The Thing

xpost yeah contenderizer despite my ranting I didn't really HATE it, but it got really boring really quickly.

but I also don't want to be placated by the fact that it didn't out-and-out suck. Mediocrity is still unacceptable, lol.

Problem with genre entertainment as a whole; too easy to focus on the genre trappings as those are the lowest hanging fruit and either miss or not care about characters or dialogue or plot or anything you can have an actual emotional connection to.

It's one of the reasons why I get irritated over friends online or elsewhere gushing about some upcoming flick cuz its got spaceships or superheroes or some shit in it.

Not that I'm substantially less gullible or susceptible to genre stuff(I'd get a kick out of someone doing a cyberpunk genre exercise or something), but by only going off the most superficial details means you can't tell the difference between, say, Brett Ratner's Xmen 3 and First Class, or even the 2nd Xmen flick.

you are so otm with all of what you just said, kingfish

I will *double* otm you :)

"uh guys we've still got 20 minutes of movie left to fill in, whaddya wanna do? I dunno. Show em inside the ship maybe?" So dumb.

Didn't this start with the re-release/re-edited Close Encounters: The Special Edition?

I haven't seen that version. Tell me they did not do that.

They did, but I want to say Spielberg considers it a mistake, like the walkie-talkie for guns swap and CGI E.T. in "E.T." He still did it, though.

Yeah, he did it under studio pressure because he was never happy with the film as released, and wanted to do some additional editing. His preferred cut is kind of a weird hybrid of the original and "special edition" edits minus the inside-the-ship stuff.

yuk

it's weird that he dissatisfied with the original cut/version/whatever. it was critically lauded and hugely popular at the time, certainly one of my favorite spielberg films.

I know, mine too!

the dvd/blu-ray has all of the various cuts btw so it's not like a star wars scenario

Yeah, ET, too, has both versions on it.

I think we have an old dvd editon, never upgraded to a blu-version

if you have the older dvd, then it's probably Spielberg's hybrid cut, which is pretty close to the original cut with some of the special edition scenes spliced in (minus the "inside the ship" scene).

iirc before the movie was on dvd the only version available for many years was the special edition.

and it made the same stupid mistake that Super 8 made in its shonky ending. I DON'T WANT TO SEE INSIDE THE SHIP if you don't know how to end the bloody movie. That's not an exciting thing that needs to happen if the story's pretty much over with. It's like, "uh guys we've still got 20 minutes of movie left to fill in, whaddya wanna do? I dunno. Show em inside the ship maybe?" So dumb.

I don't quite get this...? Super 8 never showed us the inside of the ship (since SPOILER! SPOILER! it literally ended with the ship being put together and flying away). The alien itself was only properly shown in the finale though, but that was necessary to establish the connection between it and the kid (since SPOILER! the big theme in the movie was forgiveness, and the connection between helped the alien to forgive the human race and move on), because in the end Super 8 wasn't a horror movie but an E.T. variation. I agree with your point in general, but I don't see how Super 8 is an example.

the most unrealistic part of this movie is that MacReady would waste both good liquor and his only friend/source of entertainment in the opening. although maybe he has a huge stockpile of booze and back-up Chess Wizard computers in his shack, wouldn't put it past him.

childs is such a fascinating and singular character. definitely holding the place of the "#2" in the film and meant to be on par w/macready in strength and conviction and technically an ally in the "action film" sense but also spending much of the film diametrically opposed to macready and his theories. i recognize this stems from the crushing paranoia of the film but in probably most other hands childs would be macready's bff and would stand fast with him every step of the way, and also he'd probably die 2/3rds of the way in.

in most other movies childs would be the first guy killed why because he's black

Both black guys in this movie last until the final reel, which is kind of amazing. Not to mention that there are two black guys to begin with.

also two jittery dudes
two assholes
two paranoid scientists

which is kind of amazing

it's def anamolous for the time

John Carpenter was always pretty good about giving prominent roles to women and non-white actors.

did the 'stoned/ hippie-ish/ paranoid-conspiracy guy with messy hair invariably wearing denim and maybe headphones' stereotype begin with this film? seems that character is in loads of sci-fi films after; notably The Abyss, Minority Report, the Solaris remake etc. is there a word for this 'type'? there should be. they all have shades of Oddball from Kelly's Heroes i suppose.

hiya

http://parallax-view.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/BeattyParallax.jpg

Silent Running is from 1972

The Crying of Lot 49 and the Illuminatus! trilogy are the literary antecedents, but I think Patient Zero for this is post-JFK assassination Lenny Bruce

those aren't really film referents

there was a solid Thing reference in the crossword i did today

I want to see a re-edited version of this from the alien's perspective. It's only our anthrocentrism that prevents us from seeing it as the protagonist doing its best to survive in a hostile world.

Read Peter Watts's award-winning short story 'The Things', which is free online... It does that very thing

Sweet, thanks!

Peter Watts! I'm reading Blindsight rn!

Excellent book

I want to see a re-edited version of this from the alien's perspective. It's only our anthrocentrism that prevents us from seeing it as the protagonist doing its best to survive in a hostile world.

― What's Your Definition of a Dirty Baby? (Old Lunch), Friday, June 3, 2016 7:59 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i feel like the alien franchise occasionally gives you an opportunity to imagine this, even if it doesn't recenter (or re-focalize, to use some jargon) the movie around the alien's subjectivity.

the thing is different, though, in that it leaves open the possiblity that one might simultaneously be the thing and 100% oneself. it only becomes a threat when we treat it as one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAoONl2P8fw

^best remake imo

Yeah, the Thing just wanted to be left alone to rebuild its spaceship and go home, right? And then these stupid humans keep showing up with flamethrowers, trying to fuck its shit up. It's like ET, if ET occasionally morphed into a horrific toothy monster. "Just let me go home!"

The Things read by Kate Baker.

A yearly tradition at the South Pole is the winter-over crew watching "The Thing" right after the last flight for the summer leaves. Here is a picture of the yearly showing in the gym #southpole #winter #Xenophobia #science pic.twitter.com/bI3DJoKprJ

— South Pole Telescope (@SPTelescope) February 26, 2018

I'm surprised they're watching the original there

Decided to watch the Carpenter Thing tonight, and decided it's flawless

there's a new The Thing board game, pretty fun!

Wow

Wait, is this a reaction to your first viewing? Will reserve my jealousy pending confirmation.

yes

36 years later and it still gets this reaction. I love it!

Fantastic. Officially jealous now.

A little tidbit of trivia I never tire of:

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Release date: June 11, 1982)
The Thing (Release date: June 25, 1982)

'Four for the movie about the alien, please. You kids are gonna love this!'

i stand by my "12 Angry Men" vs an alien thought upthread.

i read something online recently trying to speculate when and how those who became "things" actually did. I guess the shadow we see when the dog enters that room near the beginning is intended to be Palmer, but the audience isn't supposed to realize that. idk either way.

all i know is the dog in that scene is an incredible actor. goes to one door, stops, looks towards another door, walks slowly to the other door, pauses, then enters.

I guess the shadow we see when the dog enters that room near the beginning is intended to be Palmer

I don't think anything in the film gives a clear indication of who gets infected first, which is v deliberate

i had read something online from a producer who had said it was supposed to be Palmer originally and in fact had planned on using David Clennon, but his shadow was too identifiable. So they used another crew member. And as a result it's left pretty vague and works a lot better, of course. It's funny though bc i always thought the shadow looked like Charles Hallahan.