Sorry, I was talking obsessively about a video game I mean playing many different video games, ha ha.
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So, so busy.
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This message is coming to you from the not too distant future. This movie will not be saved by the Holy Ghost. It will not be saved by the god Plutonium. In fact, IT CANNOT BE SAVED!
But it can be guiltily enjoyed, and I for one, am irrationally fond of it. But oh Lordy, it is not good. Even the mustache on the forgotten Simon from Simon and Simon just looks embarrassed most of the time. But my hat is off to you for attempting to will it to a better place.
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Needless to say, I was unsuccessful. I feel the same way about the Fog - it builds a great atmosphere and has some cool set pieces, but it’s marred by wooden performances and too many scenes which are blocked in what I call Soap Opera Style; just a locked medium to medium long shot with the characters arranged in a line in the same field. JC is a bit of a baffling director really; a real mix of intensely focused composition and what feels like an ‘it’ll do. Print it’ attitude. It’s more common in his higher budget films as well, so can’t be out down to time constraints.
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Totally agree, although calling John Carpenter’s performance as the church janitor “wooden” is an insult to wood everywhere. But if I am irrationally fond of Prince of Darkness, then I am in a long-term (if possibly abusive) relationship with The Fog. I disagree with nothing you said about the craftsmanship of the movie, but love is blind. I will watch that movie anytime, anywhere, and enjoy the heck out of it.
And I agree that JC isn’t much of an actor’s director, and his shot comp is not sophisticated, but I admire his ability to take a thin script, a thinner plot, and the thinnest of budgets, and spin a more compelling movie than most of his contemporaries. Personally, I would not want to live in a world without Big Trouble in Little China or his brilliant remake of The Thing.
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Ha!
I don’t mean to bag on John, I’m firmly in the ‘pro’ camp and have the same relationship with the Fog and PoD as you. I wish him many more years of Blazing 420, playing computer games and making perfectly acceptable music!
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No worries! Sorry if I came across as white knighting the man; wasn’t my intention. Just having a bit of fun chatting about some of his … uhm… less luminous work.
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Enjoy! It’s alright, didn’t change my opinion that the book is unfilmable but I reckon it’s as close as you can get.
I still like the Lynch version the best but I realise that is an objectively incorrect opinion. It’s just very near and dear to me.
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This new version is a fantastic adaptation of the book and I loved the hell out of it, and it’s one of the few movies that I’ve seen multiple times in theaters (and I’ll probably watch it again before the year’s end on Max). The first half of the book that’s shown in this is the easier part to film for sure. Even so, the pieces that are omitted would make a fair bit of difference in fleshing things out and I sincerely hope that there’s deleted scenes available once it hits shelves.
But that Lynch version, for all its many faults, is oozing with the kind of personality that I think a lot of us here can appreciate all the more for its badness. It isn’t a complete failure and there’s some great pieces to it but mostly I remember it for this tone of being so otherworldly that it doesn’t require as much worldbuilding because it’s so clearly so far from what we know.
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Yeah, I think that nails the appeal for me. I first saw it when I was really young, can’t have been much more than 8. Obviously hadn’t read the book (wouldn’t for another 30 years in fact!) and didn’t really have the critical faculties to pick up on the many narrative short comings. I just EXPERIENCED it, I suppose. And it blew my tiny mind.
So my love of it is at least in part a residual of that formative experience. But as a certified Grown Up and general David Lynch fan it feels very much like a Lynch film at its core. I think you can ‘what if’ it endlessly but ultimately he’d never have produced a faithful adaptation because the books themes are well outside his usual preoccupations. But the world of the book has more possibilities and that’s the stuff he honed in on.
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