John Carpenter claims the Coen brothers have a “third act problem”
John Carpenter is widely considered one of the masters of the horror genre, having succeeded with the likes of 1978’s Halloween and 1980’s The Fog. However, Carpenter has also gifted Hollywood with some admirable works in other genres. In terms of action, Carpenter created one of the best action heroes ever devised in the form of Snake Plissken from Escape from New York, while in sci-fi, Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing is considered a classic in the sci-fi horror hybrid genre.
Back in 2011, Carpenter was discussing the revival of the western genre with Rotten Tomatoes. However, he noted the reasons their popularity in Hollywood had decreased in the first place. Firstly, Carpenter claims that “television did it to death”. Offering more insight, he added: “And then, as brilliant as they were, the Italian Westerns parodied it to death. I remember seeing Once Upon A Time in the West, and it was a jaw-dropping movie. I couldn’t believe that movie.”
However, the success of Once Upon a Time in the West brought about, as Carpenter says, swathes of parodies and cheap imitations. “I mean, you can’t do a gunfight any better than Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. You cannot do it any better,” Carpenter said. “You cannot; there’s nothing you can do. You cannot do a revenge story — Bronson’s whole journey in that — any better. What are you going to do?”
Carpenter then noted that the question of the authenticity of western movies had arisen once more since the Coen brothers released their adaptation of Charles Portis’ 1968 novel True Grit in 2010. There had already been a film adaptation of the novel starring John Wayne, Kim Darby and Glen Campbell, released in 1969. Discussing which of the films he preferred, Carpenter said outright: “Oh, I prefer the original”.
He added: “I thought that they missed out on something the original had that they didn’t have. There’s great stuff in it, no doubt. But they did not have an emotional ending that resolved the relationship.”
Remarkably, Carpenter claims that the Coen brothers cannot finish their dramas correctly. “They have third-act problems,” he said before admitting, “I’m a guy who has third-act problems [too]; I’m familiar with it.” Naturally, the film’s ending is always difficult to get right, but it’s evident that Carpenter feels that the Coen Brothers rarely master their dramatic endings. However, the legendary director noted that the Coen brothers’ comedies “are unbelievable“.
He said: “A Serious Man? I cannot stop laughing at that film. That movie just put me away! It’s the craziest thing. I love that film. And they’re very nice people, too.”
