Maximum Overdrive - King's Corner Review
Welcome to King's Corner. A recurring series of reviews based on the Film and TV adaptations of Stephen King's novels and collections, reviewed and released in order of the original source material publishing date.
Director: Stephen King
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Laura Harrington, Pat Hingle, Yeardley Smith, John Short
Written by: Stephen King
Produced by: Martha De Laurentiis, Dino De Laurentiis
Cinematography by: Armando Nannuzzi
Original Score by: AC/DC
Synopsis:
A group of people at a truck stop try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal.
Thoughts:
Two days prior to the release of 'Maximum Overdrive' in 1986, Stephen King gave an interview to the Gainsville Sun. In that interview he was asked what made him think he could direct a movie. He answered, "One of my editors, Bill Thompson, once said that 'Stephen King has a movie projector in his head.' He could be right. Whenever I write a scene, I always know left from right, what the depth perception is...I am interested in the kinetics of the world, which is why so many of my books have been adapted to the screen." There is no denying that his writing style has a cinematic quality but there is a vast difference between writing something cinematic and presenting it on film. In the famous trailer for the film where King stands in front of the famous Green Goblin truck with a deranged look in his eyes he says, "if you want something done right, you ought to do it yourself". He may not have made good on that statement but there is no denying that what he made was one of the most bizarrely fascinating adaptations of his work to date.
The film was based on King's 1973 story, 'Trucks' (which first featured in Cavalier magazine before being added to his 1978 short story collection, Night Shift). In the story a group of six people at a truck stop are under siege from a convoy of rampaging sentient trucks who will kill anyone who tries to escape. It is a really outlandish premise but King takes it and writes a lean tense story about the end of the world thanks to the machines we relied on to make our lives easier. It is a threat from an unknown origin where you feel the desperation of the characters lift right off the page before they contemplate a hopeless future where they are slaves to their new mechanical overlords. Whilst the film hit similar plot points to the story, tonally it was wildly different.
The story's journey to the big screen began when British filmmaker, Milton Subotsky (someone King wasn't a fan of) purchased the rights to a number of stories from the 'Night Shift' collection. He wanted to take the story 'Trucks' along with 'The Lawnmower Man' and 'The Mangler' to make an anthology film which would be called 'The Machines' but unable to secure financing and being caught in the middle of an unrelated lawsuit meant that he would sell the rights to Dino De Laurentiis, a man who was no stranger to King adaptations. By this stage in his career he had produced 'The Dead Zone' and 'Firestarter' with 'Silver Bullet' and 'Cat's Eye' (a film that King wrote the screenplay) also in production. In the Oral History of the film published on Slash, Dino's producing partner (and wife) Martha outlined how Stephen King got the directing gig for the film. He became close to De Laurentiis during the making of 'Cat's Eye' and he stayed with them during the production and post production of the film where they developed a mutual trust and admiration for each other. Whilst talking about 'Maximum Overdrive' Stephen asked Dino, "I want to direct." And Dino said to Stephen, "Why not? You should." which set the wheels in motion for the production.
Whilst the short story 'Trucks' is a pretty bleak one fraught with dread you would think any sort of adaptation of it would be along the lines of something like 'Duel' but that isn't the case with King's adaptation. With larger than life characters, chaotic set pieces and some severe lapses in logic, his adaptation of the story is much lighter in tone with streaks of black comedy. This stems from the opening scene which sees King in a cameo performance being called an asshole by an ATM. From here the thumping soundtrack from AC/DC kicks into gear with the song "Who Made Who" as a bascule bridge full of vehicles opens up on its own leading to pandemonium. Cars smash and people crash through wind screens as the body count starts to rise. It is a rousing opening scene that gives a false sense of hope to viewers thinking that moments like this can be sustained throughout the film. There are glimmers of it with the baseball kid being run over by a steamroller or an M60 laying waste to a diner full of survivors but it is not enough to sustain the film.
