Works of Art - John Carpenter Film Posters

During my friend J.D.'s extraordinary John Carpenter Week @ RADIATOR HEAVEN, there have been remarkable contributions by a number of gifted writers and bloggers from all around for this event. Included among their outstanding words, opinions, and insights that have examined the work of this singular director, contributors have amassed some beautiful and often striking stills and screenshots that span Carpenter's filmography. Though studios and producers have a lot of say in selecting the artwork for distribution and publicity, John Carpenter's films have received some stunning graphics to help promote his work through the decades. Here, then, are some of my favorites among the various poster artwork developed (by talented graphic designers) for the man's films.

This post has been updated and moved to my current blog, which can be found here.

Celebrating the Escape Artist - John Carpenter

Note: this is my contribution to movie blogger (and good friend) J.D.'s John Carpenter Week @ RADIATOR HEAVEN. If you are a John Carpenter fan, or simply an admirer of cinema, don't miss the great content J.D. will have on hand this week.

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Last month, the good folks at American Cinematheque Los Angeles paid tribute to one of my absolute favorite directors with a three-day celebration of his films. Obviously, they must have known about the upcoming John Carpenter Week my good friend J.D. was landing this week over at his brilliant movie blog, RADIATOR HEAVEN.  Here's how that viewer supported, non-profit moving picture organization describes this director:

"For the past four decades, director John Carpenter has created some of the most consistently entertaining and brilliantly crafted films in American cinema, from his savage urban western ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, through his chiller HALLOWEEN and his adrenaline-fueled action epic ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Carpenter’s films have shown an amazing consistency, creating wickedly modern twists on traditional genres (THE THING) without losing playfulness or individuality. As his career has progressed, Carpenter has shown the range of a classical studio director, helming not only action and horror films but love stories (STARMAN) and even a philosophical comedy (MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN). Yet for all his old-school craftsmanship, Carpenter is first and foremost a maverick with a fiercely independent sensibility and a willingness to confront contemporary America's most troubling social and political issues. In addition to his work as a director, Carpenter has written the screenplays and composed the soundtrack music for almost all of his movies."

The September 17-19th weekend celebration (American Cinematheque's second such observance for the director; the first occurred in 2008) included a rich and wide collection of Carpenter films at their renovated flagship location, The Egyptian Theatre. That Saturday bill of Big Trouble in Little China and They Live surely entertained the faithful, and the director's seminal pair of The Thing and Halloween must have closed out Sunday's showing in high style. As much as I wanted to attend each session of the tribute, family obligations would allow only one night at this. That meant only one option for me. I was going to Friday's Escape From New York and Escape From L.A. double feature because J.C. himself was going to be there for the discussion. Here are the highlights from that special evening.

In Prep for John Carpenter Week

Besides having my son turn 15 that month, the other event I'm looking forward to in October is the blogathon for a favorite director of mine. My good friend J.D. over at RADIATOR HEAVEN will be celebrating John Carpenter Week October 3 - 9, 2010.

So, feeling pretty inspired by all of this I acquired two films by Carpenter I've been looking forward to. The first is a copy of the film which initially started my appreciation for the talents of one of the most underrated actors I know. The performer is Kurt Russell, and the film is the 1979 TV movie by John Carpenter, Elvis (finally out this year in DVD):

The second film, at first, you'd suspect would already be in my library of discs... and it is. Starman came out in 1984 and starred Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen (another pair of favorites). However, for the U.S. market, each and every disc released (including last year's version in Blu-ray Disc) has basically sucked when it came to extras and special features. In other words, they're pretty barebones (and sometimes badly cropped). So, I recently picked up the Region 2 disc from the U.K. for the upcoming occasion:

It offers the proper widescreen aspect ratio (2.35:1), the trailer, music video, a featurette, and a commentary track that includes John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges discussing the film. Take that, Sony U.S.! I swear, it pays to have a region-free disc player ;-).

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