Character Spotlight: Christine, Part One

 

Autumn red, take warning!

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1.HISTORY

I have a confession: besides his past articles for Entertainment Weekly, I never once read anything by Stephen King. Reason? I just haven't had the chance to read anything he wrote. Christine is the first work of his I read, but it wasn’t the book that got me interested in the story. I saw the John Carpenter film adaptation some years ago. I’m not recalling how that came about... I believe I was channel surfing and the movie came on the screen. I watched the film’s final act, and while I did enjoy parts of that act, I didn't think much of the film besides that. 

And then I became convinced she was following me around. What I mean by that is in some locations where I traveled, as I was attending school at that time, I would see reminders of her, like toy cars or real cars resembling her build, that at the time, kind of freaked me out. It was as though once I saw the film, she would not leave me alone. 

I look back now and I laugh at how silly I was to believe that, but I did eventually watch the whole movie and then read the book. And now, here I am writing about Christine!

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2. THE CAR OF THE HOUR

There is no Fury like a 1958 Plymouth. And one who can drive and repair herself? That would save a lot of money lol. I think what drew me to this character is honestly the fact that she’s a 1950s’ car, and I do love vintage-styled cars. They have unique builds and you can see them in an array of colors. Kind of a shallow reason, but that’s the truth. 

But as for her actions…well, she is a villain and we’re not supposed to like what she does: running people over, choking them to death, crushing them, mocking them with her music and other evil stuff. So why is this post dedicated to her then? She’s a different type of antagonist. She’s not a human being; she’s a vehicle that was made by human hands so the fault lies with humanity there (as far as we know anyway).

It's hinted in the book that some darker power was responsible for bringing her to life which again, is, in part, thanks to human error and irresponsibility. We can thank LeBay for that. I much rather prefer the film’s take: she was deemed a sentient bad to the bone car from the day she first rolled off the assembly line for reasons unknown. I feel that’s more terrifying. A machine with a mind of her own and we don't know why? I would be scared if an angry car with a mind all her own chased me!

One important component about her anger to note is her fury can come from mistreatment towards her or whomever her owner is at the time. In the beginning of the film, she goes ballistic when one of the auto workers at the plant sits behinds the wheel and drops part of a cigarette onto the seat. What happens next? Well the guy won’t have to worry about working there again, let’s put it that way. And when she attaches herself to Arnie later on, she goes around whacking the bullies who tormented him or because they tormented her. In the book, it was said that LeBay's fury carried over into Christine, so it's probable on some level, she does have a gift for empathy for those who care for her. Hence why she attacked Buddy and his pals because of how much Arnie suffered and she suffered. 

In some of these examples, we can also see that she likes to stay clean, and hates it when she's used as a makeshift garbage can. And as she's a vintage car, who wouldn't want be showroom new? She's fussy about her appearance because of that. However, when it comes to whomever she's with, I don't think she minds as much because she trusts them enough to take care of her. And anything they say goes with her, as long as it's within her ballpark. There were a few cases where Arnie brought Dennis and Leigh inside Christine (that sounds SO weird) at different times, and Christine did not intervene all that much with whatever Arnie and his friends were doing.

Well, except she tried to kill Leigh while she was alone within Christine's interiors, but that was part of her jealousy. If she sees a girl interacting with her guy, she will deem the other woman as a threat and do whatever it takes to keep her away from her man. But in Dennis' case, she did acknowledge the friendship between him and Arnie, as she does see that Dennis is loyal to Arnie and tried his best to look out for him. In the movie, she didn't do anything to harm Dennis - all she did to him was just scare him with music when he tried to investigate what was going on in the garage.

And when Arnie and Dennis went for a ride for New Year's, Dennis drank beer, and tried desperately to warn Arnie about Christine's true nature, Christine kept to herself. Although that means she knows Dennis can't really do much to help Arnie since the latter's pretty much caught in her grasp, and Arnie still deemed Dennis important to him. (...Except apparently in a deleted scene where Arnie sees Dennis and Leigh kissing, he flips his lid and I guess ends his friendship with Dennis, but Christine, for her part, stays mum about the whole thing.)

