John Carpenter Reveals His Two All-Time Favourite Films
John Carpenter names the two films that have most influenced his career, offering rare insight into the works he considers cinematic perfection.
With the rise of Letterboxd, it seems everyone’s got a list of their top films at the ready. The app’s popularity has even led to red carpet interviews where celebrities are quizzed about their personal favourites. Kristen Stewart once remarked, “You can tell a lot about a person from seeing them in Letterboxd.” While the public’s appetite for these lists is insatiable, it’s a different matter when someone with genuine industry clout weighs in on the subject.
John Carpenter, the multi-talented filmmaker behind some of the most iconic genre films, hasn’t joined the Letterboxd crowd. Still, he’s been candid about the two films that have left the deepest mark on him. In his words,
“Oh, come on! You can’t get better than this movie.”
That’s how he describes Carol Reed’s 1949 classic, The Third Man. The film, a post-war noir with a deceptively straightforward plot, has always stood out for Carpenter. He notes,
“There’s an accident, a man is killed, and the third man turns out to be the bad guy, played by Orson Welles.”
The film’s shadowy, rain-soaked streets and tense atmosphere clearly resonate with Carpenter’s own sensibilities. He’s especially taken with the film’s climactic pursuit:
“The chase scenes in the sewers of Vienna are astonishing, and the use of shadows is brilliant and inspiring. It’s just an incredible movie.”
Howard Hawks and the Art of Adventure
Long before The Third Man hit screens, Howard Hawks delivered a very different kind of film. Only Angels Have Wings, set in a remote South American outpost, is Carpenter’s other top pick. He’s never been shy about Hawks’ influence on his own work, writing,
“Howard Hawks has always been a big influence on me and my work, and Only Angels Have Wings is my favourite movie of all time.”
For Carpenter, the film’s appeal is hard to pin down to a single element. He admits,
“If you sit down and watch it and you don’t love it, then you can just forget Howard Hawks. Everything about him as a filmmaker is here: the relationships between men and women, the adventure, the mystery, the pleasure.”
What sets this film apart, in Carpenter’s eyes, is its unique blend of genres. Hawks often alternated between tales of daring men and lighter, comedic fare, usually with Cary Grant at the centre. But here, Carpenter observes,
“it’s a movie in which men, in this case, pilots, risk their lives every day, with every flight, while darkness is all around them… they have their own codes and their own ideas of bravery”.
The film’s world feels fully realised, its characters’ courage and camaraderie palpable.
Lasting Impressions and Creative Influence
Carpenter’s admiration for these two films isn’t just about nostalgia. Both works have shaped his approach to storytelling, atmosphere, and character. The moody, unsettling tone of Reed’s Vienna and the high-stakes, close-knit world of Hawks’ pilots echo throughout Carpenter’s own filmography. He’s drawn to stories where the environment is as much a character as the people in it, and where the stakes are always personal, even when the backdrop is vast and shadowy.
It’s not every day that a director of Carpenter’s stature lays bare the films that have fuelled his creative fire. For those curious about the DNA of his work, these two titles offer a proper starting point.