Subject: Retrospective: The Thing (1982)

From: "Byron Hinson" <[email-masked]>
Date: 2 Nov 1998 05:33:11 GMT

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
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