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Christine

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

"Christine" is about possession. In adapting Steven King's novel to the screen, director John Carpenter and writer Bill Phillips streamline King's narrative to focus on the true star of the book and film--the car itself. "Christine" tells the story about a nerdy high school senior (Keith Gordon in a very strong performance)who can't do anything right but his best friend college jock Dennis(John Stockwell)seems to do everything right. So when Arnie finds the perfect car that he can rebuild and put his love into, the car nicknamed "Christine" by its former deceased owner more than returns that love--she gives Arnie a thug makeover and turns him into a monster as bad as the the kids that used to beat Arnie up. Needless to say, Christine has some special abilities of her own and she becomes--so to speak--the vehicle for Archie's revenge and vice versa.

Dennis tries to intervene but once Arnie becomes possessed by Christine, he and Arnie's new girlfriend Leigh (the lovely Alexandra Paul in her first film role)are unable to reach him. A local police detective (Harry Dean Stanton)becomes suspcious but isn't able to prove that Arnie had anything to do with a mounting body count consisting of high school students from Arnie's school.

The beautiful transfer here manages to skip many of the flaws that have become a Columbia Tristar trademark; the edge enhancement is minimal and the sharp, detailed picture has vivid rich color recalling the original look of the theatrical cut of the film. The high definition transfer is as sharp as a rebuild car after a top notch paint job.

Duplicating the wonderful format that director John Carpenter has used on "The Thing", "Big Trouble in Little China" and "Escape from New York", the audio commentary features both the director and star Keith Gordon (now a director himself) discussing the nuts and bolts of making the film. Gordon provides a unique perspective as both the film's star and also an acclaimed director of small, independent films.

While I also like King's books, I'd like to point out that to make a feature film of a novel would take (as writer Bill Phillips astutely points out in the special features section)20 hours or more so novels have to be streamlined in the hopes of capturing the feel of the film. It's hoped that the visul style brought to the film will make up for the narrative threads that are lost and Carpenter's film does just that. While LeFey the previous owner of Christine played a major role in the book, it seemed as if he was the one driving the action. Carpenter and Phillips decided that Christine was just born bad and that evil spilled out to possess their owners as well. I found Carpenter and Phillips choices in turning the novel into a film to be very good ones.

Laurent Bouzereau's three excellent featurettes focus on the conception of the film all the way through the production and release. Oddly enough, though, Columbia has them listed out of order under the special features section starting with "Christine Fast & Furious", "Christine Finish Line" and "Christine Ignition" presented in that order. You should really watch the last one first, the first one second and the second one last. Of course, you can click on them in any order (they play individually)but it does seem a curious choice to present them this way. We also get 20 deleted/alternate scenes that provide an interesting addition to the original film. While Carpenter wisely chose to cut some of them, a small portion of the deleted scenes would have made a great addition to a "Director's Cut" of this film. Since Carpenter is technically "retired" (as he jokingly points out in his commentary), he certainly could spent the time to reintegrate key scenes. Unfortunately, it's doubtful that this special edition had the budget for such an undertaking. Regardless, I'm happy that Columbia Tristar elected to put out this special edition in the first place.

We also get the usual Columbia Tristar previews as well. This special edition provides a classic Carpenter film a second change on DVD. While the film was critically well received (Time called it "Carpenter's best film since 'Halloween')for the most part (many criticized the foul language. Writer Bill Phillips discusses how Columbia's executives asked him to add more foul language so the film could earn a hard "R" rating. He laughes as he recalls that "Scarface" would soon replace "Christine" with the most foul lanugage in a two hour movie), it only did fair box office business. It's nice to see this classic bit of Carpenter-King-Phillips entertainment finally the way it should be presented.

Director: John Carpenter
Cast: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton.
Running Time: 110 minutes.
Rated R for violence and language; not nearly as graphic as it could be--a Carpenter trait.

Based on Stephen King's highly popular bestselling novel, "Christine" is perhaps director John Carpenter's second best film (behind "Halloween", obviously) and a sure-fire treat for all those who enjoy King adaptations, Carpenter created films, or just good ol' fashioned suspense. The film centers around a demonically possessed 1958 Plymouth Fury with a strange history--the workers who completed the construction of the car were mysteriously killed and the initial owner of the vehicle took his own life after his wife suddenly died.

Keith Gordon stars as Archie Cunningham, a classic geek in high school who wears nerdy frames and eats packed yogurt for lunch. He is the butt of many jokes, but jock star Ryan Stockwell is still his best buddy. After school one day, Archie comes across Christine, the devilish car. He fixes her up and proceeds to become obsessed by her. A new-found confidence prompts Arnie to ask the cutest girl in the school (Alexandra Paul) out for a date and they quickly fall in love--but Christine does not approve. The car demands Arnie's complete and unquestioned devotion and when outsiders seek to interfere, they become the victim's of Christine's horrifying wrath.

