John Carpenter names his 10 favourite movies of all time: “Brilliant and inspiring”
Among the most influential genre filmmakers of the 20th century, John Carpenter has left his mark on horror and sci-fi, which will remain indelible for years to come. Ranging from the edge-of-the-seat thrill of Halloween to the cold and overwhelmingly bleak terror of The Thing, the American director has created a body of work that is simply unparalleled in many ways.
It’s not just his most famous works that have cemented their position in popular culture, but also many others, such as They Live, that continue to garner massive followings as the years go by. A major part of his contributions to the cinematic medium is also his work on the art of film scores, with his compositions inspiring many young artists to approach movie soundtracks in a certain way.
While his impact on modern cinema can be easily identified by fans, Carpenter also owes a huge debt to his predecessors which he is always ready to admit. During a recent conversation with Criterion, the Halloween filmmaker opened up about the pioneers who shaped his own journey and helped him realise the true potential of the art form.
Including two Billy Wilder gems on his list, Carpenter kicked things off with the brilliant 1944 noir Double Indemnity: “This is a legendary noir. I first saw it in the mid-1970s at a Billy Wilder festival in Los Angeles, alongside a number of his other films. I immediately fell in love with his directing style, especially in the early movies.”
Carpenter was obviously full of praise for all his selections, but he couldn’t help but gush when it came to Carol Reed’s 1949 magnum opus, The Third Man. Perhaps the greatest Orson Welles movie that he didn’t direct, it hits all the right notes to create the quintessential noir experience.
“You can’t get better than this movie. It’s essentially an international crime thriller, but it really has all the elements of a noir film,” Carpenter noted. “The chase scenes in the sewers of Vienna are astonishing, and the use of shadows is brilliant and inspiring. It’s just an incredible movie, and once I start watching it, I can’t stop—even though that zither drives me nuts.”
It wouldn’t be a John Carpenter list without a mention of Howard Hawks and the director didn’t fail to indulge us this time either. He commented: “Hawks has always been a big influence on me and my work, and Only Angels Have Wings is my favourite movie of all time. What do I love about it? Everything. If you sit down and watch it and you don’t love it, then you can just forget Howard Hawks. Everything about him as a filmmaker is here: the relationships between men and women, the adventure, the mystery, the pleasure.”
Check out the film below.
John Carpenter’s 10 favourite movies of all time
- Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
- The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
- The Killers (Robert Siodmak, 1946)
- Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
- Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939)
- Spellbound (Alfred Hitchcock, 1945)
- Rebecca (Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)
- Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)
- Ace in the Hole (Billy Wilder, 1951)
- Dead Ringers (David Cronenberg, 1988)
Including other notable noir entries, such as Robert Siodmak’s The Killers and Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly, it’s clear that Carpenter is a huge fan of the genre. However, he also acknowledged the work of his horror contemporary David Cronenberg by citing his strangely unsettling 1988 film Dead Ringers.
Even within all these great picks, one film that will always be special for Carpenter is another Wilder masterpiece – Ace in the Hole. The director explained: “What an incredible movie—and talk about a downer! It’s a treatise on human nature and a really tough movie, but it’s so great. Who could not be taken with Kirk Douglas in this? The real-life incident that Ace in the Hole was based on actually happened near where I grew up in Kentucky.”
