From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 8 11:55:40 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!news-peer.sprintlink.net!news-backup-east.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!192.220.250.21!netnews1.nw.verio.net!netnews.nwnet.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: turtonm@my-dejanews.com (Michael Turton) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: The Thing (1982) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 8 Oct 1998 05:13:43 GMT Organization: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion Lines: 71 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6vhhm7$173s$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer33.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 907823623 40060 (None) 140.142.17.38 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #14657 Keywords: author=turton X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer33.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:13852 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2120 The Thing (1982) (a.k.a John Carpenter's The Thing) Directed by John Carpenter. Starring Kurt Russell. Reviewed by Michael A. Turton (turton@cc.fy.edu.tw) Director John Carpenter once noted in an interview that he was puzzled by the the indifference of audiences to _The Thing_. In view of the cult status of so many of his films, the failure of _The Thing_ to find popularity is a bit of a mystery, all the more so since it features the same pairing of director and actor (Kurt Russell) that helped make _Escape from New York_ a cult classic. _The Thing_ is taken from one of the best SF short novels ever written, a Golden Age work by John Campbell entitled "Who Goes There?." There are some changes which in my view strengthen the storyline (surprising for a Hollywood script). The film is also a remake of an old (and now hokey) horror movie. The story takes place in an isolated antarctic research station. As the film begins, a dog shows up chased by a seeming madman in a helicopter. When the man accidently shoots one of the station personnel in an attempt to kill the dog, he is shot to death by one of the researchers. The dog wanders around the station for a few hours before being put in the kennel with the other dogs. When he is, strange things begin to happen. Meanwhile MacReady (Kurt Russell), the taciturn helicopter pilot, hops over to the madman's point of origin, a Norwegian research station. There he discovers that everyone is dead. Some of the bodies are bizarrely changed, others the result of bloodily painful suicide. Slowly, as the evidence comes in, MacReady learns that the Norwegians found an ancient spacecraft beneath the ice that contained an alien capable of assimilating and becoming any species, from dog to human. As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that not everyone at the research station is human anymore....... The story moves at a more leisurely pace than some of Carpenter's other tales, since the viewer needs more information to understand what is going on. Characters are boldly-drawn, just this side of being stereotypes, but MacReady, whose character screams Vietnam vet, is given an introspective side which doesn't quite save him from becoming the cliched hard-edged, gruff hero. The special effects are excellent and have held up well, although there are some fairly silly inconsistencies that are probably necessary to increase the horror factor. For example, people's bodies split open and the alien pops out a la the film _Alien_. Why? The alien is not _inside_ the person, the alien _is_ the person. The sound effects are wonderful, especially in the scene where one of the station personnel, fleeing the station during his "change," suddenly reveals he is an alien. Tiresomely, as in too many other movies, the horrifying aliens look like insects. Is there no other form they can take? Carpenter's direction is competent and the tension builds well, following the original story more or less faithfully in general right up to the end, where there is a radical departure. Unlike Campbell's original, in which the good guys win out by a nose, Carpenter's version is both bloodier and more ambiguous, requiring much more sacrifice. In that sense, the movie is more realistic than the original story. In my judgement, the changes Carpenter made in the plot make it a much stronger story. Additionally, the understated score by a veteran movie composer is a winner. Carpenter resists well the urge to Hollywoodize this classic. There is no love story here (no female characters), no redemptive ending and no blond-haired, blue-eyed people save the world. Instead, a bunch of relatively real people muddle their way through, fouling up right and left, led by a hero who is constantly off balance. _The Thing_ is one of my personal favorites. I give it 4 out of 5 stars. Always a solid rental choice. Copyright 1998 by Michael A. Turton -----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==---------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 2 16:31:47 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!newsfeed.xcom.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.wli.net!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.alt.net!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Jason Overbeck Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: The Thing (1982) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 28 Oct 1998 05:58:49 GMT Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Lines: 37 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <716bqp$1kss$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer12.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 909554329 54172 (None) 140.142.17.35 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #15018 Keywords: author=overbeck X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer12.