Christine 1983 Dvd

[Melany Odeh]

Written by Bill Phillips and based on Stephen King's 1983 novel of the same name, the movie follows the changes in the lives of Arnie Cunningham, his friends, his family, and his teenage enemies after he buys a classic red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury named Christine, a car that seems to have a mind of its own and a jealous, possessive personality, which has a bad influence on Arnie.

Released in the United States on December 9, 1983, Christine received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $21 million at the box office. The film has since become a cult classic.[3] A remake from Sony Pictures and Blumhouse is in development.

In 1978 Rockbridge, California, nerdy high school senior Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham is bullied on the first day of school by classmate Buddy Repperton and his gang, who draws a switchblade on him; but Arnie's best friend Dennis Guilder intervenes and gets the attention of the auto shop teacher. He sends Buddy and his gang to the principal's office. Moochie Welch and Don Vandenberg, Buddy's two minions, are merely suspended; Buddy, however, is expelled.

Dennis confronts LeBay, who reveals that his late brother was also obsessed with Christine; that his five-year-old niece choked to death in the car; and that first his sister-in-law and later his brother both committed suicide in it. At night, Dennis breaks into the garage to inspect Christine, but when Christine's radio begins playing 1950s rock and roll music, he flees.

Arnie begins a relationship with a new student, Leigh Cabot, who had rejected all the other boys at school. While playing a football game, Dennis is stunned by the sight of Arnie and Leigh kissing in front of the now fully restored Christine, causing him to sustain a severe injury that permanently ends his football career.

One night, when Arnie and Leigh are attending a drive-in theater, Leigh expresses jealousy over Christine. While alone in the car, Leigh nearly chokes to death on a hamburger, as Christine briefly locks her doors to keep Arnie from saving her. After Arnie drives Leigh home, she vows to never get into his car again. Later that night, Buddy and his gang sneak into Darnell's garage and vandalize Christine. Arnie, angered by the destruction, breaks up with Leigh and assaults his father when he confronts him about Christine after dinner.

The next day, Arnie returns to the garage alone, and watches as Christine repairs herself. Over two evenings, the car kills Buddy and all his gang members, destroying his car and blowing up a gas station in the process. Christine drives away in flames and returns to Darnell's garage, where she crushes him to death against the steering wheel. By morning, Christine is back in perfect condition when the police find Darnell's body. State Police detective Rudy Junkins questions Arnie about the death of Darnell and one of Buddy's gang members, Moochie Welch; but the car's pristine condition and Arnie's alibi convince the detective he wasn't involved.

Leigh and Dennis conclude that Christine is responsible for Arnie's insanity. They plan to lure Christine to Darnell's Garage and smash her with a bulldozer, but Christine surprises them by getting there first, emerging from a pile of scrap metal after dark. Leigh flees on foot while Dennis battles Christine with the bulldozer. Arnie is now driving Christine, and in an attempt to run Leigh down Christine crashes into Darnell's office. Arnie is thrown through the windshield and impaled on a shard of glass. He reaches out to touch Christine's grille one last time, and Christine responds by playing "Pledging My Love" by Johnny Ace on her radio as Arnie dies.

Christine continues to attack, repairing herself more quickly than before until Dennis and Leigh corner her and flatten her with the bulldozer. The next day, Dennis, Leigh, and Junkins watch as the remains of Christine are crushed into a cube at a junkyard. Junkins congratulates the teens for stopping Christine, but they regret not being able to save Arnie. The sound of a 1950s rock and roll song spooks them briefly, but it proves to be coming from a boombox carried by a junkyard worker. Unnoticed by any of them, Christine's grill twitches slightly.

Producer Richard Kobritz had previously produced the 1979 miniseries Salem's Lot, also based on a Stephen King novel. Through producing the miniseries, Kobritz became acquainted with King, who sent him manuscripts of two of his novels, Cujo, and Christine.[4] Kobritz purchased the rights to Christine after finding himself attracted to the novel's "celebration of America's obsession with the motorcar."[4]

