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In terms of appearance of the characters, Richard Dysart as Copper sporting a nose ring in 1982 certainly stunned me! I was completely unaware an alternate ending had been shot and am grateful it wasn’t used.
- Ian Dawe
- More Faithful to The Source Material Than The Original Film
- One of The Most Effective Cinematic Explorations of Paranoia
- Exceptional Use of Cast and Characters
- Underrated Upon Its Release, Now Seen as A Classic
- For Every E.T., We Need A Thing
- Symbolism
- Keith David Is A Badass
- Intentionally Ambiguous
- The Ending
- Ennio Morricone (and Carpenter’S) Musical Score
One of the biggest complaints of any filmic adaptation of a written work is that it's not faithful to the source material. While the Howard Hawks produced The Thing From Another World is a truly entertaining film, it only glosses over the details from Who Goes There, the acclaimed 1938 novella by John W. Campbell (under the pen name of Don Stuart)....
To elaborate on Carpenter’s use of elements from Who Goes There is to strike at the heart of the film: the psychological effects of paranoia, cabin fever, claustrophobia and isolation, and how they can destroy relationships with friends, co-workers, and even one’s own sense of self. This actually makes it the ideal companion piece with The Shining,...
The Thingfeatures a stellar ensemble, with no gratuitous or extraneous characters. By working in an isolated environment with a small cast, each person plays a deliberate part in the story. And by having a cast of such varied temperaments -- Kurt Russell's stoic and decisive helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady, fidgety communications officer Windows (Th...
Along with Blade Runner and Shawshank Redemption, The Thingis part of a long line of films that went from being poorly received upon its release to a reappraisal as a classic years later. You’ll find fewer examples of such an amazing turnaround in polarization. Upon its release in 1982, The Thing had a one-two punch of savage reviews and poor box o...
Speaking of E.T., there's an interesting and opposing parallel with Carpenter and Spielberg. Spielberg was the critical and commercial favorite for reasons that seem obvious now: his upbeat, more lighthearted stories were designed with wide audience appeal. If anything, Carpenter was actually more in-tune with Generation X, the first demographic to...
A film about the dangers hiding in plain sight offers a lot of subtext for studious moviegoers to analyze and discuss. One thing that stands about The Thing is that it's one of the few horror films with an all-male cast. As a result, it deals with the power struggle inherent in a male hierarchy(with MacReady being the clear alpha male). There's als...
Keith David is a revered character actor, known for his extensive use in voiceovers, his role in cult TV show Community, and his memorable appearances in films like Requiem For A Dream, There’s Something About Mary, and Carpenter’s They Live to name but a few. But his role in The Thing is perhaps his best-remembered, even if he didn't nab a majorit...
Most Hollywood tentpoles hammer viewers over the head with exposition so they don't get confused, but John Carpenter has never felt obligated to spell everything out in his films. And The Thingis quite bold in not telegraphing every plot point to the viewer. This applies to both the ending, which we'll touch upon shortly, and to the ambiguity of wh...
For those wanting tidy, happy endings, John Carpenter is not the director for you. He’s spent his entire career making films that end unresolved. But even he realized his ending for The Thing was risky: “I remember the studio wanted some market research screenings and after one I got up and talked to the audience... and there was one young gal who ...
Carpenter’s films have always been notable for his self-composed musical scores. His use of ominous minimalist synth-scapes are a huge part of their appeal. For The Thing he was able to employ someone else to do the compositional duties: legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone, famous for his work with Spaghetti Westerns like For A Few Dollars M...
- Michael Edward Taylor
As the quality of home video went from VHS (where I wasn't even sure it was a real detail) to DVD and then Blu-ray/4k BR, it went from being something we argued was actually in the movie (the VHS version was so fuzzy we weren't sure) to something easily confirmed: Richard Dysart's character Dr. Cooper, has a nose ring.
Case in point - I honestly had no idea Richard Dysart was wearing a nose ring in “The Thing”. Have loved The Thing since I was a kid. Grew up with it through the 80s and 90s. Have owned it on pretty much every media since VHS (including Laserdisc). Have seen it at least two dozen times in my life if not way more.
Apr 9, 2015 · Richard Dysart, a veteran stage and screen actor who played senior partner Leland McKenzie in the long-running TV courtroom drama "L.A. Law," has died after a long illness. He was 86.
I recently read an article that makes the "Red Scare" aspect of this film even more interesting. Although it's never said in the film, the backstory of Dr. Copper is that he is in fact a Russian spy. At least that was the backstory Richard Dysart came up with (the nose ring was his idea too) and Carpy didn't object.
Apr 10, 2015 · April 9, 2015. Richard Dysart, a character actor who specialized in lawyers, doctors and other authority figures — most notably Leland McKenzie, the founding partner of the law firm McKenzie ...
