dmcmaster-2

I watched this just because the name "Reasonin' Bates" struck me as hilarious. It does have decent plot, and the fashions, both cultural and physical, are interesting to watch. The direction is slowly paced, with long pauses (perhaps for audience reaction?) that seem unnecessary. Not like today where a moment of silence is simply not permitted. How Hoot Gibson gained any credence as an actor I'll never know--another glimpse into the standards at that time I guess. The bit players must have been gathered from the neighborhood bars, quite a collection of bizarre cowboy types. Also poignant is the treatment of the woman--a mixture of deference, embarrassment, resentment, and curiosity--as though women were a strange sort of being beyond understanding. And everyone is skinny.

Not a bad film.

Everyone's seen this movie--a great concept, that of a car imbued with evil intent. Carpenter's direction is so (typically) lousy that it makes the movie a parody of itself. The people in the film rarely act even remotely as real people would under the circumstances (accounting for "suspension of disbelief" that is assumed to accept the premise)---the protagonists are often seen standing around waiting for Christine to do her thing, rather than reacting as any normal person would, and it becomes --- well, boring, because you wait with them. The camera lingers WAY too long on faces that are supposed to reflect horror, and you find yourself thinking "C'mon, get with it". This movie would be a good one for a course on how not to direct.