Christine (Special Edition)
by John Carpenter
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DVD details
Actor: Alexandra Paul, Harry Dean Stanton, John Stockwell, Keith Gordon, Robert ProskyDirector: John Carpenter
Brand: GORDON,KEITH
Producer: Barry Bernardi
Producer: Kirby McCauley
Producer: Larry J. Franco
Producer: Mark Tarlov
Producer: Richard Kobritz
Writer: Bill Phillips
Writer: Stephen King
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Chinese (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 110 minutes
Published: 2004-09-01
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Christine (Special Edition)
DVD Review: You can't do a book-to-film adaptation any better than this.
Summary: 5 Stars
Stephen King's 1983 novel "Christine" was adapted to film and released in the same year. Placed in the hands of the brilliant John Carpenter with a budget of $9,700,000, the result was ultimately the best adaptation of a book to film I've yet seen, and one of my favorite movies of all time. There are few better ways, in a movie theater at least, to spend 110 minutes of your life.
I won't carry on long about the differences between the standard DVD and this special edition, but I always buy the special edition of a film I like. Some have little in the way of extras, but I found "Christine" did not leave me wanting in terms of additional content, either. The list of cut scenes is enjoyable to watch, much as the film itself, and it's always fun to find out how a film like this was made.
"Christine" has an opening that gets attention right away. A car motor, no doubt a powerful one, starts up, revs to a roar a few times, then idles and shuts off as the preliminary credits roll. We then witness a scene on a Detroit assembly line in 1957, in which George Thorogood's "Bad To the Bone" is brilliantly chosen as the background song and Christine herself, the only red Plymouth on the line, claims her first victim. See, while it is implied in the book that Roland LeBay's 1958 Plymouth Fury was simply a custom Plymouth early on, this made-to-order '58 Fury is bad right from the very beginning in the film.
We soon meet Dennis Guilder and Arnold Cunningham, who have been good friends for years. After a scuffle in auto shop class that is broken up by the brilliantly-played Mr. Casey, the two are soon heading home when they pass by- we don't see what at first. But whatever it is, it grabs Arnie's attention right away, and he demands Dennis go back. Within moments Arnie is running his hands across the bodywork of a rusted but somehow familiar Plymouth, which appears to have been quitely decaying for not just decades but centuries (if that were possible) in a rather unkempt front yard. Dennis is unimpressed, and can hardly believe it when Arnie jumps right up and buys the car from the late owner's brother, George LeBay. See, ol' George must have gotten along with his brother Roland a whole lot better in the film, since he talks of the car much as Roland did. Dennis' attempts to dissuade Arnie fail, as do those of his domineering parents. Their refusal to allow the barely running Plymouth in their driveway introduces us to the cheery and personable Will Darnell, owner of a local junkyard and garage, who after a rant over the car's horrible exhaust allows Arnie to keep the car there.
The acting in this film is as good as you could ask for. Keith Gordon and John Stockwell perform superbly as Arnold Cunningham and Dennis Guilder respectively. To name all of the actors who I believe did their jobs well would result in me naming the entire cast, one by one. But my favorites beyond the lead cast were Robert Prosky (Darnell), Roberts Blossom "George LeBay", and Harry Dean Staunton as "Rudolph Junkins".
Witnessing Arnie's transformation from a downtrodden nerd to a hard-eyed, lean fella who nobody crosses is really something, and the film portrays all this very well. People step forward and attempt to harm Arnie, or worse, attempt to harm Christine, and all who make any transgressions suffer terribly. The scene in which Christine rebuilds herself before Arnie's eyes is one of the most brilliantly done moments in film I have yet to witness. This was before the kind of special effects and CGI we take for granted today. In 1983, John Caprenter mounted devices all over one of the Plymouths used to portray Christine and overall destroyed the car, then played all the footage backwards. Genius. The scenes in which Christine takes revenge on those foolish enough to cross her are some of the most gripping in the film, made all the better by the wonderfully-done soundtrack. I very much enjoyed the moment where the unfortunate Moochie Welch sees a rebuilt Christine idling, and calls out to Arnie, who he assumes is inside. "Hey, you ain't mad, are you?" Oh, I don't know about Arnie... but Christine is more than just mad. Considering she forces herself up a narrow loading dock and rams Moochie so hard paint is embedded in his bones (as Junkins tells us later) I'd say Christine a lot more than just mad.
