This is a Ca-Ca Carpenter Post

Recently, I've been a ghost.

A social ghost.

A social ghost who watches John Carpenter movies.

That's right-- I'm filling-in some gaps in my movie education and I'm watching John Carpenter movies that I haven't seen. So far, I've watched Assault on Precinct 13 (decent), Christine (slightly un-decent), Starman (un-decent), and Prince of Darkness (barely decent). I'm doing this for the sake of filling out a Ten-Quiz (basically a summary judgement) for the podcast Watching the Directors. WTD are doing an episode on Carpenter and I want to have seen the majority of his movies before I chime-in to Melissa and Joe Johnson.

Carpenter is definitely not one of the greats, but I'm fond of his movies. Even when his films are disappointing, they're still technically flawless and have good parts to them. Take, They Live, for instance. Most of TL is so-so... except for two great sequences and a great one-liner: the sequence in which Roddy Piper first sees the world with the alternate-reality sunglasses, the fight scene between Piper and Keith David (which was oh-so lovingly spoofed on South Park), and Piper pronouncing "I came here to kick ass and chew bubble-gum, and I'm all out of bubble-gum." Classic.

Yet, what's also interesting about Carpenter movies is that they often feature awkward profanity.

EXHIBIT A: In Christine, the term 'shitter' is said repeatedly.

(Before watching Christine, I had never really heard that word applied to anybody.)

EXHIBIT B: In Prince of Darkness, at one point a full-grown auxiliary character exclaims to another "this is all ca-ca," and when the other character walks away, he repeats to himself "ca-ca, I tell you."

(I've never heard a grown-up say 'ca-ca' in all seriousness. Maybe 'ca-ca' should make a vernacular comeback.)

I think these are instances of 'experimental' profanity and were probably added to make these movies more 'edgy.' But seriously-- how can Carpenter top himself in the profanity department when he once made Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken say "I don't give a fuck about your president!" That line is pure poetry!

I should really get to work on a brand-new podcast. After a couple of false starts, I think I know what to do next.

UPDATED 01/09/08: This blog post was featured on episode 35a of the great podcast Watching the Directors. It can be found here:

Watching the Directors: John Carpenter

Tags: movies, John Carpenter, profanity