John Carpenter

February 12, 2:05 PMCelebrity Profile ExaminerAndy Williamson

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JOHN CARPENTER

In the world of cinema, there are directors, filmmakers, and auteurs (as well as hacks, pretenders, and wannabes).  There are also living legends -- those celluloid artists who have shaped our popular culture, changed the way we make and watch movies, and have indelibly printed themselves on our psyches.  Spielberg, Lucas, Cameron, Scorsese, Lynch, Cronenberg, etc ...  Their films are not always perfect, but their influential genius is undeniable.

I would add another name to that list: John Carpenter.  While even I’ll admit he is in dire need of a career resurgence, his early films from the late 70s and early 80s have inspired many of today’s directors, garnered well-deserved cult followings, and spawned a recent slew of completely unnecessary remakes.

John Howard Carpenter was born on January 16th, 1948 in Carthage, New York.  When his father, Howard, a music professor, moved the family to Bowling Green, Kentucky in 1953, John first grew infatuated with movies.  Be it the epic and sprawling westerns of Howard Hawks and John Ford, or the low-budget B-movies of the period like Forbidden Planet and The Thing From Another World, John was transfixed, transported and transformed.  Using an 8mm film camera, young John soon began making his own short films -- all this before he had even started high school

Years later, in 1968, John attended the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.  While there, John’s work as a co-writer, film editor and music composer on the short film The Resurrection of Broncho Billy, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.  Enlarged to 35mm, sixty work prints were made by Universal Studios, and over the next two years, in ran in the U.S. and Canada.

In 1974, John released his first major directorial effort, Dark Star.  The film, a sci-fi black comedy co-written with Dan O’Bannon (who would later write Alien, cribbing much from this script), was a $60,000 production that succeeded both critically and commercially.  Like many of his later efforts, John would do much multi-tasking on this project, directing, writing, producing, and scoring.  Hollywood noticed what the young wünderkind had achieved on a shoestring budget, and it proved to be a keystone in what was to come.  The film has since become a cult classic.

John followed this up in 1976 with Assault on Precinct 13.  A reworking of Howard Hawks Rio Bravo (John edited the film under the pseudonym John T. Chance, which was the name of John Wayne’s character from that classic western), the film details a vengeance fueled attack on a police precinct by the Street Thunder Gang.  While the film did not do stellar box office in the U.S., it was widely praised overseas -- years later, it would be considered on of the best exploitation movies of the 1970s.  This film also marked John’s first collaboration with writer/producer Debra Hill, who would later become an invaluable collaborator.

In 1978, after directing a very well received suspense film for television, Somebody’s Watching Me (where John first dipped heavily into Hitchcock’s bag of tricks), the director was contacted by producer Irwin Yablans, who had a story treatment about about babysitters being stalked by a killer.  John took the idea to Debra Hill (then his girlfriend), and the two added the element of this taking place on October 31st.  The result was Halloween, and John’s career would never be the same.  The film was an obvious successor to Hitchcock’s Psycho, with the added pedigree of having then 19-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis (the daughter of Psycho’s Janet Leigh) star in the film.  John composed the haunting, and still recognizable theme.  He also made the decision to rely more on suspense than blood and gore -- much more so than any of Halloween’s legion of imitators.  Made on a budget of $320,000, the film grossed over $65 million on its initial run, making it the most successful independent film at that time.

The next year, 1979, Dick Clark came calling.  He wanted John to direct a television biopic of the recently deceased Elvis Presley, entitled simply Elvis.  John, a lifelong fan of Elvis, read the script and leapt at the project.  While casting, John met Kurt Russell, whose nuanced performance nailed the part of The King.  The movie was a huge success with both critics and viewers, and began a working relationship between actor and director which would go on for many more films.

In 1980, John made The Fog, about spectral pirates come to seek revenge.  The script (again co-written by Debra Hill) was inspired by the horror comics John read as a boy.  The film starred Jamie Lee Curtis (again), Janet Leigh, Tom Atkins, and Adrienne Barbeau (whom John met and married while making Somebody’s Watching Me).  While the film was considered a success (budget: $1 million, gross: $21 million), it was certainly no Halloween.  The years have been good to it, however, and it is now considered a minor horror classic -- an integral part of the Carpenter oeuvre.

Hooking up with Kurt Russell again in 1981, John co-wrote and directed Escape From New York.  Set in the “near future” of 1997 (ha!), New York has become a walled-off maximum security prison.  When the president crash lands within its confines, ex-soldier and incarcerated criminal Snake Plissken is given 24 hours to get in, rescue him, and get out.  Kurt, with signature eye patch in place, turned on his best Clint for this role.  The film was a big hit ($50 million worldwide -- still not quite as big as Halloween), and to this day has legions of devoted fans.

The following year, John and Kurt hooked up again for a remake of The Thing.  With a bigger budget, a talented supporting cast, incredible (and disgusting) special effects by Rob Bottin, a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone (including uncredited synth music by John), and a script that hewed much closer to the original John W. Campbell short story Who Goes There?, the film should have been a massive success.  Alas, it was the summer of E.T., and audiences were more geared to cute aliens than diabolical ones.  Considered a major flop in its time, the film is now considered one of Carpenter’s best, and one of the scariest films of all time.

John made a couple of gems after this, including his very entertaining adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine, and Starman, a romantic sci-fi film with Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen.  Like seemingly all of John’s work, both have only increased in popularity over the years.

Then trouble struck.  Big Trouble in Little China.  That 1986 comedy/action/western/martial arts/special effects extravaganza (whatever it was, it does have its enthusiastic fans) was the beginning of a commercial and critical dry spell for the director.  A bomb of the worst kind (budget: $25 million, gross: $11 million), it nearly derailed John’s career.

While he followed it up with films that do have their die hard fans, they didn’t fare much better: Prince of Darkness, They Live, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, In the Mouth of Madness, Village of the Damned, Escape from L.A., Vampires, and Ghosts of Mars.

In 2005, after a brief sabbatical, John directed a couple of episodes of the cable series Masters of Horror: Pro-Life and Cigarette Burns.  This got him noticed again, and (great news!) John currently has four features in development.

John was married to Adrienne Barbeau from 1979 to 1984.  The couple produced one son, John Cody Carpenter (born May 7, 1984).  John has been married to producer Sandy King since 1990.

John is the subject of the documentary film, John Carpenter: The Man and His Movies -- an insightful and very entertaining look into his genius.  In 2006, the United States Library of Congress deemed Halloween "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

John’s influence is everywhere.  From homages like Tarantino and Rodriguez’s Grindhouse (practically a love letter to John Carpenter), to the countless (awful) remakes, to 2008’s disappointing remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still which borrowed heavily from Starman, one cannot deny this director’s ongoing impact on today’s Hollywood.

Now that he’s coming out of semi-retirement, here’s hoping John reclaims his crown.

Up next: Riot, The Ward, L.A. Gothic, and The Prince