Show intro

Dan Smith 0:00

Welcome to the Oh Brother podcast with hosts Dan and Mike Smith , brothers from the same mother with different opinions .

Mike Smith 0:08

Movies , tv video games or more , plus celebrity interviews . Get ready , it's set . It's time for the Oh Brother podcast .

Dan Smith 0:25

Welcome to the Oh Brother podcast from your host , dan Smith . Alongside me , as always , my brother from the same mother , mike Smith .

Speaker 3 0:30

We're going back in time .

Dan Smith 0:33

Going back in time , mike . You know it's funny because Halloween Fest , of course , rolling on here at the Oh Brother podcast this is the kickoff , isn't it ?

Dan Smith 0:42

It's the official kickoff in the sense that this is the first movie review that we're doing of Halloween Fest of 2023 . Now , when we I went back into the Oh Brother archives and I was listening to the kickoff of Halloween Fest a Few years ago and what's interesting is we kicked that off in 2021 with John Carpenter's the Fog , which I had not seen at that point . Now , on today's episode , we're reviewing John Carpenter's Christine , which I also had .

Speaker 3 1:16

Well , I'm not surprised , because it came out in 83 and you couldn't get in the .

Dan Smith 1:21

I couldn't get in , but there was HBO and things like that video rental , you know . I mean , there was always things playing in the house that I shouldn't have been seeing that . Yeah , and it wasn't a huge success in the theater . Well , he was an interesting thing about . Christine is

The novel by Stephen King

Dan Smith 1:36

Stephen King , who lives up in New Hampshire , by the way .

Mike Smith 1:39

He's at every Red Sox .

Dan Smith 1:41

I've seen him and walked past him at many Red Sox games Actually had better seats than him for a period of time , but he um . He releases the novel Christine in 1983 and around April Eight months later we were getting the film from John Carpenter , which is pretty crazy and when the film came out the release of the paperback coincided .

Speaker 3 2:06

So , yeah , it couldn't have been better timing . But John Carpenter was on kind of a slump . Well , he was , thing didn't do well with he was .

Dan Smith 2:16

Russell , and we're gonna we're gonna do a review of the thing on on Halloween fest this year too , because that's another one I have not seen

Discussing John Carpenter's "Christine" Movie

Dan Smith 2:24

and , as you said , carpenter's coming off the slump . The thing was just Too much for people to handle at that particular time . You know , as carpenter , as carpenter talks about in interviews , we're going through a recession . At that time it kind of very depressed . And then here comes the thing you know , very sort of Gory intense film . You know from what I've read right , because I haven't seen it yet , yeah , and and also what , what else was out at the time competing with it and more of a feel-good state was et Mm-hmm from Steven Spielberg . So you're right , he was basically .

Speaker 3 3:01

Did you get a chance to listen to the commentary ?

Dan Smith 3:05

No , no , but I did . There's quite a few extras on . The , you know the , in my case the digital . There's several featureettes and deleted scenes and such , and then you can find a Lot of stuff online too .

Speaker 3 3:17

But you know , in the commentary , steven , it's John Carpenter and Keith Gordon who plays arnie . Yes , in the film it's the two of them . It's . It was 10 years old . The movie was 10 years old when they recorded it and that was 10 years ago . So it's on its 30th anniversary right .

Dan Smith 3:41

40th anniversary , 40th and and yeah and um , there I had just seen a panel with a few of the actors at I think it's Texas Frightmare or something , some con that they do in Texas , I believe , and I was watching the . There was one from 2003 and then fast forward , you know , to just like a month ago , and they had it too . So , um and , and you know it's a testament to this film , it's just got a light , it's got legs , that just it keeps going right .

Speaker 3 4:16

Energizer bunny , you know just I think it's more popular now and I got the 4k and I got a . Here's the 4k .

Dan Smith 4:24

What were you holding up ? Is that what you were holding up ? That's the 4k . Is that sealed ? Oh no , it's a steel book . Oh , that's nice and unsleeve that , let's see that .

