4 ms·

OK, so I read it and I still don't know how it "nearly sabotaged John Carpenter's career"!

by e40 12y ago

badloginagain 12y ago
The article was fairly poorly written, I only got one line saying that the movie flopped because it released at the same time as E.T. I assume that jeopardized his career?
- SerpentJoe 12y ago
  > Running dog-Thing has earned its customized bass lurk, composed by Ennio Morricone, which, in fairness to your ears and mine, could be an expensive John Carpenter imitation. > Carpenter’s Thing, for its part, discouraged the future of dog whispering, if not mankind in general. Running dog-Thing was played by Jed, a half wolf that neither growled nor barked. Richard Masur, who played the station dog handler, remembers how Jed would just give you “that look” when he grew uncomfortable on the set. That Thing look. So watch Jed closely. Watch Jed pad down empty hallways. Jed nosing the door open, looking out of windows. Jed listening to Stevie Wonder. > In the film, Wilford Brimley’s Dr. Blair supposes this while performing an autopsy on Norwegian Two-faced Thing, his eraser head traveling directly from an astro-parasitic entity to his own bottom lip. A clear violation of Thing health code. > Rob Bottin, who played the ghost of a vengeful seagoing leper in The Fog, was in charge of special effects for The Thing. ... Bottin would do such a thorough job—literally ending up inside the Thing, for the finale—that he’d check himself into a hospital after the shoot completed. > Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if the Thing can retain the dream memories of those it absorbs, turning to Freaks and Geeks for answers. For it was the great leveler Millie Kentner who once cried, “Life is not that dog’s dream!” I was able to follow the author's meaning in parts but it's certainly challenging.
DanielBMarkham 12y ago
Agreed. Wow, what a terrible article. The writer's got voice. Good for him. Now tell me what you plan on saying and then say it. Don't tease me with one thing in a headline and then drag me through ten minutes of reading stream-of-consciousness. E-gads what a mess.
- acqq 12y ago
  I fully agree. It seems that the author is this guy: http://howtowreckanicebeach.com/?page_id=16 http://howtowreckanicebeach.com/?page_id=16 "a former columnist for The Wire, writes frequently about hip-hop and popular music." And I don't have the wish to compare his other writing with this.
jakejake 12y ago
I'm right there with you - I clicked thinking of hearing behind-the-scenes stories about how The Thing was over budget, behind schedule, having technical problems, etc. But instead the article was just a kinda rambling collection of thoughts about the movie (which it is a great movie).
- lobster_johnson 12y ago
  The "collector's edition" (DVD, not sure about BluRay) includes a really wonderful 83-minute documentary, "The Thing: Terror Takes Shape", about the making of the film, along with several other great extras, including a clip of the original ending. Highly recommended. Seems the whole film is on YouTube [1]. Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set. [1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=B48Yp00LitE https://youtube.com/watch?v=B48Yp00LitE [2] http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com
  - jakejake 12y ago
    cool, thanks for those links!
ebbv 12y ago
Yeah the article is terrible, but it does mention once; because it flopped. It flopped because it opened against E.T.
kt103099 12y ago
Misleading HN title. The actual title of the article is 'Dismembrance of the Thing’s Past'. Don't know where OP got the 'nearly sabotaged' career part.
- dang 12y ago
  Ouch, I don't know how we missed that all day. Sorry, everybody. Submitters: it's against the rules to rewrite titles, except when the original is misleading or linkbait. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (Submitted title was "“The Thing” – The film that nearly sabotaged John Carpenter’s career". We changed it to the doc title.)

OK, so I read it and I still don't know how it "nearly sabotaged John Carpenter's career"!

by e40 12y ago

OK, so I read it and I still don't know how it "nearly sabotaged John Carpenter's career"!

The article was fairly poorly written, I only got one line saying that the movie flopped because it released at the same time as E.T. I assume that jeopardized his career?

SerpentJoe 12y ago
> Running dog-Thing has earned its customized bass lurk, composed by Ennio Morricone, which, in fairness to your ears and mine, could be an expensive John Carpenter imitation. > Carpenter’s Thing, for its part, discouraged the future of dog whispering, if not mankind in general. Running dog-Thing was played by Jed, a half wolf that neither growled nor barked. Richard Masur, who played the station dog handler, remembers how Jed would just give you “that look” when he grew uncomfortable on the set. That Thing look. So watch Jed closely. Watch Jed pad down empty hallways. Jed nosing the door open, looking out of windows. Jed listening to Stevie Wonder. > In the film, Wilford Brimley’s Dr. Blair supposes this while performing an autopsy on Norwegian Two-faced Thing, his eraser head traveling directly from an astro-parasitic entity to his own bottom lip. A clear violation of Thing health code. > Rob Bottin, who played the ghost of a vengeful seagoing leper in The Fog, was in charge of special effects for The Thing. ... Bottin would do such a thorough job—literally ending up inside the Thing, for the finale—that he’d check himself into a hospital after the shoot completed. > Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if the Thing can retain the dream memories of those it absorbs, turning to Freaks and Geeks for answers. For it was the great leveler Millie Kentner who once cried, “Life is not that dog’s dream!” I was able to follow the author's meaning in parts but it's certainly challenging.

DanielBMarkham 12y ago

Agreed. Wow, what a terrible article. The writer's got voice. Good for him. Now tell me what you plan on saying and then say it. Don't tease me with one thing in a headline and then drag me through ten minutes of reading stream-of-consciousness. E-gads what a mess.

acqq 12y ago
I fully agree. It seems that the author is this guy: http://howtowreckanicebeach.com/?page_id=16 http://howtowreckanicebeach.com/?page_id=16 "a former columnist for The Wire, writes frequently about hip-hop and popular music." And I don't have the wish to compare his other writing with this.

jakejake 12y ago

I'm right there with you - I clicked thinking of hearing behind-the-scenes stories about how The Thing was over budget, behind schedule, having technical problems, etc. But instead the article was just a kinda rambling collection of thoughts about the movie (which it is a great movie).

lobster_johnson 12y ago
The "collector's edition" (DVD, not sure about BluRay) includes a really wonderful 83-minute documentary, "The Thing: Terror Takes Shape", about the making of the film, along with several other great extras, including a clip of the original ending. Highly recommended. Seems the whole film is on YouTube [1]. Also highly recommended is the site by one of the producers, Stuart Cohen [2]. It's a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes info, photos, rambling gossip and old-fashioned war stories from the set. [1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=B48Yp00LitE https://youtube.com/watch?v=B48Yp00LitE [2] http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com
- jakejake 12y ago
  cool, thanks for those links!

ebbv 12y ago

Yeah the article is terrible, but it does mention once; because it flopped. It flopped because it opened against E.T.

kt103099 12y ago

Misleading HN title. The actual title of the article is 'Dismembrance of the Thing’s Past'. Don't know where OP got the 'nearly sabotaged' career part.

dang 12y ago
Ouch, I don't know how we missed that all day. Sorry, everybody. Submitters: it's against the rules to rewrite titles, except when the original is misleading or linkbait. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (Submitted title was "“The Thing” – The film that nearly sabotaged John Carpenter’s career". We changed it to the doc title.)