. Just beneath the surface, though, lies a bit of a story - The Thing, released one year previously, had been a commercial failure, and with his career facing its first real crisis, he was fired from Universal's upcoming Stephen King based adaptation, Firestarter. At the same time, Columbia were planning a movie version of another King novel, Christine, and offered Carpenter the directing gig. He admitted that he was having a bit of a crisis of confidence after the initial critical and public reaction to The Thing, and so jumped at the opportunity to make another major studio picture. However, by his own admission, he wasnt as hands on with Christine as he had been with all his other movies, perhaps hoping that if the film bombed, a lot of the criticism would be deflected from his shoulders onto other areas.

Given the almost half hearted approach the director had to the film, it might be a bit of a pleasant surprise to find that its really not that bad after all. Admittedly, the source material was written in a time when Stephen King still wrote books which werent boring, self indulgent and pointless twaddle, and the movie doesnt come close to reaching the heights of Carpenters best work, such as The Fog, The Thing (which, as it turned out, was pretty good all along) and Assault On Precinct 13, or even the later In The Mouth Of Madness, but it does work very well, especially when you take into account the fact that the premise is absolutely ridiculous. In fact, the premise of the film - which, at its base level, is that of an evil car - can never be taken seriously. Instead, Christine's strengths lie in the portrayal of the central characters and their relationships with each other, and is backed up by some excellent acting.

The film's opening scene is set at an automobile assembly line, where we are first introduced to the title character – a shiny, deep red coloured 1958 Plymouth Fury convertible. Not even two hours old, Christine has already chopped off a guy’s arm under her hood and mysteriously murdered another disrespectful autoworker who drops cigar ash on her seat.

Some twenty years into the future, Arnie Cunningham (played by Keith Gordon) is a typical high school nerd, low on self confidence, dominated by his parents and ignored by most at his high school. His one friend is Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell) who, despite being a popular football player, remains loyal to his friend and defends him when he clashes with a group of bullies. Its on the way home from one of these encounters when they spot a rusting hulk in an old mans front yard. Arnie falls in love with the car instantly and is adamant that Christine can be restored to her former beauty. Much to the disbelief of his parents and his only friend, Arnie becomes obsessed with the car, and a rapid transformation begins. Arnie evolves from the shy kid into a selfish, intense jerk. Of course, he also somehow starts dating the prettiest girl in school – a relationship Christine seems intent on destroying, along with every other relationship Arnie has. Spending more and more time repairing his beloved car, he shuns his friends and families concerns as he all the more moody and unstable. But it is not just Arnie's moods which raise concern, as the car seems to have a violent life of its own, taking revenge on anyone which attempts to get between them.

Much like Stephen Kings's earlier work, Carrie, the films core is the story of a high school nobody who takes revenge through mysterious supernatural forces. Carpenter's depiction of the small town high school and the cliques who walk the halls is perfectly rendered and, unless movies have lied to us throughout time, is probably pretty accurate. Arnies transformation is a little quick, but understandable as you're trading off a 550 page novel for less than two hours of screen time, but remains successful because Carpenter and Keith Gordon go to lengths to establish him as a real human being, and not just a character in a movie. You can actually feels compassion for him during the early scenes of the film when he's picked on by, well, everyone apart from Dennis and can't help but take a certain satisfaction from seeing him take revenge on the bullies and domineering personalities who previously tormented him. As usual, Carpenter employs his usual mobile Panavision camerawork to great effect — the aforementioned 1950s prologue in which the camera swoops through a car assembly line and introduces us to the vehicle of the title. For what it's worth, he also handles the various shock scenes well — as an example, the scene in which one of the bullies is chased down a dark, deserted road and left as a charred piece of roadkill in Christine's wake. Ultimately though, its a premise which works better on the whole as a book than on screen (much like last years The Ruins did, and for the same reason - the premise is out and out nonsense) despite its many merits.

