MUIR BOOK WEDNESDAY # 8: The Films of John Carpenter (2000)

I originally wanted to call this book Dark Star: The Films of John Carpenter, but the general consensus was that a title like that was a teensy bit obscure, and so here's my Muir book of the week, the plain-titled (but very successful...) 2000 effort (recently republished in soft-cover) by yours truly: The Films of John Carpenter.

I thought it would be appropriate to feature this book today, since Monday was John Carpenter's 58th birthday, and because I'll be discussing Carpenter's work preceding a double feature of They Live (1988) and The Fog (1980) at an upcoming Fantasmo Cult Movie Night in Chesapeake, Va.

Carpenter has been one of my favorite directors since I was old enough to spell - and string sentences together. He forged a remarkable run of great genre movies in the 1980s, all ones straddling genres in some fashion or another. From Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) to at least They Live, he never created a less-than-satisfactory motion picture.

After that, well, things get hazy. There isn't as much consensus about his films. You'll find fans of In The Mouth of Madness (1994), but few takers on Village of the Damned (1995) or, yikes, Memoirs of An Invisible Man (1990). Still, I enjoy much of the director's later work, including Escape from L.A. (a prophetic satire that predicted an evangelical Christian in the White House, waaay back in 1996), Vampires (1998) and Ghosts of Mars (2001)

But let's get on with it. Here's what the critics said about my book, The Films of John Carpenter:

"...wonderfully comprehensive...a veritable primer on the cinema of Carpenter...elegantly written, incredibly insightful, and simply a real blast to read...thanks to John Kenneth Muir, the foundation for all future studies of Carpenter's films has been laid."-Mike Bracken, CULTUREDOSE.COM, 08/09/02.

"John Kenneth Muir is a fine writer and a first-rate historian who knows his subject well."-GADFLY ONLINE.

"John Muir's THE FILMS OF JOHN CARPENTER will have you heading for the Horror and Sci FI Section at your local video store." -CULT MOVIES.

"If you're a fan of Carpenter...get this most enjoyable book."-HITCH MAGAZINE.

"...a textbook that you'll probably find at the USC film school next semester. It's also an entertaining and informative fan guide to some pretty cool flicks."-FANDOM.COM.

"Muir's affectionate, conversational style - with a few wordy stabs into professorial prose - makes THE FILMS OF JOHN CARPENTER likable and readable." -MARK BURGER, U.S. JOURNAL BOOK PAGE.

"An ample study...pure Muir." -Anthony Ambrogio, VIDEO WATCHDOG.

"Unlike many 'Films of' books, which only provide brief analysis, Muir takes a very detailed approach to all of John Carpenter's output...[it] will delight Carpenter fans seeking hidden meanings in his multi-layered works."-THE BURLINGTON COUNTY TIMES.

"Muir does a fine job covering Carpenter's career and examining his films...I came away from this book with an even greater admiration for the gleefully politically-incorrect and anarchistic auteur director."-KEVIN ROSS, CINESCAPE ONLINE.

"This work is informative and entertaining for both film scholars and enthusiasts."-Cari Ringelheim, ARBA 2001.

"Muir's text covers it all...a welcome addition to the author's growing list of film and television analyses."-J.Robert Craig, JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY, 03/02."

With the unalloyed affection of an avid movie enthusiast, Muir extols the auteur career of John Carpenter...Sketching Carpenter as a Hollywood maverick, a dark star....Muir details the 16 films directed by this entertaining artist...Recommended for all aficionados and students of Carpenter and his adventurous and scary films." - CHOICE, October 2000.

"Following a nearly fifty-page historical overview of Carpenter's film career, Muir provides a synopsis for each movie followed by a commentary that is...cogent and insightful...Particularly interesting is his argument that Halloween despite contrary claims, used predominantly non-subjective camera techniques to position Michael Myers as a character who is frightening because his motive and movements evade rationality."-Jay McRoy, SFRA REVIEW, Sept-Dec, 2001.

"...provides a thorough coverage and examination of the filmmaker's body of work, with ample space devoted to each of his projects..THE FILMS OF JOHN CARPENTER...makes an enjoyable read."-John Harrrison, CRIMSON CELLULOID.

"I enjoyed Muir's Wes Craven, so I was intrigued to see how he would handle Carpenter, a great favorite...The book starts with a great overview and history of Carpenter and his films filled with stories and comments...The coverage of the films...emphasize[s] the reasoning behind the films. Obviously more esoteric but still a very interesting read."-LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS, page 13.