The majority of the action takes place at the Dixie Boy Truck Stop where we are introduced to the ragtag group of people forced to work together in the face of the ensuing Truckpocalypse led by the famous grinning Green Goblin truck. Leading the group is ex-convict Bill Thompson (Emilio Estevez) who becomes the de facto leader for the group. King initially eyed Bruce Springsteen for the role but De Laurentiis vetoed this in favour of Estevez claiming he didn't know who Springsteen was. In the heyday of his Brat Pack stardom (which saw Demi Moore and Tom Cruise visit the set) Estevez makes the most of the material and acquits himself well in the role with a gruff and rebellious charm. Opposite him is the drifter Brett (played by Laura Harrington) who instantly falls head over heels for Bill despite the world falling apart. Aside from her tough demeanour there isn't much to her character apart from the fact that she constantly praises Bill by referring to him as her "hero".
The rest of the cast seem to know exactly what kind of film they are in as there is the likes of the waitress Wanda (Ellen McElduff) whose manic energy peaks when she suffers a mental breakdown and screams at the trucks, "We made you!". There is also the recently married couple Connie and Curtis (played by Yeardley Smith and John Short respectively) who are quite the pair. Connie constantly berates her husband screeching his name while Curtis isn't afraid to be an open pervert with her. In any other film they would feel out of place but the world King creates means that they fit right in. There is also a young Giancarlo Esposito in a small role where he gets electrocuted by a video game machine in an arcade after shouting, "Yo Mama" at it.
The standout supporting character though is the owner of the Truck Stop and slimeball extraordinaire, Bubba Hendershot (Pat Hingle) who takes advantage of his parolee staff while chomping on a cigar. He wheezes the sleaziest laugh possible, chewing the scenery at every turn with a cartoonishly entertaining performance. One of the film's highlights comes when he takes out two trucks with a rocket launcher from his armoury of unknown origin. It is a moment that can define the film for the viewer because if you aren't onboard with the image of Pat Hngle firing a rocket launcher at a bloodthirsty sentient truck, then 'Maximum Overdrive' isn't going to be the film for you.
When you look at the history of the production of the film it is clear that King was way over his head in the director's chair. In the article, "How Did This Get Made? Maximum Overdrive (An Oral History)" Camera assistant Silvia Giulietti said, "Stephen King was not a director. He didn't know where to put the cameras, how to do this." Watching the film this is clear as the structure and tone of the film is scattershot to say the least. Whilst the set pieces are well handled (and a riot for the viewer) a lot of the scenes between the action range from being flat to bizarre. One such scene is the post coitus scene between Bill and Brett where Brett wipes sweat from Bill's head and licks it saying, "you sure do make love like a hero". It shows that although he wasn't ready to take the director's chair, a lot of the film's problems stem from his own script. A lack of structure in it means that the second act drags its feet a lot before rushing towards a rousing conclusion.
Another issue is the lack of logic with the characters who make some of the stupidest decisions you'll see in any King adaptation. One such example is when they let one of the workers of the gas station drive home to find his son despite being blinded by diesel. Whilst it feels out of place in several scenes, the AC/DC score adds muscle to the film, trying to rouse some sort of momentum during its slower periods. I never thought in a million years that they would homage Bernard Hermmann's score from the shower scene in 'Psycho' but tonally it feels right at home with 'Maximum Overdrive'.
King chalks up a lot of his shortcomings as a director to his issues with addiction as he stated in an interview for the book, Hollywood's Stephen King, "The problem with that film is that I was coked out of my mind all through production, and I didn't really know what I was doing." He also had problems with alcohol as the set translator recalled in an interview for the oral history of the film, "I did know that he was drunk. That 6 o'clock in the morning we have a roll call and he's drinking beers. And by 8:30, he's on his 10th beer. It was rumoured that George A. Romero directed a large portion of the film while King sought treatment for his addictions. Then there was the language barrier between King and his Italian cinematographer Armando Nannuzzi who guided King throughout the production. Unfortunately the production would cost Nannuzzi sight in his shooting eye after an accident during the shooting of the scene involving a lawnmower. It almost feels like it was all set up for failure.
With over the top kills, outlandish black comedy and a free wheeling structure and tone, 'Maximum Overdrive' is a film that stands out as one of the most fascinating adaptations of King's work to date. It may have gained a growing reputation as being somewhat of a camp cult classic in recent years but that isn't enough to paper over the chasm sized cracks in the film. Yes the set pieces are a hoot and the performances from the likes of Pat Hingle are a joy to watch but aside from that there isn't much on offer here. The one thing to take away from the film is that I am grateful that it taught Stephen King a valuable lesson in sticking to what he is good at as he has never directed a feature film ever again.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️½
-Joseph McElroy
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