Speaker 3 4:33

Um , well , it's j card , so so really not a sleeve I got . Oh , I see , yeah , yeah , so um , I would suggest , if you have it on blu-ray , don't upgrade . Okay , there's no reason to upgrade .

Dan Smith 4:49

I have to say , no , not , I just have the digital . But yeah , the transfer on the digital is really really good .

Speaker 3 4:56

And I think that's uh , it's 4k , is it ?

Dan Smith 5:00

Okay , it's 4k , yeah , so so we've said , directed of course by john carpenter , uh , written by , you know , adapted from the novel steven king , and then the screenplay was done by bill phillips , who's uh massachusetts native . He was from brockton , actually . I don't know if you know that , but Um , the novel will publish in early 83 . We mentioned now carpenter at this point already Already had on his resume escape from new york . He's got halloween , he's got the thing , the fog , which we talked about right .

Dan Smith 5:28

So he's , you know , he's got a string of and three out of four of them did well .

Speaker 3 5:33

Well , except for the thing . Except for the thing , that which now again fast forward .

Dan Smith 5:38

Correct has developed its own car and it has a remake and is actually much , you know , better received by critics today than it was then as well , when they look back on it . You mean Christine .

Speaker 3 5:50

No , the thing . Okay , yeah , both . Of them .

Dan Smith 5:53

Same with Christine , yeah .

Speaker 3 5:54

Yeah , both of them Let me run down .

Dan Smith 5:55

You mentioned Keith Gordon . Let me run down kind of the main cast here and I'm going to point out a few other things . She's got Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham and Keith Gordon you might have seen in Jaws 2 . He's in Dress to Kill . He was also in All that Jazz with Roy Scheider and most people might know him from back to school with Rodney Dangerfield yes , aside from Christine , of course . Yes , john Stockwell plays Dennis and John Stockwell was in Top Gun . He was in a film I love , eddie and the Cruisers , great film with Michael Parade .

Speaker 3 6:28

He played like a jock , you know , like a football jock .

Dan Smith 6:33

Yeah , which he wasn't in real life , that's right . And they were friends , you know , in the film , Not not yeah , in the film .

Speaker 3 6:39

In the film , yeah , it's interesting to listen to the commentary because Keith Gordon is very honest and he says you know , we didn't bond or become friends over the movie . He said I think I think there was a competitive aspect to it and he's pretty open about it . Their on-screen dynamic was great , alexandra Paul . Who plays the lead From Baywatch .

Dan Smith 7:03

She hadn't been in much really at all up to this point .

Speaker 3 7:05

This was her first film .

Dan Smith 7:06

This was really her first feature film yeah . The great Robert Proskey who plays Darnell , who owns this basically salvage yard , john Sharp and this kind of do-it-yourself garage when Keith Gordon as Arnie goes and fixes up . Christine , oh , don't take too long , or I'll throw you out on your ass . He's just such a great character . That's one of your better ones Although it's a little Cream Eggs , little Cream . Eggs Maybe . Let's see if the production assistants can pick up on the Cream Eggs reference .

Speaker 3 7:37

And the great Harry Dean Stanton , harry Dean .

Dan Smith 7:39

Stanton plays Junkins . He plays a cop which you know . He's played a lot of bad characters , so probably a breath of fresh air for him to play a good guy . Yeah , christine Belford is just fantastic as Arnie's mother , gina . She's a very typical 80s . Yeah , especially in this genre . She's just fantastic . But she's been in a number of high profile series too , if you look up her IMDB Robert's Blossom , who plays LeBae who is the ? Guy that Arnie buys the car from . What a great character .

Speaker 3 8:13

What a great cameo in this . He's been in movies for like 50 years and he always looks the same he was in Escape from Alcatraz , one of the high point . Yeah , that's right with Clint Eastwood , that's right .

Dan Smith 8:26

Yeah , William Ostrander Ostrander .

Mike Smith 8:29

Buddy Repert .