And here's an excerpt from my intro:

Importantly, Carpenter envisions himself not as a "personal" director who directs "individual" message films for limited audiences. He is a studio director, like Howard Hawks or Alfred Hitchcock, who directs stylish films designed solely to entertain mass audiences. His desire is not to connect with the viewer on an independent, "small" scale (like the cinema of Ed Burns, Woody Allen or Jim Jarmusch), but rather to entertain and manipulate the masses in the manner of the Hitchcock or Hawks blockbusters he remembers from his own youth. But, like Hawks before him, Carpenter's taste also tends to be the audience's taste. Carpenter dramatizes the stories he personally wants to tell, yet is uncannily skilled and luring audiences to his way of thinking.

There is another side to John Carpenter and his motion pictures: His films frequently reflect the mischievous side of the director's personality. For John Carpenter is surely the last maverick standing in Hollywood - a director who does what he wants, when he wants, and for wholly personal reasons. This anti-authoritarian streak, this rampant individualism, has resulted in Carpenter turning down directorial assignments on films as diverse as Top Gun (1985), Fatal Attraction (1987), and even H20 (1998), the twentieth anniversary sequel to his own horror masterpiece, Halloween. Simply stated, he is not at all interesting in directing films that do not stimulate his creative juices.

Carpenter not only makes the film he wants, he infuses each project with his own strong, anti-authoritarian, laconic bent. In Assault on Precinct 13, Escape from New York and Escape from L.A., Carpenter's protagonists are convicted criminals, anti-heroes who loathe society's repressive laws and institutions. In The Thing, the officially appointed leader of the Antarctican research team is removed from authority early on in the picture and replaced by the more individual common man, MacReady. In They Live, Village of the Damned (1995) and Memoirs of An Invisible Man, Carpenter's heroes find themselves aligned not with the "national interest," but against the government, the police, scientists, and other groups that have traditionally been dramatized in films as almost innately heroic. This tactic is not a result of Carpenter's specific dislike of any of the above-listed organizations; it only reflects his total displeasure with authority, and the establishment as a whole. Censorship is the issue of In The Mouth of Madness; lack of religious freedom is the theme of Escape from L.A.; the inherent greed of the Reagan era is the dynamite that causes They Live to explode into violence, etc.

In each of these films, Carpenter sees the state working against the people, and he shoots it as he sees it, often lampooning such American pillars as Jerry Falwell (Escape from L.A.), Ronald Reagan (They Live), Stephen King (In The Mouth of Madness), and even TV film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert (They Live).

...[But] a close viewing of Carpenter's work reveals a romantic streak beneath the skepticism: a belief somewhere down deep - far below the anti-establishment hatred - that a single committed and idealistic person can make a difference, even if society does not recognize that person as valuable or good. The Snake Plisskens, the Napoleon Wilsons, the MacReadys and the John Nadas of the world are out of step with their times because, underneath the machismo, they are essentially romantics who "still believe in America" (per They Live) and the nation's stated ideals of liberty and opportunity. Their beliefs but them in constant opposition with the law and current "forces that be," but nonetheless secure their position as true patriots.

When Snake Plissken plunges the world into darkness in the finale of Escape from L.A., he is striking a blow not for anarchy, but for freedom and liberty. Snake points out that freedom in America "died a long time ago," and thus he spawns a reparation and renewal of those sleeping ideals. When John Nada destroys the alien hypno-transmitter in They Live, he is likewise restoring, not destroying, America by delivering a wake-up call for freedom. Despite the authority-bashing nature of his heroes, the belief in American ideals and in man himself is inherent in the work of John Carpenter. He believes that man can do better, and his heroes consistently prove that worthy goals (such as saving Earth from malevolent shape-shifters) can be accomplished, but only through individuality.

...In Big Trouble in Little China, Wang bemoans the fact that his "mind" and "spirit" are "going north and south," a problem that could never be attributed to the film's atypical director. Though his steadfast consistency has often irked critics who wish he would take a new tack, John Carpenter remains admirable in his devotion to being the latter day Howard Hawks. Auteur, anti-authoritarian and consummate entertainer, John Carpenter is a supernova of talent, and Hollywood's tenacious "dark star."

The Films of John Carpenter is available now. Check it out!