CHRISTINE (1983)
Starring Keith Gordon and Harry Dean Stockwell
Now a full-fledged major studio director, Carpenter took on this adaptation of a Stephen King novel, filmed during the height of the author's popularity. It isn't one of Carpenter's best movies, but it is one of the best King adaptations ever to hit the screen.
Although King's novels are great, they're difficult to translate to the screen. Somehow King is able to get the idea of a possessed evil car across on paper, but when it's on film, it's hard to swallow. So it is with Carpenter's film about a high school nerd (Gordon) who falls in love with a 1957 Plymouth Fury, which he calls "Christine." The car appears to have a consciousness of its own and as he restores the old automobile, his own personality changes. He finds himself transformed into a suave, arrogant son of a bitch who's suddenly dating the girl that his studly best friend has been lusting after for weeks.
Naturally, his obsession with the car gets in the way of all of his relationships. When a group of punks vandalize it, the car itself comes to life and runs over the bastards who attempted to destroy it. The car also has a supernatural ability to rebuild itself whenever it's damaged.
The film is well-directed, and Carpenter makes great use of some classic oldies. Whenever the car is attacked, it'll play some 1950s or '60s rock'n'roll classic, most frequently "I Hear Ya Knockin' But You Can't Come In." We don't hear much of Carpenter's own score for the movie. But the script wasn't the greatest. Gordon's transformation from nerd to arrogant, manic stud seems sudden and forced. Why the town babe fell for him is never really explained. Very similar to "Carrie," the film doesn't have the religious intensity of that Brian De Palma classic. The cruel teens in that film seemed frighteningly real. In this movie, they just come across as disposable cardboard bad guys.
Far better than "Cujo," which came out the same year,
this was nonetheless a step down
for Carpenter and oftendoesn't even feel like one of his movies. Well-produced,
well-acted and well-financed, it lacks the low-budget bite of "Halloween" and "The Fog."
Studio money couldn't make up for the creative freedom he had as an indie filmmaker.