Dan Smith 8:31

Buddy Repert . This guy was so good man .

Speaker 3 8:34

So good , you know , it's so funny . There's a sequence in the film where they're teasing , you know , because he's a bully .

Dan Smith 8:41

Yeah , and he's teasing Arnie and he's one of these guys that looks like he's 40 . Exactly In sophomore year , the teacher comes up .

Speaker 3 8:48

He's got the button chops and everything . The teacher comes up to yell at him and I'm looking at him and the teacher I'm like I bet he's older than that teacher , but there's a great scene between him and the teacher .

Dan Smith 8:58

Like that , teacher doesn't take any sh** from him at all Right .

Dan Smith 9:02

Right , he goes right after him , which is really funny because at first he took the teacher's just kind of a pushover Right . It's a great scene there . But he was fantastic , his buddy , in fact . There's a scene where very famous scene in the film where Buddy and his goons go to the Darnells yes and they take some sledgehammers and knives and things to Christine . There's an image of Buddy on the top of the car . If you just pause it it would make a beautiful poster on your wall . It is just John Carpenter at his best . He loves those wide kind of shots there's a lot .

Dan Smith 9:40

We'll talk a lot about . Talk about that , yeah . And then I made this one last note for you especially . It's very hard to say this , but the late , great , wonderful Kelly Preston .

Speaker 3 9:54

See , I didn't know if you were going to catch her . It was in this as Roseanne . Yeah , right in .

Dan Smith 9:58

the very beginning In the beginning for a little bit , and just man , I just can't believe she's gone out and he looks past her Kelly Preston , who's gorgeous Right , he kind of like blows her off for Alexandra . And Alexandra's beautiful woman , but more of the kind of girl next door . Look Correct At that time .

Speaker 3 10:18

But , and Kelly Preston has blonde hair , which might throw some people , because she normally has red hair .

Dan Smith 10:26

I got to say . I just put it out there at the front . I loved this movie . I can't believe it's taken me this long to see it . It's a Carpenter masterpiece visually .

Speaker 3 10:36

And you know , when I think of , even though his name is in front of Christine , it's John Carpenter's Christine . I'd never put it together that it was John Carpenter Until I brought it up right , you said , let's , what about Christine ? And I was like , yeah , stephen King , okay , that fits Right . But and then you said , yeah , it's John Carpenter , and I'm like it's not , it's never on his greatest hits compilation . And I just , but as soon as the movie started and I hear that you know that synthesizer , right , right , I'm like , of course this is .

Dan Smith 11:18

John Carpenter . Right , the music , the score is fantastic . I mean , first of all there's a great soundtrack . I mean the thing opens with at the time was a huge hit still is George Thilurgut and the Destroyers with Band and Bone . But Carpenter's score is just fantastic . Yeah , and he ad-libs most of it . Yeah , he goes off to a studio and spends two , three weeks just kind of putting synthesizer to the movie .

Speaker 3 11:44

Right , it's it's phenomenal and back then he was probably using a Casio .

Dan Smith 11:50

Good reference so , but you know this isn't the first . You know to take a in inanimate object you know a car and Make it this frightening and this scary . This is something that a lot of horror movies with main characters like Michael Myers can't pull off , let alone now . It's not the first , of course , movie that has done this right . You had one of my all-time favorites . I've mentioned it many times on the podcast before the car the car from 1977 Ronnie Cox , the great Ronnie Cox , james Brolin was in it .

Mike Smith 12:29

It's a great .

Dan Smith 12:29

It's a great horror film , no matter fact , stephen King , I think one of the only films he's directed Maximum Overdrive from yeah like 1984-85 , I think that came out with .

Speaker 3 12:41

Wasn't that a similar ?

Dan Smith 12:43

the semi truck , wasn't it ?

Speaker 3 12:44

Yeah , martin Sheen's kid .

Dan Smith 12:48

Emilia Oestivas . Yeah , yeah , yeah .

