Thursday, October 9, 2014

Christine

How do you kill something that can't possibly be alive?


Arnie Cunningham: Whoa, whoa. You better watch what you say about my car. She's real sensitive.

Ah, the love between man and car.  The man gives it a name, keeps it spotless inside and out, parks it far from the other cars in a parking lot so it won't get scratched, gives only the best gas and oil, buys fancy gadgets, knick-knacks and air fresheners... it's like an obsession!  And that's how teenage nerd Arnie is with "Christine", his bright red 1958 Plymouth Fury.  Arnie has invested an incredible amount of time into "Christine", resurrecting her from a certain death at the junk yard and restoring her to a pristine glory.  But "Christine" has a dark history which includes the death of her former owners.  And Arnie, poor Arnie,.... let's just say obsession has become possession.  


1983 was a good year for Stephen King.  I say that because three movies came out that year that were based on his novels: "Cujo", "The Dead Zone", and "Christine", which is the film I'm obviously covering here.  All three films did equally well at the Box Office that year, ranking in the mid-thirties among the top 100 grossing films of 1983.  "Christine" was one position behind "Cujo", being ranked #35 ("The Dead Zone" ranked #37), grossing over $21 million.  Making its debut on December 9, its competition at the Box Office that opening weekend were "Sudden Impact", "Scarface", and "The Dresser".

John Carpenter was certainly not unfamiliar to the horror genre when he directed "Christine", having previously directed such feature films as "Halloween" (1978), "The Fog" (1980), and "The Thing" (1982).  However, it was the first feature film for screenwriter Bill Phillips.

Nominated for Best Horror Film of the Year at the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA Awards, "Christine" starred Keith Gordon as "Arnie", John Stockwell as "Dennis", and Alexandra Paul as "Leigh".  It also co-starred Robert Prosky as "Will" and Harry Dean Stanton as "Detective Rudolph Junkins".  Also look for well-known actress Kelly Preston who plays "Roseanne".  She went on to be in such films as "Spellbinder", "Twins", "Jerry Maguire", "For Love of the Game", and played the mom in "Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat".  "Christine" was her second feature film, but as of October 2014, she has acted in 67 television and feature film productions.

Filmed entirely in California as such places as the Pickwick Drive-In Theater in Burbank, 1037 Buena Vista Street in South Pasadena (Arnie's house), Valencia Liquors in Newhall, Van Nuys High School in Van Nuys, and Medford Street and Huntington Drive North in Los Angeles where a "bad guy" is being chased down the street be "Christine", here are some other bits of trivia you might appreciate about the making of this film...


1.  Due to his popularity at the time, production for "Christine" took place before Stephen King's book was even published.

2.  The possible origin of the killer car's name could possibly be from Christine (1958), another movie called Christine which was made in 1958, around the same time the Plymouth Fury was made.

3.  Producer Richard Kobritz, who had produced the film version of Stephen King's novel "Salem's Lot" (1979), was given some new unpublished manuscripts from King to consider for their next film adaptation. One was "Christine" (1983) and the other was "Cujo" (1983). Korbitz chose "Christine" because he thought "Cujo" was too silly.

4.  Kevin Bacon was offered the lead role but ended up choosing Footloose (1984) instead.  Scott Baio was also considered to play Arnie Cunningham and Brooke Shields was considered for Leigh Cabot. But the film makers involved all felt the movie would be better served by casting "unknowns".

5.  In other countries, "Christine" was released as "Christine, or Truck Assassino" (Brazil), "Christine - Killer Car" (Finland), "Christine - The Infernal Machine" (Italy), and "Kristina - Auto Killer" (Serbia).

6.  The opening scene, which shows Christine being "born" in Detroit, was added in for the movie; it was used to explain the origin of Christine's evil nature, which had been changed from the original Stephen King novel.

7.  According to Keith Gordon on the DVD Commentary, he kept having trouble with Christine's TorqueFlite automatic transmission control. The 1958 Plymouths (along with all other Chrysler products that year) used push buttons to select "Reverse," "Neutral," "Drive," etc. (The buttons can be seen in some shots located near the steering column but are never seen being pushed in the film.) He says that it would routinely take several tries to put the transmission in gear. In a few instances, filming would be delayed so that a technician could repair the selector buttons, and even then he'd still have trouble with it.