Dont get me wrong - thats not to say its a bad film by any means. In fact, its one I always enjoy on the occasions I revisit. Its just absolute nonsense. Nor is it a particularly faithful adaptation of the book its based on, but, as I wrote above, its near impossible to adapt a big novel into less than a couple of hours of time on screen. Among the positives of the film is an above average cast - Keith Gordon is an ideal choice as Arnie, effectively progressing from emotionally inept nerd to arrogantand confident sociopath. Off the back of this performance, its perhaps a little surprising to see that he only made a handful of films after this, and hasnt acted at all in almost 10 years, preferring to direct instead. He's currently one of the directors of Dexter. John Stockwell is another one who went on to have a successful directing career. Arnie and Dennis are believable as best friends, despite the fact that they seem to have absolutely no reason to be, and thats credit to the actors. Alexandra Paul (later to star for several seasons in one of TV's all time greatest shows, Baywatch) is one of the typical strong-willed female characters to grace Carpenter's work. Harry Dean Stanton also does a brief job in a small role as a policeman investigating the murders as they increase in numbers, but it's Robert Prosky and Roberts Blossom who get the best dialogue in their respective "dirty old men" roles. Theres no-one bad in the film, actors such as Christine Belford, Robert Darnell and a pre-scientology Kelly Preston all add something to the film. Even the high school bullies are believeable, despite perhaps being a little too cardboard cut out and lacking in depth. Carpenter also contributes one of his trademark electronic scores and mixes it with a selection of 1950s and 60s classic tunes.

There are, of course, better movies made from Stephen King work, but Christine still rises head and shoulders above the many dire films adapted from his novels and rests comfortable in the higher reaches of the mid table of King adaptations, despite Carpenter's claims to the contrary, I dont agree that he "f*cked this one up." I think its decent, entertaining and watchable nonsense. Given that its now 26 years old, it does admittedly look a little dated in some scenes, again this is mainly due to the fashions, but the scenes where the car regenerated itself after various smashes do still look good today. Made today, CGI would no doubt make it look better, but the dated approach actually adds to the films charm and makes it feel much more honest than today's big budget, CGI packed horrors. On the same note, theres actually very little blood on screen.

There is, though, a bucketload of swearing, at least 70% of it by Robert Prosky in the Will Darnell role, who probably doesnt manage to get through a whole sentence without uttering at least one swear word or another. the first time I got to see Christine was via rental, but in the late 80s, ITV would occasionally screen a TV version of the film which, despite always being shown late night, removed every SINGLE swear word, meaning the Darnell character's screen time was at east halved, and he'd literally show up on screen, say nothing, then be gone in the next scene. The same TV version also cut the few scenes with any hint of blood, effectively destroying the ending, and even trimmed a kissing scene and an explosion at a petrol station. In more recent times, Channel Five have shown a much less edited version which has still been trimmed of some swearing, and the film has played uncut many times on Sky Movies over the years. If any subsequent DVD release ever contained the ITV version as an extra, I'd buy it in a second. Typical of editing for TV at the time, it was hilarious and over the top.

On region 2 DVD, Christine has been released a couple of times. Way back when DVD was in its infancy, it was one of the first batch of titles Columbia released from its back catalogue. This disc was bare bones aside from a bunch of still screen filmographies of all the leads, but was a very good looking anamorphic print. A later collectors edition came out about four years ago, which was a direct port of the R1 release and contains a very entertaining Carpenter/Keith Gordon commentary track, a whole bunch of deleted scenes which add nothing other than to demonstrate why they were deleted, three informative featurettes and some random trailers. The collectors edition can be picked up for less than a fiver at most online retailers, and at that price, is well worth a punt.

When I first saw Christine I was around 11 years old, and I loved it. These days, its still a title I revisit every once in a while, and its always watchable. there are a lot more positives to this film than there are negatives, and its certainly nowhere near as bad as John Carpenter seems to think it is.

Christine: amazon.co.uk

[cloud]

While it does look to have visible studio interference there are still a couple of good John Carpenter trademarks with his synth soundtrack and the swift way some of the 'baddies' are eliminated. The big negatives from this film are that the two lead characters don't spend enough time on screen together, the film does kind of side-step a bit once Dennis goes into hospital. The bullies are also never fully realised and once they do get knocked off it lacks any real impact. But then that's the problem with a lot of Stephen King adaptions is that unless it's a mini-series there generally ain't enough time to do each character justice. Also the ending was a bit tired, surely they could have ended it a bit more subtly? Negatives aside I like this film, the rock 'n' roll soundtrack is nice, it has a nice '50s feel, and it has some really memorable moments. It's not classic Carpenter but as a purely entertaining (and brainless) 90+ minutes I can think of far worse ways to spend my time. I'm a sucker for Killer Car movies and this is definitely superior to the likes of The Car and The Wraith imo, well at least it's aged better I suppose.