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:14214 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2146 THE THING (1982) ***1/2 OF **** grade is B+ Don't want to see John Waters' Pecker than check out John Carpenter's Thing. That must be the ultimate control issue for directors, making others ask to see your joystick. If I ever make a film I'm sure I'll title it Jason Overbeck's Third Leg. Keeping with this train of thought did you know Roger Ebert said of John Carpenter's Thing, that "Teenagers can dare one another to watch." I'll leave that one alone. The Thing is a very effective movie, with scenes of shear suspense and moments of terror and disgust. It opened in 1982 with mixed reviews and now seems to be a minor classic. People will always remember the dogs and the open-up chest and that blood-test scene. They are perfectly set-up and delivered, you can smile at the nifty special effects and remember the good ole days before computer effects made lazy imaginations. Would any studio get away with a film like The Thing now? Hell no! Not with that ending, those violent scenes with animals and the general yuck feeling. The story has a group of scientists in isolated Antarctica being attacked by an alien that kills and replaces with a perfect clone. Who is and isn't infected? Who can tell, the isolation has drawn strange emotional states for all of these characters. Leading the pack is pilot (and antihero) MacReady (Kurt Russell) in a wacky-cool hat and a full beard. He is not unaffected by the isolation, he drinks too much and plays long games of chess on his computer, but when duty calls he takes command of the questionable group. Guessing who is and isn't The Thing is almost impossible, everyone seems to separate from each other and then look spooky. The result leaves you on the edge of your seat as they try to unmask the alien. The final answer leads you to feel that the screenwriter could have just picked a name from a hat. That doesn't matter much because this film is all execution and the execution is slick, sick and a little gross. It recalls John Carpenter's much better classic Halloween. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Nov 2 16:31:55 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!news.solace.mh.se!news.ecn.ou.edu!feed1.news.rcn.net!rcn!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Byron Hinson" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: The Thing (1982) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 2 Nov 1998 05:33:11 GMT Organization: UUNET WorldCom server (post doesn't reflect views of UUNET WorldCom) Lines: 102 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <71jg6n$1lui$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer14.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 909984791 55250 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #15072 Keywords: author=hinson X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer14.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:14277 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2154 I have been a long-time fan of all John Carpenter movies, yes even Big Trouble In Little China, but The Thing was the first Carpenter movie I ever saw. The moody lighting, great acting, special effects and music drew me into the film and it has remained one of my all time favourite movies ever since. This 'Collector's Edition' DVD not only comes with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, but also a whole bunch of special features. The Thing stars Kurt Russell in the role of MacReady, A.Wilford Brimley as Blair and Donald Moffat as Garry. Kurt Russell is excellent in the lead role of alcoholic MacReady, it is one of the few roles he has been really good in (Breakdown not included). The plot goes as follows..In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team (don't know what they were actually doing there in the first place) at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them. "The Thing" is a shapeshifter, and it can change to any organic form it likes. And its really, really hard to kill. Dr Blair gradually goes mad while calculating all of the possibilities for a take-over by such an alien lifeform. The remaining team members become weary of one another, as it is almost impossible to detect where the alien could be. The movie is excellent, John Carpenter manages to blend together the perfect amount of tension, action and gore, while not being as scary as Halloween. Now onto the actual DVD itself...The quality of the picture is wonderful, far, far higher in quality than I ever imagined it would be, if you have ever seen "The Thing" on TV or Video you really haven't seen it. The white, blue and red colours are stunning, as the movie is set in the Antarctic you'll see a lot of snow, ice and fire. The gorier parts of the movie stand out, Rob Bottin's special effects seem to be highly enhanced on this DVD. The soundtrack has been completely remastered in Dolby Surround 5.1 and is as expected amazing if you have the full speaker set-up. There isn't any of the usual noisy video or any out of place loud speech/music, everything is perfectly set-up. (Morricone's musical soundtrack is also on a hidden audio track of the disc; for those who'd like to access it From the main menu, go to Bonus Materials. Select the Terror Takes Shape documentary. Activate the Language Selection button. Press Music Score!) There are a number of bonus extras packed onto this DVD, they include an great documentary "The Thing: Terror Takes Shape" which features Carpenter, Russell, Cundey and many other members of the cast, they go into great detail explaining film, special effects etc. The running commentary is also well made, with Carpenter and Russell discussing all aspects of the movie and for once on a DVD, never boring you to death with pointless dribble. The DVD also includes various outtakes from "The Thing" and once you view them, I think you will be glad they never made it into the movie. There were a couple of things that disappointed me about the DVD, no 16X9 enhancements, and I would have also liked to see the script of the movie on the CD, but they can be forgiven. Overall....this is one of the best DVD's currently available, not only in terms of picture and sound quality, but also with the amount of added bonus features. "The Thing" - DVD Features Running Commentary with Kurt Russell and director John Carpenter. John Carpenter's THE THING: Terror Takes Shape, an 80-minute original documentary, featuring interviews with John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, special effects make-up designer Rob Bottin, legendary matte artist Albert Whitlock, plus many other members of the cast, crew and special effects team. Also Featuring: - Never-before-seen stop motion animation footage cut from the film. -Exclusive work-in-progress visual effects footage. -Behind-the-scenes location footage. --Original Theatrical trailer. --Outtakes from the film. --Behind-the-scenes photographs. --Storyboards and conceptual art. --Annotated production archive. --Hidden Musical Score Grades Sound - B Picture Quality - A Bonus Features - A Actual Movie - A Overall - A- -- Byron Hinson Microsoft MVP ActiveSci-Fi - http://www.activesci-fi.com ActiveWindows - http://www.activewin.com