If she has something she wants to shout to the heavens or to you, she doesn't pull off a Cars move where she talks - she'll use her radio and parts to communicate, which I feel is a unique method for her. I personally think the fact she's a silent character adds to her deadly factor; if she's completely quiet, we can't figure out what she's up to. She'll just... well, Arnie does this better than I can, but I'll paraphrase it: 'show us'. And anyone who knows me knows that I love writing for silent characters, so I think my bias might be at play here lol.

It's also a good idea to not bash her love of 1950s/early 1960s music, especially rock 'n roll. She was born in the '50s, she will speak the language of the '50s. I find it hard to believe that she would willingly adapt to modern music. She'll play them if the owner can tune into the right frequency, but then she'll go right back to playing her favorite tunes without warning. Probably best to let her be the boss of the radio. 

She can also be determined, thanks to her fury fueling her. If she feels like she must do something, she. Does. Not. Stop. She wouldn't even let fire keep her from completing her goal, for goodness' sake!  Which is why it's probably a good idea to not get on her bad side at all. She will find you. 

Surprisingly, she also has a puckish sense of humor. I take it that she has a way of messing with others if they're too curious for their own good or if she can't hurt them in any way. Trolling them with songs is a good way to throw them for a loop. That displays a streak of cunning on her part: if she's in a position where she can't do much or she sees no reason to hurt someone when they haven't excessively tormented her or her owner, she'll try to take care of the situation through sneaky methods that can't be traced back to her. I mean, c'mon, if a friend told you that a Plymouth Fury was going around making his or her life miserable, wouldn't you look at them like they were from Mars?   

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3. DEPICTIONS/QUESTIONS

This is going to be tough as she’s a car and the amount of Christine fanfiction to read is minuscule. But It’s also difficult because the fanbase is, as far as my experience with it is concerned, kind of remote unless you’re a car person, film person or horror film buff. While there are active fan groups who love the book and/or film, Christine is not going to automatically be the top point of discussion you would find the average viewer or reader talking about these days as opposed to Back to the Future or Ghostbusters. Those two films - especially the cars - have made it into pop culture whereas Christine is a cult classic, although maybe by now - and partly because she is a Stephen King creation - she’s made it into the former. It’s kind of hard to tell sometimes. 

But I'll give it a shot. Here we go: 

*"She's not a Fury, she's a Belvedere!": In the defense of this point, I do understand that it's good to point out that the film version of Christine wasn't always a Fury. In some shots, they used other Plymouth models, such as the Belvedere and Savoy (and I think other models if memory serves), to portray the car. But movie cars are like actors: sometimes if you see an actor who can do the job well in spite of what the original script called for, you gotta pick with what will work best for the film.  

*'Book Vs. Movie': Both provide unique interpretations of the story. I like some bits of the book more than some parts in the movie, and vice versa. It all depends on taste. 

*"The color's wrong for a Fury": Yeah, apparently some folks have taken an issue with the red color. In real life, in the year 1958, Plymouth Furies only came in beige and gold. But the book remedies this by stating that her red color was a custom job. This was more of a storytelling choice on behalf of Stephen King's part; what color best represents fury in some circles? Red. Not sure why he specified it as autumn red, though.

*'Her dialogue': In some fan tales, Christine is... not really in-character a lot of the time. Actually, I take that back; she is, but her dialogue doesn't quite match the sultry femme fatale-like 'voice' she used in the original book. In the book, she had the ability to send out... I guess, they're telepathic vibes or emotions of some sort, that would make it seem like she was addressing someone even though she truly wasn't talking. And instead of writing her like she's a 1950s dame with a dark side, I see in some stories that she speaks almost like a...modern day teenager in some instances?

If she's from the 1950s, she will probably talk like she's from that decade. She doesn't have to speak like she came off the set of Leave It to Beaver, but she shouldn't talk like she rolled off the Clueless movie set either, unless there was a good reason to explain why she would suddenly develop a new vernacular. I was guilty of this myself when I first started writing Christine drabbles, and am aiming to remedy that now that I have read the book and I have a greater knowledge of what she would sound like if she actually said a word. 

*'Creepy stuff': By creepy, I don't mean the stuff Christine does (well, even if it's terrifying). What I mean is... um, I'll just say I discovered some fanfic titles and summaries that take the relationship between Arnie and Christine to bizarre levels. You can ask me in private what I found, but I will not utter their existences here. 

 But I will utter what is to come next in the second part to this post--the usual inspirations, future goals and headcanons! 

Wanderer out!