Speaker 3 12:51

So anyways , just not nearly as good as Christine . It's not no , now this even King loves to Crap on his move on his books that become movies . He hated the shining , you know , and there's . I've read the books , so I Kind of see where he's coming from . It's not His vision , but some of the things he writes you just can't pull off .

Dan Smith 13:19

Yeah he had come , he had gone to cobrits with Kujo prior to this . Yeah , and cobrits past . He's like I just don't see this as a feature film . Whatever he passed on it and they said and they kept a relationship going and if , well , if you develop something and I'll send it your way , and here comes Christine , and then you know , thank God , that cobrits yeah , he's on film , he's in the extras talking about that , yeah , yeah yeah , so you know , arnie of course plays the typical sort of bumbling goofball . Now back , nerd .

Speaker 3 13:54

Back in 83 when I saw this , and I saw it in the theater because I had read the book . I've read the book twice . I read the book when I was in Florida . I was gonna take the bar exam in Florida and then , like halfway through , I bailed out , said I don't want to , I'm not gonna come back here , and I Started reading . If you remember , I used to go to the library and come home with a stack of Novels . This was one of the ones you read and this was one of the ones I read back then . So that was I don't know 97 , I think 98 somewhere around there . But the book and the movie Christine's a main character , mm-hmm of this fell , oh yeah , without a doubt , and the way John Carpenter shoots it , I think it is .

Mike Smith 14:47

Oh , I'm watching it , it's genius .

Speaker 3 14:49

I think this is better than Halloween .

Dan Smith 14:52

I think the same thing Me to say that I got Michael right with . I mean , we both have it , which is just . But you know , yeah , it's just stunning right from the opening and he's very he's . You know he's known for those kind of those wide shots and mm-hmm , a lot of ones and twos and things like that . The cinematography was greatness to is very well lit because you know a lot of it was in the dark and it , but it Was right from the beginning .

Speaker 3 15:21

I was just hooked and I think , opening On , you know , showing what the fact wasn't but yeah , showing the factory in the old-school way they used to build cars . Now it's all robots .

Dan Smith 15:36

Yes , yes , guys , underneath , and you know screwing stuff in right , right . And what was beautiful is they shot it with . I think he said like Fuji film or something which is that very kind of vintage , kind of aged , you know right , only the beginning was just the beginning correct and the rest of it was like , I don't know , panasonic or something like that .

Dan Smith 15:57

That was more right , well known , which is with kind of his right maybe yeah , right , and but you got this assembly line of all these white plemets , yeah , right , and then , all of a sudden , the red .

Speaker 3 16:10

Red stands out just pops even with the dull colors , that red just comes through , it was gorgeous .

Dan Smith 16:19

Yeah , now they use this . In 1958 Plymouth fury , which I guess the story is it was really the one of the only vehicles that really wasn't getting any love or attention . Right mainstream at that point you didn't mustangs and Camaros and whatever heavy right .

Dan Smith 16:37

So this was one of the reasons that that King decided to put it in the novel , right , you know , and that's a really big part of the storyline , right , and the relationship between Arnie and Christine , because they're both kind of Outcasts , right right , yeah , and I , you know here's a big discrepancy or difference from the book .

Speaker 3 16:58

The book , the car is actually possessed by a person yeah , the previous owner . But in the movie you tell right off the bat Steven , I mean John Carpenter , you know two guys on the assembly line , one gets his hand bitten . If I want to say that , that's a good way to put it comes down on his hand sure , sure and then there's another guy who flicks ash on the brand new seats don't disrespect Christine . Right and they open the door and his body comes flopping out you know that's right , so the car from the jump has .

Speaker 3 17:38

There's something evil about it .

Dan Smith 17:40

There's something even about now , and you might remember this from reading the novel , but and one which , in hindsight , a brilliant decision by Carpenter was that in the novel , the , the sort of ghost , if you will , of the previous owner , is in the back seat , kind of , you know , influencing Arnie Correct Right , and so Carpe said no , I don't think that's gonna play well .

Mike Smith 18:05

It sounds kind of goofy .