[Dave Jay]

Better than THE WRAITH? Wash your mouth out, cloud!

[cloud]

Hah! I just realised I listed The Wraith without thinking. That'll teach me for putting my brain on auto-pilot!

Anyone know John Carpenter's home address? I must write him a letter of apology as The Wraith truly is a stinker. Sorry Mr. Jay!

[Dave Jay]

No need to apologise, cloud... I have to rather sheepishly admit I've seen THE WRAITH about 30 times since I were a littl'un (even saw it at the cinema when it first came out in '87. I was, unsurprisingly, one of no more than three that attended the pictures that night!).

I think I may be mental.

[AndyBlade]

The Wraith is one of the greatest films ever committed to celluloid. Anyone who believes differently should have their TVs taken away from them and have their internet privileges suspended indefiniitely.

Sadly, I wasnt old enough to catch it at the cinema, although I'll be first in line at the box office when it gets its 25th anniversary re-release in 2011.

[Dave Jay]

I think you may be mental too.

[AndyBlade]

Hey - if my love for The Wraith makes me mental, then so be it. I feel no shame.

Thirty times is really an accomplishment, Dave - thats probably about double the amount of times I've treated my eyes to the wonderous spectacle that is The Wraith. In addition to the DVD, it seems to pop up on TV a couple times a year now too, and I always make a point of watching whenever it comes on.

Do you know the words by heart? Perhaps we could get together some time and recreate scenes from the film. I can be Skank and you can be Gutterboy.

[Echoes]

Originally Posted by AndyBlade

Hey - if my love for The Wraith makes me mental, then so be it. I feel no shame.

I like The Wraith so I do not understand what there is not to like in this film.

[Dave Jay]

"I can be Skank and you can be Gutterboy."

It's not every day you get an offer like that! It's been a while since I've downed a bottle of brake fluid, though...

[jacksmith1983]

Great review Andy. I go offline for a few days and come back to discover that I'm practically surplus to requirements in the reviews department!

Seriously though, Christine is good fun for sure and certainly one of the better of the (too) many Stephen King adaptations that were churned out during that particular period. However, I'd still say it was without doubt one of the lesser films John Carpenter had made up until that point and I certainly can't agree that it is a better film than The Car, which I've always thought was a pretty neat, exciting little film and an underrated addition to the late seventies horror cannon. That's just my personal opinion though.

While we're on the discussion of the great "killer car" flicks does Duel count? Or do we consider killer lorry films a subgenre onto itself?

[cloud]

I'd say Duel does count but it's in a different league to Christine. In fact Duel is nothing short of a masterpiece imo, whatever happened to Steven Spielberg? Duel and Jaws are both world class efforts.

I think The Car is good but it's not aged too well and has less memorable characters than Christine.

[Pinback]

Originally Posted by cloud

I'd say Duel does count but it's in a different league to Christine. In fact Duel is nothing short of a masterpiece imo, whatever happened to Steven Spielberg? Duel and Jaws are both world class efforts.

It's interesting how when Steven Spielberg read the script for Jaws he straightaway drew comparisons to Duel:both films are quintessentially about impersonal, unstoppable forces pursuing their hapless victims.

He also plays on this parallel with the ending of Jaws: that wonderful, in some ways poignant scene where the exploded shark slowly sinks to the ocean's bottom in a cloud of blood, as the truck destructs by going over the cliff in Duel, and in both scenes he uses the same dinosaur roar from an old B movie. It's not as pronounced in Jaws, but it's there, just under the surface of a quite haunting, beautiful final score.

[cloud]

Yeah I remember Spielberg saying that on the Duel SE DVD. Both are excellent films and it makes me wonder just how interesting Spielberg's output would have been if he hadn't started making bloated Hollywood product afterwards. He's a good director but a lot of his films don't interest me in the slightest. However, I loved his remake of War Of The Worlds.

We've gone wildly off topic!!

[AndyBlade]

A few more killer car movies for the list, we also have Maximum Overdrive and Killdozer, and slightly more tenuously, The Hearse and The Ambulance.