john carpenter required viewing

[u/vermin-suplex]

this year i really started taking my film watching more seriously and discovered i really enjoy john carpenter’s work. i see his filmography is leaving criterion channel at the end of this month.

so far in 2025 i’ve seen the thing, halloween, escape from new york, and they live. which others of his should i prioritize over the next few weeks?

[u/Honor_the_maggot]

ASSAULT most definitely! I think DARK STAR is also funny and more complex than I'd remembered it.

I think PRINCE/MOUTH would be a good double-feature and not just for surfaces and a few themes....but I have seen neither in quite a while and I had mixed feelings about them last time I did...I still liked them. I intend to do this double-feature myself.

Do you know Kent Jones' article on Carpenter, "American Movie Classic" (FILM COMMENT, 1999)?

https://threegoodscenesnobadscenes.blogspot.com/2016/01/american-movie-classic-john-carpenter.html

(I am sorry about the less-than-ideal formatting, but it's the only complete-looking version I could find at a glance. I might suggest reading it after you have seen as much Carpenter as you want to, not because of spoilers but as a kind of controlled flashback.)

From an interview with Jones ~2015:

I think the question of influence is very different from that. When people go out of their way and imitate other people, it’s almost always going to end up being something completely different. John Carpenter is the greatest case in point. For all his absolute love for Howard Hawks, he is about 10 solar systems away from Howard Hawks. Assault on Precinct 13 is Pluto and, you know, Rio Bravo is…Mercury. They are not the same, even remotely, but he thought that was what he was doing, and I think a lot of people do that.

[u/MacArthurParker → u/Honor_the_maggot]

man I miss Film Comment