Dan Smith 18:06

So now , having said that is there's a point at which Arnie himself basically seems to become possessed Correct , Perhaps only when he's in the car right driving it . But there was , we are correct , right , and that , up to a point , it's just Christine , it's just the Christine's super natural possessive powers . That right it's not Arnie in there for half the movie , it's really not until the end that you see scenes of him in it when it's running loose on the streets .

Speaker 3 18:41

But it's brilliant because John Carpenter blacks out the windows . So when Christine is on a killing spree , let's say you can't tell , you know you have to use your imagination . Is Arnie in there or is it the car you don't ? You know he doesn't lay it out for you , right , you know . So I thought that was a great choice by Carpenter .

Dan Smith 19:07

Which a tip of the hat that major props to Terry Leonard , I think it was the stunt , primary stunt man , and one in particular where they built this gas station . Yes , for this scene is very intense .

Speaker 3 19:22

Famous scene .

Dan Smith 19:23

That leads to the death of Buddy . Spoiler alert , which is just a fantastic sequence . But Terry Leonard is in that car . When it's lit on fire , when they first start rolling cameras and it backs out of the bay of the gas station , the car dies .

Speaker 3 19:43

The stalls . Because of the heat , the stalls out , right Burns the wires and he's in there .

Dan Smith 19:49

I mean it's like , as he said , he's well protected . But I mean I'm still in a car engulfed in flames .

Speaker 3 19:54

Right . But you look at that shot , it looks so smooth but they had to cut to get him out of there Right and get the car going again . Yeah , and then he's driving this flaming car which is engulfed in flames and he can't see a thing . No , and he's speeding down the road , he keeps it straight as a wire . I mean great stunt work .

Dan Smith 20:20

Wonderful stunt work , yeah . And now there was some talk about the rating of the movie , which is definitely a hard R . Yes , there's anything you could expect from an 80s horror film in this very offensive from you know obviously the typical sexual innuendo to very crude language . There's slurs in this . It's definitely dated in that respect for sure . Right , but you know it's interesting .

Speaker 3 20:55

I started to say it earlier , but I didn't like Keith Gordon . When I first saw this I had seen him in Jaws 2 and a couple of other things and he always played the same nerd Like have you seen Jaws 2 ? Yeah , yeah , yeah . So you've seen him in that . Oh , yeah , sure .

Mike Smith 21:14

And it's like Arnie .

Speaker 3 21:14

It's like Arnie is all of a sudden in Amityville , you know . But I look back now .

Dan Smith 21:24

Well , except for the , fact that that Jaws 2 preceded . I know so , you know you can't say that .

Speaker 3 21:29

But I look at the performance now and I'm like brilliant .

Dan Smith 21:34

This is like brilliant stuff . It really was . It really was . He was your , basically , and he had you know he had just got his license . Right and he had some stage background and things like that . But yeah , it's one you look at like they couldn't have cast it any better because the arc that he has to go through Right In about a 90 minute film Give or Take , right it's . And then it costs .

Speaker 3 21:59

You know , they of course overdo the goofy Arnie in the beginning , you know and he's got the tape of the glasses and all of that sort of stuff and the trash , oh , all over the place .

Dan Smith 22:09

But it didn't feel rushed or forced , it seemed I bought into the evolution of his character throughout , because then he becomes a complete . You know kind of asshole , right , you know tough guy type it's where he's got his father in a chokehold . Now that scene okay .

Speaker 3 22:33

Which was convincing .

Dan Smith 22:34

Mike's talking about . Let's just say Arnie doesn't have the greatest relationship with his parents , Right ? You know they don't want nothing to do with him getting a car and he's not allowed to keep it at the house and all this stuff . And , as I said , Christine Belford is just fantastic as his mother Playing his mother , but the guy that plays his father is really great too . And they have this exchange that you're referring to just down from the stairwell in their house and the father's like you've been disrespecting us for too long and it's gonna stop today , mister . And then Arnie .

