It probably comes as no surprise if I tell you that Stephen King is favorite modern author. This has little to do with the fact that he is known primarily as a horror writer, but more so the fact that he has a writing style quite unlike anyone else’s and has a way of painting a psychological profile of characters he has no way of ever truly experiencing. If his character is a woman, she thinks like woman. If the character is a dog, it thinks as we might believe it could. Even if the character is a car, we undoubtedly and inherently ‘know’ what it is thinking by the way King describes it. I’ve read every book of his I could get my hands on (even the online first part of “The Plant”, of which I’m tapping my fingers in anticipation of its continuation…), and have rarely been disappointed. The movies that have been made of some of his works are another thing altogether. Some of them are downright awful, either due to the cheapness of the production or the fact that his work is just so hard to re-create on film.

However, there are some that rise above all other films and attain a level of greatness that almost matches the original book. “Shawshank Redemption” (which was robbed of a Best Picture Academy Award), “Stand By Me” and “Misery” come to mind, but there are others to be sure. But then there is a whole bunch that hit that middle ground. They’re good, but not great. Enjoyable, but not necessarily classic.

1983’s “Christine”, falls right into that category. It was directed by John Carpenter, whose filmography suffers from the same problem. Some of his films are outright fantastic, while others are ‘bleah.’ This is one of his better efforts to be sure. “Christine” is a bizarre love story between a boy and his gir… I mean… car. And let me tell you this car is a beauty, to be sure. She is a 1958 red and white Plymouth Fury, and I would trade any car on the road today to have one. This particular Fury catches the eye of 17 year old Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon), and even though she is a complete wreck, he is determined to have her. The problem is there is more to Christine than meets the eye. She has quite the jaded history and if anyone tries to come between Arnie, they have to deal with her.

While I don’t love “Christine” (the movie, not the car… I love the car…), I still like it a lot. It was as good an adaptation as I think was possible considering the original material. Carpenter did a fairly good job of remaining true to the book. He did make minor changes, but none that were especially troublesome. (Unlike the film version of “Cujo”… the kid DIED for God’s sake…Grrr…). What worked for me was the casting and some of the terrific visuals. I thought Keith Gordon did a great job as Arnie. Watching him go from geek to good-looking was believable without going over the top. John Stockwell starred as Dennis, Arnie’s best friend and Christine’s worst critic, while Alexandra Paul……………………………………………………………. uhhh…. sorry I went into a bit of a daydream there. Ahem, Alexandra Paul………….. dang it! I did it again. How about I skip her name and just tell you she played Leigh, Christine’s competition.

This new widescreen edition does justice to the great visuals; I just wish a little more time had been spent on the audio portion. The film sounds good, but again not great. The scenes of Christine ‘repairing’ herself’ looks fantastic, as does the shot of her at night and on fire as she runs down one of Arnie’s enemies.

Even better is the fact that Sony / Columbia Tristar took the time to put together some extra features for this otherwise overlooked King feature. First up is a commentary by Carpenter and Gordon, and though it is a fairly informative one, it isn’t very lively. There are also 20 (count ’em 20) deleted scenes, most of which were very interesting, but it was easy to see why they were cut. Where the disc really delivers is in its three featurettes. The first is “Fast and Furious”, which runs just under 30 minutes, and is no less than a mini-documentary of the production. It’s full of new interviews with the cast and crew, and has a lot of behind the scenes pictures and footage. The second, “Finish Line”, is only 7 minutes long, but it focuses on the actual release of the movie. This is followed by “Ignition”, which at 12 minutes actually has a lot of information on how the production came to be. All three featurettes offer up these new interviews, but oddly enough there is no interview footage of King. I kind of wonder why.

“Christine” is definitely one of the better ‘middle-ground’ King movies and if you’re at all a fan of King or Carpenter, the extra features alone make this a worthwhile addition to your collection.

Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, Harry Dean Stanton
Extras: Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Keith Gordon, Filmographies, 20 Deleted and Alternate Scenes, 3 Exclusive New Featurettes
Specifications: Widescreen (2.35:1), English Dolby Surround
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 9/28/2004
Region 1
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give Christine a B+.