Carpenters Song in "1408"

[milwaukeeburt]

Saw the movie "1408" with John Cusack today. Great use of "We've Only Just Begun" thru-out the flick. Cusack's character is holed up in an "evil" hotel room. Very complicated but highly entertaining plot (based on a Stephen King short story, with lots of similarities to "The Shining" and "Misery". Worth, seeing, BTW.) The evil room tries to murder Cusack's character. A great plot device is the clock radio which is set to countdown from one hour, which is the time no one has ever stayed longer than in the room. The radio blasts "We've Only Just Begun" on several occasions, to great effect. It freaks out Cusack's character, and also jars the audience, because it's so unexpected, and foreshadows the "miseries" Cusack's character is about to endure. Very unexpected pleasure, and the song was used in a most interesting and unusual way, being played at half speed at one point when the electricity flickered. Thanks to Richard for obviously agreeing to make WOJB part of the flick. And don't forget the Carpenters' references in "Ghost Rider" earlier this year (which I have not seen, but would like to). The Carpenters are genuine cultural touchstones, and this is a great example of how their music is still alive and thriving, and reaching people in new and unexpected ways. This is my first post to the forum, I love to "lurk" and am pleased to know how many Carpenters afficionadoes are out there.

 

[Tony]

Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure and check out the movie when I can. And you're quite right, the C's have indeed become cultural touchstones.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

The Carpenters were also featured in a rare tv movie called "US" it was broadcasted in 1991 and featured Michael Landon. I think it was one of his last tv movies he made before passing away. In a nut shell, he was in convicted of a crime and sentenced to life-long prison, was later found innocent and after 18 years in jail he's finally released - but has problems finding his way back into normal life.

I recorded this on VHS tape when it aired since I have always enjoyed Michael Landon as an actor. I was taken back when I heard Karen singing in this movie. In the opening scene, Michael is still in prison lifting weights with headphones on, as the viewer we hear what he is listening to on his headphones, the song, Rainy Days and Mondays are playing and Karen starts, "talkin to myself and feeling down", she sings for a good 2 mins or so and it is really Karen singing the original song. Then someone asks Michael a question and he takes his headphones off and that is the end of the Carpenters song. Pretty cool to hear this and they incorporated the song lovely into the scene.

 

[JMAR5]

I just saw the movie and loved that they kept repating "We've Only Just Begun" Very good movie

 

[richard_sloat]

Very unexpected pleasure, and the song was used in a most interesting and unusual way, being played at half speed at one point when the electricity flickered.

Today was my time of watching this movie, I haven't read the short story so I didn't know much of the plot, I found the movie to be interesting though not GREAT, the central idea is kinda clever, with all the psychological tensions, but it's not an unseen theme, King himself "stole" it from Anne Rivers Siddons The house next door, which is a book Kings likes so much that he writes extensively about in his own book Danse macabre, which is a dissertation on horror in film, literature, radio and TV. The TV scene when Cusack is confronted with a videotape of his deceased daughter, is bit by bit out of The house next door (with other characters, of course).

The second part of the movie, when Cusack enters the room, builds suspense nicely and this was definitely the very first time a Carpenters song has given me the creeps! The twisted manner it is played again a few times later is resembling of Todd Haynes use in his film Superstar - The Karen Carpenter story, when he mixed We've only just begun, Superstar and Close to you in a kinda demented medley with great effect.

This is not the only Carpenters sighting in Stephen King's books, I can remember a few more. In The regulators, as hell breaks loose in a usually peaceful neighboorhood, one of the characters think "is this really happening here?? In whatever Street where every family house still holds a Carpenters album??" In Thinner, as the main character is not able to cease loosing weight, the circumstances of Karen's passing are remembered. In Cell, as the people who had their minds destroyed by the Pulse rest together forming big clusters at night time, one of the songs they are heard to be "tuning in" with their brains is Close to you. Leadsister.com holds a pinned thread on Carpenters sightings in numerous medias:

http://www.leadsister.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3258

And there's also this exquisite article he wrote for Entertainment Weekly after Anna Nicole Smith's passing where he compares hers and Karen's story:

http://www.leadsister.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7508&hl=\stephen+king\

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20011922,00.html

There are many more, but the American fame machine's most perfect example may be Karen Carpenter, who was much more talented than Smith, if not so pretty. Carpenter died at 32. Of anorexia, the American girl's fairy-tale disease.

"Much more talented" indeed! I BET Stephen King is a closeted Carpenters fan!

 

[A&M Retro]

Good stuff, Richard!! Thanks for the info. I remember reading the Steven King article when it first came out, and I thought it was quite moving.