Dan Smith 23:06

You go in there and you apologize to your mother . And what does he say ? Like F-O-F or , you know , u-m-f or whatever , right , the father like seems to really physically push him into the stairwell . But then immediately Keith Gordon comes back , puts his hand on the guy's throat . Like they must have really had an agreement . Like let's go for it here , right , it's very very .

Speaker 3 23:27

It was very convincing , very convincing .

Dan Smith 23:30

I give credit to Keith Gordon for selling that . In fact he and Carpenter had this relationship on set where you know Keith Gordon very much a character actor and wanting to try

"John Carpenter's "Christine" and Special Effects

Dan Smith 23:39

out things on set and different costumes and it sounded like Carpenter was like totally into it . So he had a lot of freedom to be able to play around with the character . I would imagine maybe some of those suggestions were from him himself , who knows .

Speaker 3 23:54

Oh yeah , and he treated Christine as a girlfriend . He did , he did Like when he's touching the yes , I mean right from the jump .

Dan Smith 24:04

When it's a junk . Yeah .

Speaker 3 24:07

Like a junk car .

Dan Smith 24:08

Do I have the hots for this car , Like you know ?

Mike Smith 24:11

Yeah .

Speaker 3 24:13

He's like rubbing the very sexually , very sexual .

Dan Smith 24:18

And there's one scene in particular where he's in the garage and he steps away because I think Christine shows Arnie her ability to regenerate so he steps back Again . A brilliant scene by Carpenter . Arnie steps back , it's over the shoulder and he just says OK , show me Show me , I mean , it gives you chills , it's so good and you know what's so good .

Speaker 3 24:41

What's really odd is I forgot he was even in that scene . What did you say ? I forgot I . I forgot , I forgot , yeah , I think I had my .

Dan Smith 24:55

I forgot there was a Faggazie .

Speaker 3 24:57

Yeah , but you know all he says . And then you know he says show me . And then you , the John Synthesizer in the lights .

Dan Smith 25:07

Oh yes .

Speaker 3 25:08

And there was little things they did that people might take for granted , like when they , when they , when he goes in the radio in the car , when he gets the radio to work and it's backlit with this green glow . Yes they didn't have lights in the , in the Steering or in the column at that time . Yeah , yeah so that was such a forward-thinking Kind of thing and then just some of those songs .

Dan Smith 25:36

You know you keep on knocking , but you can't ride .

Speaker 3 25:38

You know right , it was really clever and I don't know if you realize this I don't know if this was in the Just in the commentary , but two of the guys , all of them . They had to like cut a couple of times while I was smashing the car Because they were so winded yeah , not a shape , but two of them got injured Pretty bad . I think the guy that played moochie Is that the heavier kid ? Yeah .

Dan Smith 26:05

Yeah yeah , when he was slicing the he was getting glass in his hands because he said he forgot he didn't put any gloves on right , because that's one of the first things you see when they walk in buddy he's got those goods .

Mike Smith 26:16

Yeah , garage gloves on , he's getting ready to rumble speak about .

Dan Smith 26:21

Talk about the scene moochie's death , yeah , where he's being chased again . This is Special this is .

Speaker 3 26:30

There's no CGI back then . Okay , so Christine's chasing him and then he goes down this Alley .

Dan Smith 26:39

That's very narrow and then he gets to like it like a shipping , like loading dock Correct , and he's in this little kind of very safe Because the car , the car is like this wide and things like yeah , and again I don't know how they did it they really didn't feel it .

Speaker 3 26:57

Yeah , but all of a sudden the car just lurches forward lurches for and just starts trimming itself down . It's like man you know the movie Tim Burton's Batman when all of a sudden he has to go through and he just drops off the sides and keeps going . Yeah , but this is more organic . The car's actually crushing itself to get dinner , ultimately crushing him right and again they don't show like gratuitous .

Mike Smith 27:28

Guts and blood , and it's just implied , and that's all you need .

Dan Smith 27:32

That is all you need .

