Customer Reviews

John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

PICTURE QUALITY (5/5 STARS)
The interviews and film scenes are excellent quality, some film clips seem to be better on this DVD than on the movie DVDs!

SOUND QUALITY (5/5 STARS)
No surround of course, flawless Stereo sound.

EXTRAS (1/5 STARS)
No extras on this interview DVD - excusable as this whole DVD is some kind of an extra.

SPECIAL/UNIQUE ON THIS DVD RELEASE:
- anamorphic Widescreen
- Dolby Stereo
- up to now singularly contribution DVD to John Carpenter

COMMENT:
I've waited so long for a J.C. DVD (like the "The Director" series) and here it is - at least a beginning because it is quiet short. 60 minutes of footage in one big clip with chapters - each for one film. Most of his films are treated well on this DVD. Especially his earlier years as film-/musicmaker and his youth is analyzed.
The mixture of interviews with J.C., actors, Alan Howarth (!) and clips from the films works very well. 50 minutes or so are very detailed but at the end it starts to get hurried and it may be that there will be another DVD like this because some important movies have not been mentioned (see below) and there could have been much more information about his later movies.
This release has a wide opened end - like telling 50 % and then "cut"... nevertheless highly enjoyable, informative and a must-have for every fan - priceless!!

Detailled information in these chapters (in correct order):
"Influence"
"Film School"
Dark Star (1974)
Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Halloween (1978)
"Carpenter's Music"
The Fog (1980)
"Westerns"
Vampires (1998)
Escape from New York (1981)
Escape from L.A. (1996)
"John and his Team"
The Thing (1982)
Starman (1984)
Prince Of Darkness (1987)
They Live (1988)

Bearly mentioned:
Christine (1983)
In The Mouth Of Madness (1995)
Village Of The Damned (1998)
Ghosts Of Mars (2001)

No footage from:
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
Memoirs Of An Invisible Man (1992)
Body Bags (1993)
all others

Great documentary for true Carpenter fans. No extras and only an hour long, but you learn a lot about Carpenter's roots and Greg Nicotero's comments on "The Thing" are very interesting. Highly recommended.

John Carpenter: The man who brought you "Halloween," Escape from New York"
& more! This dvd that has everything you want to know about the famous
director with many cast & crew interviews. I'm a big fan and own just
about all of his films. I highly recommend this ultimate John Carpenter
dvd.

It doesn't tell anything new to a Carpenter fan, but it is nice to see an hour on him. It isn't really worth putting it out on dvd, though. It should be an extra on some Carpenter DVD.