Kobritz's first choice for director was John Carpenter, who was initially unavailable owing to two projects: an adaptation of another King novel, Firestarter, and an adaptation of the 1980 Eric Van Lustbader novel The Ninja. However, production delays on these projects allowed Carpenter to accept the director position for Christine.[5] Kobritz and Carpenter had previously collaborated in the 1978 television film Someone's Watching Me!.[5] Bill Phillips was Carpenter's choice for writer and was brought on shortly after Carpenter arrived. Carpenter was also joined by special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast, who had previously worked with Carpenter in The Thing (1982).[5] According to Carpenter, Christine was not a film he had planned on directing, saying that he directed the film as "a job" as opposed to a "personal project."[6] He had previously directed The Thing, which had done poorly at the box office and led to critical backlash.[4] In retrospect, Carpenter stated that upon reading Christine, he felt that "It just wasn't very frightening. But it was something I needed to do at that time for my career."[6]

King's novel, the source material for Carpenter's film, made it clear that the car was possessed by the evil spirit of its previous owner, Roland D. LeBay, whereas the film version of the story shows that the evil spirit of the car manifested itself on the day it was built.[7] Other elements from the novel were altered for the film, particularly the execution of the death scenes, which the filmmakers opted for a more "cinematic approach."[8]

Initially, Columbia Pictures had wanted to cast Brooke Shields in the role of Leigh because of her publicity after the release of The Blue Lagoon (1981), and Scott Baio as Arnie.[4] The filmmakers declined the suggestion, opting to cast young actors who were still fairly unknown. Kevin Bacon auditioned for the role, but opted out when offered the lead in Footloose (1984).[4] Carpenter cast Keith Gordon in the role of Arnie after an audition in New York City; Gordon had some experience in film, and was also working in theater at the time; John Stockwell was cast at an audition in Los Angeles.[4]

Nineteen-year-old Alexandra Paul was cast in the film after an audition in New York City; according to Carpenter, Paul was an "untrained, young actress" at the time, but brought a "great quality" about the character of Leigh.[4] According to Paul, she had not read any of King's books or seen Carpenter's films, and read the novel in preparation.[4]

Christine was shot largely in Los Angeles, California, while the location for Darnell's garage was located in Santa Clarita.[8] Filming began in April 1983, mere days after the King novel had been published.[9] An abandoned furniture factory in Irwindale was used for the opening scene. The film's stunts were primarily completed by stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, who was behind the wheel of the car during the high-speed chase scenes, as well as the scene in which the car drives down a highway engulfed in flames.[8] During that scene, Leonard wore a Nomex firefighter's suit complete with breathing apparatus.

Alexandra Paul's identical twin sister Caroline Paul wrote that she and her sister pulled a prank during filming, sending Caroline on set in place of Alexandra without telling Carpenter that they had made the switch until after he had shot a scene. She wrote, "My highly skilled clutch-pushing actually made it into the movie."[10]

Total production for the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303, and they were difficult to find and expensive to buy at the time. In addition, the real-life Furys only came in one color, "Sandstone White" with a "Buckskin Beige" interior, seen on the other Furys on the assembly line during the initial scenes of the movie, though the car in King's novel was ordered with a red-and-white custom paint job.[12]

Originally, Carpenter had not planned to film the car's regeneration scenes, but gave special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast three weeks to devise a way for the car to rebuild itself. Arbogast and his team made rubber molds from one of the cars, including a whole front end. One of the cars was stripped of its engine to accommodate internally-mounted hydraulics that pulled the framework inward, crumpling the car, with the shot then run backwards in the final film.[8] Twenty-three cars were used in the film.[1] Initially sold as scrap metal after filming ended, one of the best known surviving vehicles was eventually rescued from the junkyard and restored. It was subsequently bought by collector Bill Gibson of Pensacola, Florida.[13] One of the Christines was auctioned off at an auto-auction in Florida in January 2020.[14][15]

Roger Ebert gave the movie three out of four stars, saying: "By the end of the movie, Christine has developed such a formidable personality that we are actually taking sides during its duel with a bulldozer. This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower."[18] Janet Maslin of The New York Times gave the film a middling review, saying: "The early parts of the film are engaging and well acted, creating a believable high-school atmosphere. Unfortunately, the later part of the film is slow in developing, and it unfolds in predictable ways."[19] Variety gave the film a negative review, stating: "Christine seems like a retread. This time it's a fire-engine red, 1958 Plymouth Fury that's possessed by the Devil, and this deja-vu premise [from the novel by Stephen King] combined with the crazed-vehicle format, makes Christine appear pretty shop worn."[20] Time Out said of the film: "Carpenter and novelist Stephen King share not merely a taste for genre horror but a love of '50's teenage culture; and although set in the present, Christine reflects the second taste far more effectively than the first."[21] In 2023, John Carpenter reflected on the movie:

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