Consider, also, the amount of time Christine takes in running down her victims. The boys responsible for beating her up in the garage one night suffer most grieviously, and in each case she takes far longer to get rid of them than she'd really have to. But unlike many films where the villian foolishly takes extra time with getting rid of an enemy, Christine simply draws it out, takes her time, but never once fails to get her revenge.
Tensions mount in the Cunningham household as one could expect, and Dennis and Arnie's ex-girlfriend Leigh destroy her in Darnell's garage in a dramatic duel to the death between the regenerating 1958 Fury and a bulldozer. Christine's liking for classic 50's music I very much enjoyed, and even as the bulldozer runs her down she's blasting "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay" and struggling to get loose.
The ending of the film is superbly done. I know I must sound dreadfully repetetive in so widely praising the film, but it's true. I have few if any complaints at all, none very significant. Anyway, the end of the film shows Dennis, Leigh and Detective Junkins looking at the crushed cube that used to be Christine, lamenting Arnie's demise during the battle in the garage. "Some things can't be helped. Some people, too." Junkins notes. Just then, we hear rock and roll playing, seeming to come from the remains of Christine. The look on the three people's faces, and the look on the face of the construction worker who has the radio on his shoulder as he walks by, is priceless. "I hate rock and roll." Leigh hisses.
Soon, the three turn to leave, and the camera zooms in on the ruined, crushed remains of the evil Plymouth. A piece, possibly of the grille, bends ever so slightly back and forth.
As if a car like Christine could be stopped so easily.
Cut to "Bad to the Bone" and the credits. Very nicely done.
"Christine" is adapted from book to film with a kind of skill and respect for the original work that I have yet to see surpassed. To fully adapt the book to film would result in a work lasting over four hours, and Carpenter clearly recognized that. Yet in many cases, I have been inclined to howl over the carelesness with which a director changed the work from one form to another. Not here. I regret the omission of so many subplots and details, but ultimately the final work is so good that I enjoyed it about as much as I did the book itself. "Christine" is a movie that I could not only like but love even if I had never read the book it is adapted from, nor ever heard of that most excellent writer, Stephen King. The movie can be appreciated from all angles: as a masterful adaption of written to visual form, as a John Carpenter-directed film, as a Stephen King movie, and simply as a stand-alone film. I cannot think of a time when I have enjoyed going to see a movie more. Among Stephen King film adaptations and among films in general, for me at least, "Christine" is as good as it gets.
Description of Christine (Special Edition)
An eerie, twisted love story of a teenager and his obsessively jealous 1958 Plymouth Fury ?- as only Stephen King can tell it! Christine is a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury who seduces 17-year-old Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon). She demands his complete and unquestioned devotion and when outsiders seek to interfere, they become the victims of Christine's horrifying wrath. This special edition is packed with added features. Starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Harry Dean Stanton, Christine Belford. A Stephen King classic.She can't (and won't) drive 55.... Stephen King's novel about the twisted love affair between a boy and his car gets transferred to the screen, courtesy of suspense master John Carpenter. Although lacking some of the more outré supernatural elements of the source material, this high-octane cinematic tune-up more than delivers the goods, horror-wise (Christine's midnight rampages will never be forgotten)--as well as being a sly exposé of the random cruelties within the high-school pecking order. Keith Gordon (who has gone on to become a stellar director in his own right, with films such as A Midnight Clear and Mother Night to his credit) gives a wonderfully controlled central performance. Carpenter's atmospheric original score is backed up by a well-chosen collection of rock classics, including George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" (the titular character's all-too-apt theme song). --Andrew Wright
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