A superb performance from Gordon in the lead role, transforming himself from a laughing stock class dork to an arrogant, obscene maniac who gets so comsumed with Christine that will be anything to preserve the safety of the car. Excellent script from Bill Phillips, unraveling the King masterpiece with a quick deliberance that keeps the audience on the edge of their toes and waiting for Christine's next move. Outstanding direction and musical score creation by Carpenter, using specific lighting arrangements and camera angles to add to the suspense, all the while producing a terrifying musical accompanyment. Even though it is not overly terryfying with sudden jolts of scares, "Christine" is horror/suspense at its very best and a hidden gem of the thriller genre. One of the best, most unheralded horror films of the early part of the decade.

Stephen King's novels have formed the basis for a great many horror films over the last quarter century. Some have been superlative (CARRIE, THE SHINING), others just terrible (PET SEMATARY, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE). CHRISTINE can be counted among the superlative ones. Under the expert hands of HALLOWEEN director John Carpenter, this film provides the requisite chills and atmosphere minus a lot of unnecessary blood and gore.

Keith Gordon stars as a geeky high school student named Arnie Cunningham who is always getting picked upon by the local school bullies (sound familiar?). But when he eyes a rusted old 1957 Plymouth Fury, his life really turns around. Over the objections of his best friend (John Stockwell), he fixes it up at a local garage (run by a salty-tongued Robert Prosky) to a point where the car is as good as new. Gordon even starts up a relationship with the high school dream queen (Alexandra Paul). There's just one problem, though. Christine won't let it go that far.

For this '57 Fury is definitely possessed, and pretty soon it takes possession of Gordon. When the school bullies retaliate against Gordon by trashing Christine, the car repairs itself and goes after the perpetrators one by one. But the car also reacts in a jealous and homicidal way against Paul, who nearly chokes on a hamburger at a drive-in with Gordon. And when Paul and Stockwell come to realize that Gordon is indeed totally over the edge, they plot to destroy the car, using a bulldozer inside Prosky's garage. Unfortunately, Gordon dies in the final melee. And although Christine itself seems to be crushed to a metal cube, in the tag end scene, a metal piece can be seen repairing itself...

Although the setting of the film is changed from King's novel (there, it was western Pennsylvania; in the film, it's southern California), CHRISTINE for the most part stays true to the basic essentials of the book in its depiction of high school bullies and teenage life during 1978-79, which is the era depicted. There is a certain appropriateness to having Christine's radio play nothing but early rock and roll records, like Little Richard's "Keep A Knockin'", and Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One", while most of the other songs are of the late 70s ("Runaway" by Bonnie Raitt, "Bad To The Bone" by George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers).

Carpenter makes sure that the emphasis on the movie is on the situations in Gordon's life that lead him to Christine, and how letting his life get totally dominated by that car eventually scares the living daylights out of Stockwell and Paul. Furthermore, he does this in the same suspenseful fashion that made HALLOWEEN work to such a tee. His and Alan Howarth's synthesizer-dominated music score lends further atmosphere to the proceedings. Some may complain about the slight excess of profanity in the screenplay, but it is typical of King's work and appropriate in the way it depicts teenage behavior.

CHRISTINE does, as many point out, bear a resemblance to the much underrated (or much maligned) 1977 thriller THE CAR. But it is unique in its own way. And for those seeking something more than mad slashers and buckets of blood, CHRISTINE is well worth watching.

It's an impossible task: how do you make a movie about a demonic car scary? The answer, apparently, is: you don't. There is not one single scare in this entire movie, nor are there any particular chills. There are a couple of chase scenes that exude a momentary sense of apprehension, but as horror movies go, this is not one for the ages.

That's not to say it's a bad movie, though. It isn't. Just not a scary one. The acting is fairly good; the score (composed of typically nice, if spare, Carpenter synth work and of rock songs) is effective; the cinematography is consistently outstanding; and the special effects are top-notch, way WAY better than anything that would be done via CGI today.

The main problem with the movie, really, is that it's a movie about a haunted (or possessed, or something) car, in which we find out very little about why the car is evil. Okay, fine. Instead, the movie tries to be sort of a metaphor for the difficulty of being a high school outcast, and for the dangers of obsession. The movie fails at these objectives, as well. There is very little dramatic cohesion at work; by the end of the movie, you just don't much care about anyone in it. Every time I see it, I'm left wishing that there had been a lot more murderous-car-crushing-the-unjust action. Goodness knows, there isn't much else to enjoy.

I'm not trashing the movie, though. There are individual scenes that are very good, and that makes the movie worth seeing.

