Warning, this post may be one of my longer ones, apologies in advance.
While this is a purely opinionated post, aren't they all, I thought I'd do a write-up on one of, if not THE, best directors of all time: John Carpenter. Even if you can't place the name, you've said it because a good number of his movie's titles begin "John Carpenter's...". This post may come off as something from a fanboy, that's because it is. So sit back, relax, and let the man with eerie ability to make awesome theme music for all of his movies take you away.
John Carpenter has almost 30 directing credits to his name, over 40 writing credits, and 40 soundtrack credits. While a good number of these overlap, that's still a lot of damn work for one man to have done, especially when you consider that a lot of the "big" directors only do that, direct. They don't write a script or edit it. They don't make any additions to the score of a movie. They just direct (which isn't to say that is a small thing, but when compared with someone who wears so many hats during a movie...yeah, it's kind of weak).
A brief history of the man. He was born in 1948 in Carthage, NY to a music professor father and moved to Kentucky in 1953 as his father became the chair of the music department at Western Kentucky University, where John first went to college. He later transferred to the University of Southern California to pursue his film career, though he never graduated.
While at USC he made his first film, Captain Voyeur (yes, I know it sounds like a bad porno film, but it's not). While this first film was only 8-minutes long it showcased a lot of things that would be in one of his later hits (more on that particular hit later). He dropped out of USC and teamed up with John Longenecker to make the short film The Resurrection of Broncho Billy, a film that he actually got an Academy Award in 1970 for best short subject film.
In 1976 he directed the original version of Assault on Precinct 13, which was remade in 2005 starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne, which was, in my opinion, a beautifully artistic movie with an amazing score (also done by Carpenter). The movie is often considered Rio Bravo meets Night of the Living Dead. Give it a watch and you can probably see bits of both movies coming together very well.
1978 is where Carpenter finally got some of the recognition he deserved. Halloween, a horror movie, or as we would call it today, a slasher-flick, was released. Made on a shoe-string budget of only $300,000 it would eventually go on to make $47m in the US alone (which, adjusted for inflation, is almost $150m and would make it one of the highest grossing independent films of all time). I won't go into the full details of the movie, as I'm hoping that most know it, but in brief:
Halloween is about a man, Michael Myers, who, as a 6-year old, killed his older sister on Halloween and was then sent to a asylum. He escapes 15 years later the night before Halloween and returns to his hometown where he kills people because that's what he does and stalks Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, who is the daughter of the original "scream queen" Janet Leigh. Only Dr. Loomis, played by the absolutely amazing Donald Pleasence, the psychologist at the asylum that he was locked away at knows why Michael has returned home.
Carpenter wrote, directed, had a brief voice-appearance in, and composed the score for Halloween. The level of suspense that he was able to give in the movie is widely considered the hallmark for a suspense/slasher and even horror movie to this day. We are led to believe that the "monster" in this film is a human, one who has some serious issues yes, but still human. However, how he moves, slow and methodical. There one second and gone the next. This gives Michael Myers a place in cinema history as one of the creepiest bad guys out there. As for the score, there is hardly a person who has seen Halloween and not been effected by that simple 2-note theme for Michael Myers. I even had it as my ringtone for an old boss once. The legacy of this movie is amazing. From the score, which was already mentioned, to catapulting Jamie Lee Curtis from the occasional television appearance and into movie stardom, to creating a villain who is often listed as one of the most horrifying of all time. John Carpenter was finally here, and all thanks to Halloween.
The 1980's were truly the decade of John Carpenter. He made 8 movies during the decade, each one of them an immediate classic or a cult classic.
- 1980 - The Fog
- 1981 - Escape from New York
- 1982 - The Thing
- 1983 - Christine
- 1984 - Starman
- 1986 - Big Trouble in Little China
- 1987 - Prince of Darkness
- 1988 - They Live
I'm not going to sit here and do a synopsis on them all, just realize that all of these movies have a large fan following. Two of them have already been remade, while another is in the works. One, Escape from New York, had a sequel made of it. And one had "Rowdy" Roddy Piper in it.
Escape from New York began one of the best (theatrical) actor/director collaborations in movie history. Kurt Russell has been the one-eyed mercenary Snake Plissken in both Escape movies, R.J. "Mac" MacReady in The Thing, and the one and only Jack Burton in Big Trouble in Little China.
*Technically they have worked together 5 times. Russell also played Elvis Presley in a made for TV movie directed by Carpenter amazingly called Elvis.*
While I love all of these movies, Big Trouble in Little China is one of my favorite movies of all time. My girlfriend does not understand this, luckily for both of us she has other amazing traits (I kid, my love). Again, it's not something I can put my finger on. The acting isn't the best in the world, though it has some great talent in Kurt Russell and Kim Cattrall, as well as the great Victor Wong who played Egg Shen, it really doesn't matter. The elemental warriors, Thunder, Rain, and Lightning, along with the multitude of Chinese gang members and Jack's bumbling attempts at bravado make the movie. Add to that some of the best special effects that you know had to be aimed at young teens and pre-teens, how could a kid of the 80's not love it? This film is all about the action and the fun. It also has some of the best lines in any movie ever made.
- Jack - When some wild-eyed, eight-foot-tall maniac grabs your neck, taps the back of your favorite head up against the barroom wall, and he looks you crooked in the eye and he asks you if ya paid your dues, you just stare that big sucker right back in the eye, and you remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues, Jack?" "Yessir, the check is in the mail."
- Jack - Just remember what ol' Jack Burton does when the earth quakes, and the poison arrows fall from the sky, and the pillars of Heaven shake. Yeah, Jack Burton just looks that big ol' storm right square in the eye and he says, "Give me your best shot, pal. I can take it.
- Wang - Here's to the Army and Navy and the battles they have won; here's to America's colors, the colors that never run.
Jack - May the wings of liberty never lose a feather.- Jack - All in the reflexes.
Even though Mr. Carpenter has not been as active in the last 20 or so years, mostly due to his personal distaste for what he calls the "Hollywood business machine", it doesn't mean that he has completely gone away. The sequel to Escape from New York, titled Escape from L.A., was critically panned but really is a fun, campy movie, especially if you liked the original. Vampires, in 1998, another financial failure, had James Woods in it being a true bad-ass against the undead, how can this really be that bad a film? One of the great things about him though is that he has become very selective in who uses his theme music, as he was very smart in making sure he kept all the copyrights on them. Hopefully, he will return one day and a make another awesome movie so that more people will put his name up there with Spielberg, Cameron, and Howard (probably not, but a guy can hope eh?).
And here at the end I'll leave you with the man himself playing the theme from "Escape From New York" from a recent live performance in New York (trippy).
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