Assault on the System: The Nonconformist Cinema of John Carpenter: Standard Edition

A really good book on Carpenter. Meticulously researched, written very well, and a great overview of his films and career. A must read for any Carpenter or film enthusiast. Greatly enjoyed it, and learned a lot.

I wasn't sure what to expect from this, as the book kind of came out without much fanfare. However, I was very impressed with the book. Giving a very clear career overview of Carpenter, with excellent insights into his films and the making of them - it is the best book on Carpenter out there. With good analysis, it probes the films and how they echo the directors non conformist world view. I bought the B and W version which is perfectly fine - I didn't miss having colour pictures.

Extremely well researched , informative and simply a joy to read . Howarth is obviously a fan but that doesn’t stop him being critical when he needs to be ( Village Of The Dammed ugh )I thought I knew everything about Carpenter and his films but I was wrong . If you have even a passing interest in Carpenter you really need to get this , you won’t be disappointed

A great book about John Carpenter and his films.

This is the third book that I know of on John Carpenter and is more complete than the others, the first was out when he had a contract with Alive Films but the one movie that came out of that deal was They Live and the other came a few years later when he was still an active movie maker. As he has now not been as active, this is more complete than those two. This pretty much covers everything that John Carpenter has in, even his amateur shorts such as Sorcerer from Outer Space and Gorgo vs Godzilla and he points out that there isn't any evidence in the credits that John Carpenter directed most of The Resurrection of Broncho Billy, which is why it is not in the filmography. Still, Dark Star, Someone's Watching Me!, Elvis, and all of his better known movies are covered. Lots of pics, too.

Troy Howarth's Assault On The System: The Nonconformist Cinema of John Carpenter is a must-read for John Carpenter fans. Howarth takes us on a trip from Carpenter's childhood in Kentucky to his schooling out west, where the seeds of his unique approach to filmmaking began to germinate. From his earliest attempts to create within the confines of the medium of the moving picture to his successful involvement with 2018's revisit to HALLOWEEN and his career as a touring musician, its' safe to say that Howarth has left no stone unturned in Carpenter's career.Drawing on other resources that came before him, as well as his own knowledge and recent interviews with Keith Gordon, Sandy King Carpenter, and the Man himself, the book also features a number of photos and lobby cards (black and white in this Standard edition) that accentuate the tale and pad the book out to a substantial weight and size.No complaints here, but it is worth noting that Howarth's descriptions of Carpenter's film can not be defined as synopses; for readers who haven't seen some of the films detailed within, there are sure to be spoilers galore. To be fair, Howarth does often interject relevant information specific to spoilerific plot points, though a little light discretion where explicit plot detail isn't required would have been welcome. THAT being said, it's fair to say that purchasers of this book are likely to be intimately familiar with most, if not all of Carpenter's work.A handful of guest essays at the end of the book will likely be met with reactions from mildly interested to indifference, but the real treat follows with the aforementioned interviews between the author and John Carpenter, his wife and producer Sandy King Carpenter, and actor/Director Keith Gordon, as well as a previous interview with composer Alan Howarth.