John Carpenter names the greatest director of all time: “This is my own personal opinion”
John Carpenter is one of the legends of the horror genre, with seminal classics such as Halloween and The Thing changing the framework of cinema and the story tropes we associate with the creation of fear. Many consider him the pioneer of a new era of practical and visual effects, with a terrifyingly realistic threat that still holds up when comparing it to the films made now, coming across as incredibly realistic and ahead of their time in how they achieved this look.
While Carpenter has praised other horror directors for influencing his work, he has described one as the greatest filmmaker of all time, perhaps someone you might not expect.
The classical Hollywood era led to some of the most endearing and timeless films of all time, with the likes of Roman Holiday, An American in Paris and On The Waterfront being remembered for their sweeping romances and dazzling star quality. While Carpenter’s films bear no resemblance to this genre, the director described his love for one filmmaker from this era.
Howard Hawks was one of the great classical Hollywood directors, becoming known for his diverse filmography that spans from romantic comedies such as Bringing Up Baby, screwball comedies like His Girl Friday and noir crime thrillers like The Big Sleep. With a seamless style that allowed him to translate his voice across a number of genres, the director built a reputation as one of Hollywood’s greatest storytellers.
Hawks was initially employed as a screenwriter by Paramount to write storylines for the studio’s new films, working in pre-production throughout the silent era and transitioning to talking pictures. Through this, the director was able to build an incisive understanding of storytelling, which was beautifully translated to his own projects when helming them as the director.
While Hawks was not met with the same level of critical acclaim as his competitors, his work is crucial within this tumultuous period in Hollywood history, and he was later given an Honorary Award from the Academy. However, Carpenter has always listed Hawks as one of his favourites, saying, “This is my own personal opinion, I think Howard Hawks is maybe one of the greatest filmmakers because he’s made a great movie in every genre, and understands movies”.
Adding: “He made films with movie stars, and there were popular films that also expressed his… personal point of view, his personal feelings about something; his feelings about masculinity, about male and female relationships”.
His ability to adapt to each genre is something that few directors are able to do successfully, with each foray into uncharted territory being defined by new techniques that added his own stamp to the story. Carpenter expanded on this, explaining, “All throughout his movies, regardless of how studio-driven they were, they were his personal canvas to work on. That I admire a great deal, and also his invisible camera technique which was, in a sense, the technique of the thirties and forties when sound came in. The invisible technique was that you didn’t notice the camera in there, it was just in the right place, I always admired that. I think its deceptively simple – it’s hard to get that and to pull that off”.