Speaker 3 27:34

The deaths at the gas station . One of the deaths is actually much longer the the other kid . That's kind of goofy , he's always laughing . One of the other goons , yeah , yeah , one of the other goons . And he actually gets killed by the . The lift Squishes them and then Christine drives on top of them . But that was never shown .

Dan Smith 27:58

Oh , okay , I was gonna say because the only one I remember is when Christine drives through the Bay of the car , the correct gas station .

Speaker 3 28:06

And that's the only .

Dan Smith 28:08

Yeah , that was the only little week with the dummy there .

Speaker 3 28:11

Yeah , but it wasn't that bad . I can almost point to Halloween . When he did that with Michael when he went , a car drove into him that was on fire , yes , and you're like that's a dummy .

Dan Smith 28:25

We mentioned One of the . You know Kevin Bacon had had been originally spotted to be arny . Mm-hmm , do you know who was ? Who was up for the role for buddy ?

Speaker 3 28:39

I must , but I don't remember .

Dan Smith 28:41

Nick Cage .

Speaker 3 28:43

Yeah , I think I think he was for both roles . Oh , really , he read for both roles . Yeah , it's interesting yeah well , that would .

Dan Smith 28:50

That would make sense . But William Osterender is just like brilliant . Yeah , and he was just an age , he literally still has got the guns . He's hit him .

Speaker 3 29:00

I mean good lord If you look on on IMDB on his page yeah there's a short from this year 2023 . Yes , his buddy Reperton lives Uh-huh , so out . There is a two-minute short Of him playing buddy Reperton again .

Dan Smith 29:17

Oh , that's interesting because he's got like short kind of white hair and a goatee or whatever . But yeah , and he's Gordon , you would not recognize in a million years .

Speaker 3 29:27

I think he would as soon as he opens his voice . It's the same , so does he opens , his voice Opens his mouth . I should have said yeah , but no , I think he's still recognizable .

Dan Smith 29:37

He's just thinning on top .

Speaker 3 29:39

but Well , he's got no hair . Basically , Okay , that's a little harsh , but Well , I think he went for that look .

Dan Smith 29:47

Mike gonna get stalked by Christine after this episode of the O Brother podcast by Arnie . By Arnie , yeah .

Speaker 3 29:53

Keith Gordon will be over my shoulder . He's a director . Now he is , yeah , as is John Stockwell and a stockwell , yeah , as well .

Dan Smith 30:01

Yeah , they're both behind the camera now you know this . I was looking up the ratings . Metascore 57 , rotten Tomatoes , hazard it's 71% from the critics , 64 from the audience , which I feel like that's very , very low . It seems like the opposite , if anything , very low . Yeah , this is a really , as you said , it's a bold statement to make , especially when I'm surrounded by Halloween . Here , right To say that this is possibly could surpass , you know , halloween as your favorite .

Speaker 3 30:34

Carpenter film . Yes , it's really brilliant , and I love Escape from New York . I've always been a fan of Kurt Russell , ever since he used to be Disney's poster child , which I don't know . If you've seen any of those movies like the Computer who Wore Tennis Shoes , the World's Strongest man , though I grew up on that stuff , yeah yeah , well , yeah , I put it right up there at the top .

Dan Smith 30:57

You know , it's funny , the car is just so gorgeous . This car , yeah , and there was about 20 to 24 cars . They got that .

Speaker 3 31:08

they had a piece together 17 that were running Lived , two survived , one was given away as a contest . Yeah , and there's one still floating around the , you know , the horror con circuit , if you will , I think , and one last thing I want to say about the special effects is and we talked about the regeneration of the car yeah , the car is trashed . I mean , these guys really went to town literally had to do it in three takes because they got exhausted from swinging the .

Dan Smith 31:45

Sledge hammers and such Sledge hammers yeah .

Speaker 3 31:48

So when he says show me that's a sign for Christine to start regenerating , regenerating , yeah , and the way he shot it , it's real effects , it's not you know ?