This is really a love story but since it's based on a book by Stephen King you aleady know that the love is dark and dangerous. In every high school there are couple of kids who are treated badly by the tribe. Arnie Cunningham is a sweet, smart kid but the local bullies are making his life hell. He has two things going for him: his imagination and his best friend, Dennis, a genuinely nice kid who is on the football team and protects him. Arnie finds a Plymouth Fury and falls in love. The car's name is Christine and she's alive. No reason why, she just is. She talks to Arnie telepathicaly and through her radio. When she plays Johnny Ace's Pedging My Love and Arnie sighs and lays his head on her steering wheel the two are irrevocably wedded. The actor's voice changes whenver he's speaking to Christine, it becomes soft and affectionate. Her music, when they are alone is a playlist of love songs. It's and intense relationship.

Arnie gives Christine his life, she gives devotion, protection and one heck of a makeover. His skin improves and he no longer needs his glassses. He goes from looking like a hopeless geek to a combination of James Dean and Marlon Brando in THe Wild Ones. He attracts and takes for himselt the queen of the school, Leah. The actress playing Leah is not very good. She says her lines and that's about all I can say for her. Frankly, nobody's acting, except for Keith Gordon as Arnie, is very good. Acting is not what makes this movie. The relationsip, the building suspense that exlodes into terror, the music both soundtrack and John Carpenter's score make the movie and does it fairly well.

Christine tolerates Leah for one hot minute but when it looks like Arnie's affection for her is getting too strong the car causes her to almost choke to death. She also settles some scores with the local punks. Anybody who crossed Arnie is getting burnt, squished, crushed and turned into roadkill. Finally Dennis and Leah try to pull Arnie from Christine's spell and end the killing. They succeed, sort of. Other than the poor acting of the supporting cast, there are a few nitpicks. The leader of the bullies looks about 30, what the heck is he doing in highschool? The ending is too far from what was in the book and is too weak. The detective focuses on Arnie but has nothing to make his investigation legal. This isn't a great movie. It's a darkened basement TV movie and that's okay. I had fun with it.

Besides Carrie, Christine is my 2nd favorite Stephen King film! John Carpenter did an awesome job at directing this, as he did with my all-time favorite movie, HALLOWEEN! I love the idea of a classic red 1958 Plymouth Fury being possessed and kills for her owner. Her name is Christine. A nerd named Arnie Cunningham finds a crappy Plymouth Fury, and fixes it up. After he fixes it, it looks awesome! The bullies that pick on Arnie and trash Christine get whats comin' to them. Arnie's friend, Dennis, and Arnie's girlfried, Leigh try to find out about Christine's haunted past and try to stop her from taking over Arnie, who is now obsessed with Christine. I love how Christine fixes herself. If you love horror, classic cars, and Stephen King films, you'll love CHRISTINE!!!

This is "John Capenter's" Christine--not Stephen King's Christine. The film takes the basic idea of the film much the same way Kubrick took the basic idea of the Shining and made it his own. While the book is better--a book is a book and a film is a film. There was no way at the time that John Carpenter could've staged the scenes with Christine back in 1983. Even now the budget would be huge. I'm speaking of Darnell's death and the death of Buddy out on the icy roads. John Carpenter may not be fond of this film but he should be--it's one of his last films that looked and felt like a "John Carpenter film." The cinematography is fantastic, the music is classic Carpenter music, and it's pretty well acted. It may not be the most frightening King adaptation but it's one of the best directed (technically) and one of the best photographed. All in all it's one of Carpenter's best; after all it is his version of the book. Changes aside, it's well worth the viewing considering the mindless, no-talent crap that passes for horror these days at the cinema.

This film does not do justice to the book. Many important details were changed and some left out all together. Carpenter abriged many elements of the story that made it scary, such as the nightmares, the car's strange smell, and the lights on the dashboard that seem to turn into eyes. The film manages to be entertaining, but lacks the suspense and emotional impact of the book.

I read the book before I saw the film and was a bit disappointed. The movie skipped over a lot of the main theme - the fact that Arnie, as well as going insane, was turning into the cars previous owner, Mr LeBay. There was a lack of substance to the film but it's still worth watching to see the car rebuild itself from a heap of mangled metal. If you like the film, you'll love the book even more.

Commentary: A fine commentary track with director John Carpenter, and star-turned-director Keith Gordon.

Deleted and Alternate Scenes: 20 scenes of varying length. Runs to around 26 minutes and presented in the aspect ratio of the main feature.

Featurettes: There are three of these featurettes.

Interviews; with most of the principals: John Carpenter, screenwriter Bill Phillips, stars Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, the producer, stunt co-ordinator.

Christine: Ignition 11 mins 52 secs.

Christine: Fast and Furious 28 mins 53 secs.

Christine: Finishline 7 mins 17 secs.

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