8.  According to Bill Phillips, Robert Prosky (Will Darnell) asked Phillips to give him more dialog to make his character more interesting. Prosky cited the scene in the novel where Darnell offers Arnie a job, particularly the line "You can pick up around the place. Do a few lubes. And put the toilet paper on the spools...". So Phillips added the scene to the script, keeping the dialogue almost verbatim from the novel.

9.  Keith Gordon said on a DVD extra that he pretended the car was a woman, so wherever he touched the car, he imagined which part of a woman the car was.

10.  The movie playing at the drive-in scene is "Thank God It's Friday" (1978).  (If you haven't seen "Thank God It's Friday", I suggest it, especially if you like disco music.  The film includes stars Debra Winger [her second feature film], Jeff Goldblum and Donna Summer in her feature film debut singing her mega hit, "Last Dance".  There's also a cameo appearance by the Commodores.  Call me crazy, but it's a personal favorite of mine.)

11.  When Christine hunts down the members of Buddy Repperton's gang, her windows are blacked out. This is presumably to give Christine a "sinister" appearance, but also, more practically, to conceal the stunt driver. However, this reportedly made it difficult for the driver to see, since these scenes were all filmed at night.

12.  To simulate the car regenerating itself, hydraulic pumps were installed on the inside of some of the film's numerous Plymouth Fury "stunt doubles", a mock-up in plastic that looked more like metal on camera than actual metal as it bent and deformed. These pumps were attached to cables, which were in turn attached to the cars' bodywork and when they compressed, they would "suck" the paneling inwards. Footage of the inward crumpling body was then reversed, giving the appearance of the car spontaneously retaking form.

13.  Arnie's nemesis, Det. Rudolph Junkins, also drives a Plymouth Fury, most noticeable when he questions Arnie in the school parking lot. Junkins' car appears to be a 1977 or 1978 Plymouth Fury - a popular police car of the late 1970s.

14.  As a joke, Alexandra Paul's twin sister, Caroline Paul, stood in for her during some scenes, most notably the ride on the bulldozer.


THE FOLLOWING ARE SPOILERS!!!...

1.  One of the stunt Furys used in the film - the one that runs over and kills Moochie - had a rubber front end. The car was destined for the salvage yard and has been restored using parts from the other "stunt" vehicles. The vehicle is now in private hands.

2.  After reading over the book, actor Keith Gordon (Arnie) and the costume designer came up with a visual way to show Arnie being possessed by Christine. As the movie progresses, Arnie begins to wear clothes that reflect the era of Christine's make. At various points, especially when Arnie is yelling at Leigh on the phone, Arnie is seen wearing button up shirts open with black t-shirts, black pants, and boots like a 1950's "greaser". When he's talking to Junkins (both times), he's wearing a leather vest over a button up shirt (a nod to western TV shows which were popular in the 50's), and he even starts to wear a red suede jacket like James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).

3.  Screenwriter Bill Phillips and rocker George Thorogood filmed a cameo appearance as the junkyard workers who compress Christine and dropped the cube at the end; the sequence was cut because neither could act very well (as Phillips states in the documentary). It was also Phillips who suggested that they use George Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone" as the movie's theme song.

And now you know.


On the DVD Documentary, screenwriter Bill Phillips said the movie technically didn't have enough violence to justify an "R" rating.  But they were afraid that if the movie went out with a PG rating (PG-13 didn't exist yet), nobody would go see it.  So he purposely inserted the word "fuck" and its other derivatives in order to get the "R" rating.  He then recalls that they were criticized at the time for their use of the word.

The following are picture stills following the story line of the film, beginning with pictures of the key characters...








Now to follow a bit of the story line of the film...





























































































Arnie Cunningham: [after taking hands off the steering wheel at high speed, realizing that Dennis is panicking] Don't be scared.
Dennis Guilder: [Voice begins to crack and mildly begins crying] I'm scared for *you*, man, for what's happened to you. It's this fucking car!