Dan Smith 32:00

Well , yeah the guy , it was a hydraulics Right . They end up shooting it like in reverse .

Speaker 3 32:06

In reverse , Something Right and also , the camera is upside down Right Filming it , because the look of it makes the things pop better , right ? So again , that was not in the first cut of the film . Oh really , the regeneration was not in there and they talked about it and they said we need something special .

Dan Smith 32:32

OK , but before it got released . Yeah , yeah , yeah .

Speaker 3 32:34

Before it got released .

Dan Smith 32:35

Yeah , it was in the theater , but yeah , yeah , yeah .

Speaker 3 32:38

Their first cut . It's not in there , so for them to come up with that .

Dan Smith 32:43

It's just like nothing you've ever seen before , right , I put that up . Almost any of today's effects , yeah , it's just so fantastic .

Speaker 3 32:51

We talked about how Oppenheimer , how they used real effects , not CGI .

Dan Smith 32:57

Right . And go back to the basics , the fundamentals .

Speaker 3 33:00

You get paid off when you go back to the basics .

Dan Smith 33:03

It's interesting because there's an interview I saw with the carpenter , not necessarily considering this a horror film , but I certainly do .

Speaker 3 33:11

I mean it's fantastic , there is . You know , it takes over an hour and to get the first kill in , very different from the book .

Dan Smith 33:21

Well , and again that's another , just like with Halloween , his ability to create suspense , tension , detention . It's just , you know , you don't see that anymore . It's a slash and you know all this stuff now that we have Get right to the body count , you know . But this is a , this is a masterpiece to me .

Mike Smith 33:43

I absolutely love it .

Speaker 3 33:46

You know , on this side that's All of the Friday , the 13th movies in a box , oh , and on this side is all the Halloween's , including your favorite , for our favorites , I should say the first , the two zombie films . Oh , yeah , yeah so they're all there , including the most recent trilogy .

Dan Smith 34:06

I love the shot of Michael's face . They're appeared like it's funny , you have that and then Homer just disrupts the whole thing . It's just really .

Speaker 3 34:14

Homer ? I didn't think was in the . Can you get rid of Homer for Hell in the West ? Like it's just not killing joke . I have been killing yeah .

Dan Smith 34:22

The posters are great . Very timely to have a carpenter right at the center Right Of your display .

Speaker 3 34:29

I love the new Evening very prominently .

Dan Smith 34:33

The shining poster is wonderful , too Great .

Speaker 3 34:36

He hated that . Stephen King hated that . Can't tell you how much he hates that .

Dan Smith 34:41

Well , I'm not sure what his take is on Christine , but I love it so yeah , and here we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Christine .

Speaker 3 34:50

And if you haven't seen it , go see . This is one we expect people have by it .

Dan Smith 34:55

That's why we didn't even think about this is one you should own , which I , you know we both do , of course , right , listen , I stoked that we got the review of Christine and all be at 40 years on , but this is one that to me it's for those of you like you that saw it when it first came out I think it stands the test of time , without a doubt .

Speaker 3 35:14

Definitely . In fact , if anything , it gets better with age .

Dan Smith 35:18

Yeah , as does the two of us at the Oberoth Podcast . They can't think of a better way to go out on that note . But here's a cheers to John Carpenter for just a fantastic film , and , christine , I thoroughly

Cheers to John Carpenter

Dan Smith 35:31

enjoyed it .

Speaker 3 35:32

I still like it a lot , Michael . Well , it's just Absolutely .

Dan Smith 35:36

You know we still love you . Now we're going to get stalked by . You know , michael Myers , christine See , now I have the Christine Redd tonight , whereas you have .

Speaker 3 35:45

I'm dawning black .

Dan Smith 35:46

You're dawning the Arnie Black , as he when he got into his badass phase , the dark . All right , that's going to . That's going to do it for another episode of the Oberoth Podcast . But your host , dan Smith , long time he's always my brother from the same other , mike Smith , and we will see you next time .

Speaker 3 36:00

Boo everybody .