Christine, 1983.
Directed by John Carpenter.
Starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Harry Dean Stanton Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Christine Belford, Roberts Blossom, William Ostrander.
SYNOPSIS:
An unconfident bullied teenager buys an old car that seems to have an effect on his personality.
1983 was something of a banner year for movies based on Stephen King books. His 1981 novel Cujo was first and proved to be fairly successful, and The Dead Zone followed, helping to push its director David Cronenberg closer to the mainstream, but it was John Carpenter (Halloween/The Thing) who got to make Christine, now making its UK Blu-ray debut thanks to rising distributor Powerhouse Films.
Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon – Jaws 2/Combat Academy) is an awkward teenager, bullied at school by the thuggish Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander – Mulholland Drive) and at home by his domineering mother Regina (Christine Belford – Dynasty). His only friend is his childhood buddy Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell – Top Gun), who is a hit with the girls, is on the football team and drives a flash car, but one day when Dennis is driving Arnie home from school they meet Christine, a 1958 Plymouth Fury currently decaying in the garden of George LeBay (Roberts Blossom – Deranged) after his brother committed suicide in it. Arnie buys Christine from LeBay and immediately sets about fixing her up, and it isn’t long before she is back to showroom condition but along with the restored look of the car comes a newly polished Arnie, complete with renewed confidence, a harder attitude and a date with the hot new girl in school, Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul – Baywatch), and over time Dennis begins to notice a big change in his friend and begins to question just how much of an influence Arnie’s new obsession really is.
Christine really works on two levels – as a Stephen King adaptation and as a John Carpenter movie. However, it comes across more as a King story as this was a period in John Carpenter’s career when he was becoming more of a jobbing filmmaker. Not that he was slacking in any way but after the commercial failure of The Thing a year before this was more of a job for him rather than a passion project, and as such this is probably the most un-Carpenter film that the director has made, certainly during his so-called ‘golden era’ between 1978 and 1988 but possibly ever. Apart from his trademark synth score that punctuates a lot of the action scenes the soundtrack to the movie is made up of 1950s rock n’ roll songs that offer a slight narrative with their lyrics – Christine’s radio plays Little Richard’s ‘Keep a Knockin’’ when Dennis tries to break in, for example – and with one or two swift camera movements aside you would be hard pushed to name the director just by the visuals (and as long as you didn’t see the title card as the full title of the film is John Carpenter’s Christine).
But as a Stephen King adaptation it keeps the feel of the author’s story despite some changes to the narrative. The one major thing that Carpenter and writer Bill Phillips did dispense with is the notion that Christine’s previous owner is a ghost who haunts the car and gradually possesses Arnie, with the idea now being that the car itself was ‘born’ evil straight off the assembly line. We are shown this in an introductory scene set in 1957 Detroit, with Christine claiming her first two victims – an inspector who gets away with just an injured hand and a foreman who dares to flick cigar ash on her seat and pays for it with his life – so we know straight away that the car is evil and sentient. However, what this change in plot from the original text means is that as we know from the outset that the car is bad then we don’t need to spend too long setting it up as the killer, making the middle section of the film feel a bit slower than the first. The first act sets up Arnie, Dennis, the purchase of Christine and Buddy Repperton’s gang fairly swiftly but we don’t actually get to the first proper kill until just over an hour in, during which time we are witnessing Arnie’s transformation from nerd to tough guy without actually seeing it as the film spends longer with Dennis and Leigh talking about Arnie. Buddy Repperton and his gang are set up very well as Arnie’s tormenters early on but that plot thread is dropped for way too long until it is picked up again as Buddy and his goons go to work on Christine, by which time you’ve forgotten they were in the film.
Although the timing and pacing are off, Christine is still a great film to watch. The characters are archetypal but done well, making them easy to relate to, and despite not having any major stars involved the performances are still good and mostly memorable (although Alexandra Paul’s monotone whining does begin to grate after a while). The underlying themes that Stephen King likes to pepper throughout his stories – tested friendships, growing up, teenage rebellion, ageing, being bullied and twisted love – are still there under John Carpenter and Bill Phillips’ guidance, with the unlikely friendship between Arnie and Dennis being at the centre of it and giving the film a little bit of heart that could have been lost under different filmmakers.
The film itself looks pretty good on Blu-ray, although during the earlier scenes you may struggle to notice a lot of difference from the DVD picture quality (it’s a dual format package so you get both). However, as the film moves on and we get more night-time scenes, fire stunts (the image of a burning Christine chasing Buddy Repperton through the streets does look fantastic) and dark/light contrasts the differences between the two prints is more noticeable. It also helps if you have a decent speaker setup as the mixture of John Carpenter’s synth score and classic rock n’ roll is best heard with the volume turned right up. The extras are the same as the previous UK DVD release, consisting of a great audio commentary by John Carpenter and Keith Gordon, deleted scenes, trailer and a making-of featurette containing interviews with cast and crew, but as this is a Powerhouse Films release you also get a booklet featuring production notes, a new essay on the film by Jeff Billington and an archive article from 1996 written by John Carpenter. It’s a nice little addition for collectors and fans, making this a worthwhile package to pick up if your Stephen King or John Carpenter Blu-ray collection is looking a little thin, and in terms of Stephen King movie adaptations Christine remains one of the most enjoyable, despite not being John Carpenter’s strongest work.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
Originally published October 24, 2016. Updated April 14, 2018.
