Review of Christine (1987) by Gordon T — 25 May 2010

Do you "got" stuff or Does stuff "Got" You? The Preacher-man asks.

Arnie Cunningham's stuff's (namely his 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine) "got" him. The polytheistic spirit of Christine "got" the car and the car's "got" Arnie AND Christine's original owner George Lebay (I'm going to be mixing details from both the novel and the film here).

Essentially: do your possessions (like your cell phone and your laptop and Ipad) wield more control over your actions than you do? For instance, a cell phone will "make you" lose sleep or "cause you" to rear-end the car in front of you; a ruined family heirloom may "make you" cry, etc.

CHRISTINE "OWNS" Arnie, doesn't "OWN" Christine: Christine the possessing-spirit of a 1958 Plymouth Fury "tells" Arnie what to do and how to perceive things around him and turns Arnie Cunningham from a "nerdy-kid" to an accessory to six or seven homicides-.

In John Carpenter's film Arnie usually is in the car during the murdering and in the novel, Arnie's usually asleep or running illegal fireworks to King of Prussia, PA for Darnell the garage owner.

Even though Stephen King "puts-down" CHRISTINE as a novel, it remains one of my favorite books ever-Stephen King complains that he switches from first-person narration to third-person narration half-way through the novel and that Dennis, Arnie's best friend, is only half-alive (Dennis' life outside of Arnie never exists).

In ON WRITING Stephen King describes what life is like when the stuff you have controls you more than yourself. In the midst of his Cocaine and Alcohol addictions, Steven King says that he would be sitting (trying to write), behind his GIGANTIC mahogany desk like a captain on a voyage to nowhere . . .

With situations like Arnie's obsessive-relationship to Christine (an inanimate object) and Christine's obsession ne with Arnie, there seems to be no perceivable destiny for either of them except death-just like when Stephen King's wife confronted Steven about the cocaine and alcohol:

"If you don't stop ALL THIS SHIT, Steve" Tabitha King tells her husband, "You're not only going to kill whatever's left of your relationship with your family but you're going to end-up killing yourself as well. (I'm Paraphrasing a moment in On Writing by Stephen King.

(and of course all the [National Public Radio] NPR-listener-types never hear the truth in Stephen King 's prose and always say Stephen King's work is all full of crap; when Stephen King's ON WRITING was published COINCIDENTALLY some jive ass at my local book store put a timely reprinted copy of ON WRITING WELL next to Stephen King's ON WRITING. The tone of the gesture made me feel is though someone was implying that Stephen King only wrote but he didn't "write" "well.".

To "go on a little more:" My Literary Theory College Professor said that "Stephen King Books" have no "lasting-power" that in a generation or so Stephen King's books will be meaningless.

No; I say: the themes apparent in "Stephen King Books" will never lose meaning, if STEPHEN KING'S THE SHINING were written in 1480, it would be about a Haunted Castle named The Overlook "taking possession" of it's care-taker.

(Even though literary themes in THE SHINING, for instance--clearly derived from Robert Marasco's BURNT OFFERINGS where An Estate seduces its caretaker-and CHRISTINE both seem relegated and to depend on modern cultural constructs to bear any meaning, their themes of people assuming inanimate objects as gods of their lives is ageless-despite what the college professor says.

And the college professor who dissed "Stephen King Books" in front of class was . . . a total NPR (National Public Radio) fan: always talking about some topic he'd heard recently discussed on NPR.

And earlier, a politician's wife at a funeral said that STEPHEN KING was a "bullshit, sensationalistic writer".

I asked her about THE DEAD ZONE she said she read it, that THE DEAD ZONE was meaningless as well-but when I referred to specific moments in The Dead Zone novel, "Duncan's Wife" (whoever the heck "Duncan" is or was), acted like she'd never read THE DEAD ZONE in the first place yet insisted that THE DEAD ZONE was "sensationalistic bullshit.".

OKAY! My point is Christine as well as nearly everyone of Stephen King's novels are parabolic in nature: they allow "us" the reader [or the movie-viewer) to vicariously journey with characters like Arnie (in CHRISTINE), Johnny Smith (in THE DEAD ZONE), and Jack Torrence (In THE SHINING), even FATHER CALLAHAN in SALEM'S LOT and see their fatal flaws, to see crucial points along their paths where they stumble so that we can see more clearly potential stumbling blocks in the paths of our own lives.

After seeing what became of Arnie in Christine, we know to guard-ourselves against "obsessing" over cars; in the novel THE SHINING, Jack Torrence "teaches us" not to become too absorbed in our pursuits, and Father Callahan "teaches" us never to "travel with a 'faith-tank' that's too close to being empty to be of any use).

As hard to follow as what I wrote seems to be, understand that CHRISTINE is like a parable of the negative, even fatalistic effects of Obsession.

From 1983 to 2003, I'd only seen CHRISTINE in 1:33.1 aspect ratio. FINALLY in 2:35.1 aspect ratio we can see a lot of instances of "in-frame" humor John Carpenter used in his cinematography that was previously eliminated due to "poor video transfer".

And CHRISTINE the novel is VERY GOOD-there's A LOT more going-on in the novel than in the film. For instance, my favorite part of the book is when Arnie's "pushing" Christine along and Christine suddenly becomes immobile in front of a guys house in Suburban Pittsburgh.

The guy comes out yelling at Arnie and Dennis who stopped behind Arnie, "If you guys don't move that shit heap away from my yard I'm going to Bang-Shang-a-Lang You both!!!!".

Bang Shan-a-ling refers to noises Dion and the Belmonts used to make in their old songs of the 1950s (as Christine is a 1958 PLYMOUTH).

Also, Arnie Cunningham's name is a conflagration of ARNOLD'S RESTAURANT (in HAPPY DAYS tv-show) and RICHIE CUNNINGHAM's surname from HAPPY DAYS . . . .

(Steven King says he wrote CHRISTINE while "encamped" in Pittsburgh, PA during the filming of CREEPSHOW. CREEPSHOW is about 1950s comic books and CHRISTINE is about a 1958 PLYMOUTH, Stephen King even dedicates CHRISTINE to "George and Christine Forrest (i.e. George A. Romero and Christine Forrest Romero).

(if anyone of you read this reaction all the way to the end, I give you a very dear and earnest "Thank You" very much for reading).