Firestarter (1984)

The Dino Di Laurentiis film festival continues here on Under the Tome. Admittedly he wasn't directly involved as a producer in this one (unlike The Dead Zone, Cat's Eye, and Maximum Overdrive, our previous feature presentations), electing to delegate to Frank Capra.....Jr. However, Firestarter fits very nicely into the sequence of these movies, which I think are best described as mediocre films with underachieving casts. It is pretty impressive that they managed to squander the talents of Drew Barrymore (fresh off E.T.!), Martin Sheen, and George C. Scott, and even more impressive that they attracted these actors in the first place. I suppose they were doing two-film deals with Martin Sheen, who is following up his turn in The Dead Zone, while Drew Barrymore returns in Cat's Eye. If those movies were really good, I suppose we could chalk this one up to contractual obligations. As for George C. Scott playing "evil Indian" John Rainbird, I've got nothing (actually, keep reading). This is also where the director chair falls into no-name territory in Dino's world. Mark Lester would go on to direct Commando the following year, but really didn't have much of a C.V. coming into this movie. Future directors Lewis Teague and Stephen King himself didn't do anything to reverse this trend, making it all the stranger that a director like David Cronenberg was ever involved in these projects.

In relation to everything I've watched so far for this project (Dino or no Dino), this one is actually mostly faithful to its novel. However this is not a ten-hour movie, so some things had to be cut, and that's where I think the movie hurt itself. Obviously the back story had to be boiled off, and that decision was fine, but it seemed like the dark humor of the novel was also left on the cutting room floor. For example, Andy doesn't get to use his powers of suggestion to make people ignore a screaming blind government agent, make a scientist stick his arm in a garbage disposal while wearing women's clothes, or make Captain Hollister become completely OCD about golf and snakes. Losing these elements made the movie much drearier than it could have been. Finally, probably also in the interest of staying compatible with the under-two-hour running time, the movie dumps the book's drawn out pacing. For example, instead of Charlie and Andy hanging out at the cabin all winter long, they get sussed out almost immediately. If any time passed at the Shop they made no effort to indicate it, as David Keith didn't need to wear a fat suit to satisfy the book's way of indicating a passage of time.

Racial stuff aside, I have to credit George C. Scott for doing the best he could with this material. When John Rainbird fakes being nice, he really does a convincing job that he is this sensitive janitorial type that Charlie cannot resist. It's just too bad that he gets tripped up by curious production decisions, forcing him to be scared of the dark, but the place is completely lit up as if they put a night-vision goggle rig in front of the camera when filming. I mean, the point of the blackout is for everything to be completely dark to the point of not being able to see your hand in front of your face, right? I get the whole "conveniently located outdoor lights", "bright moonlight", or good old-fashioned "day for night" strategies when filming night scenes, but it is really hard to feel bad about somebody who is afraid of the dark with so much light on the set. Maybe Drew Barrymore could have lit a fire?