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Christine
USA 1983
produced by Richard Kobritz, Kirby McCauley (executive), Mark Tarlov (executive) for Delphi Premier Productions, Polar Film/Columbia
directed by John Carpenter
starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton, Christine Belford, Roberts Blossom, William Ostrander, David Spielberg, Malcolm Danare, Steven Tash, Stuart Charno, Kelly Preston, Marc Poppel, Robert Darnell, Richard Collier, Bruce French, Douglas Warhit, Keri Montgomery, Jan Burrell, Charlie Steak
screenplay by Bill Phillips, based on the novel by Stephen King, music by John Carpenter, Alan Howarth
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Arnie (Keith Gordon) is a nerdy high school student who probably
wouldn't last long without his best friend, jock Dennis (John Stockwell),
who seems to routinely get him out of scrapes, like with the school's
biggest bully, Buddy (William Ostrander), who ultimately holds Arnie and
Dennis responsible for being expelled from school for carrying a
sitchblade knife. Then Arnie finds a totally dilapitated car, a '58
Plymouth Fury called Christine, buys it for a steal from her cranky owner
Darnell (Roberts Blossom), and starts fixing her up in shady Darnell's
(Robert Prosky) do-it-yourself garage. For some reason, everybody's
against Arnie having the car, especially his parents (Christine Belford,
Robert Darnell), but it does wonders for his self confidence, so much so
that the hottest girl in school, Leigh (Alexandra Paul), becomes his
girlfriend - much to the dismay of Dennis, who wanted Leigh for himself,
but he soon suffers a football injury and is taken out of the picture for
a while. In the meantime, Christine starts to develop a personality of her
own, and not a very likeable one, as is evidenced one night at the
drive-in when Leigh almost chokes on her food and Christine locks her
inside, preventing Arnie, still outside, from helping her, and she's saved
only in the nick of time. Buddy and his friends have meanwhile found out
where Christine is parked, and take some sledgehammers to completely
demolish her as revenge for Buddy's repulsion. But pretty much magically,
Christine fixes herself up upon Arnie's command, and soon enough Christine
goes after one of Buddy's friends, Moochie (Malcolm Danare) and kills him.
This brings Detective Junkins (Harry Dean Stanton) onto the scene, who
immediately suspects Arnie, but Arnie's got an alibi. Junkins also figures
there's something wrong with Christine, though it's somewhat unclear how
he's come to believe it. Not long after that though, garage owner Darnell
is found dead in Christine, which of course only reinforces Junkins'
suspicions, and then Christine goes after Buddy and his friends, blowing
up a whole gas station in the process. Leigh calls Dennis, who has more
or less recovered from is injury by now, and they make up a plan to corner
Christine and pretty much crash her to tiny pieces using heavy machinery -
a plan that almost goes deadly wrong more than once, but ultimately
Christine ends up as a cube of compressed metal ... If
anything, Christine is a testament to John Carpenter's sheer talent
as a director, as in this one he once again masterfully combines B movie
sentiments with directorial inventiveness and perfect craftsmanship,
making this one a pretty entertaining romp - which is quite a feat, as the
material he had to work with here was less than stellar, a rather
ill-conceived story about a possessed car that lacks in proper build-up,
is carried by cardboard characters, and often has them react oddly to the
goings-on. And what's really annoying is that the movie actually shows
little sympathy for Arnie and really seems to want to spread the message
"know your place, nerd (and leave the pretty girls to the
jocks)!" - which is pretty much where Stephen King's version of
Americana shines through, which is in many aspects very much stuck in the
1950s - even if Christine the movie is a streamlined and simplified
version of King's book and more or less ditches the social commentary of
the material. So basically, this is not a good film - but it flows so very
nicely that one will probably still find oneself entertained.
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