Movie Thread

[Lindsay's Liver]

John Carpenter's movies up to 1988 are all winners. I have good things to say about all of them.

"Big Trouble in Little China" is my sentimental favorite. We wore that out on VHS when I was a kid and I still love it now. I think it's his most outrageous and funniest movie.

Carpenter is a filmmaker who benefited a LOT from the advent of HD television and being able to see films in widescreen in your home. When I was a budding young film snob, Carpenter got very little respect as an artist. He wasn't HATED, but wasn't taken seriously. Carpenter's name was not on the table in discussions about interesting filmmakers back in the 90s. He just didn't come up.

Now though, we have home video formats that can do "Escape to New York" and "The Thing" justice as beautifully shot and composed films. You can analyze their economy of storytelling and how they make suspense happen in widescreen imagery where danger can pop up in any corner of the frame or deep into the background of it.

For film dorks of my generation, we enjoyed John Carpenter movies, but we also saw them sliced down to square boxes for VHS and TV. HD was a revelation. And now we revere him.