Snake Plissken: Kurt Russell
Police Commissioner Bob Hauk: Lee Van Cleef
Cabbie: Ernest Borgnine
President of the United States: Donald Pleasance
The Duke of New York: Isaac Hayes
Girl in Chock Full o'Nuts: Season Hubley
Harold 'Brain' Helman: Harry Dean Stanton
Maggie: Adrienne Barbeau
Back in the '70s and '80s,
John Carpenter made a series of iconic cult classics that inspired a
generation of filmmakers: Assault On Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978),
The Fog (1980), Christine (1983), Big Trouble In Little
China (1986), The Thing (1987) and They Live (1989).
The '90s marked Carpenter's decline into misfires such as Vampires
(1998), while the '00s haven't seen him recapture his glory years, with the
appalling Ghosts Of Mars (2001).
Escape From New York arrived in theatres at a time when
Carpenter's first three movies had all become successes, and is often
considered the director's crown jewel. It's easy to see why, as it plays to
all of Carpenter's strengths; a dystopian, violent future, with a memorable
anti-hero who gleeful snubs authority...
The plot is wonderful high-concept pulp: in the future (er, 1997) New York
City is a maximum security prison, so when Air Force One crash-lands in the
city, the authorities have no choice but to send in a criminal to recover
the onboard President (Donald Pleasance) so he can attend a crucial seminar.
Kurt Russell plays Snake Plissken, a swaggering one-eyed anti-hero
with a major chip on his shoulder. Russell's career has been linked with
Carpenter in a number of films (Elvis, 1979; The Thing; Big Trouble In
Little China), but it was with Escape From New York that the pair really
found cohesion.
Snake Plissken is perhaps the sole reason this movie remains as popular as
it does, because such badass characters rarely age. The production itself
is steeped in '80s low-budget atmosphere, with a permanent gloom and
wonderfully simplistic synthesized music score (Carpenter's own work). The
film has certainly dated, not helped by its 1997 "futurism" and presence of
the World Trade Center, but there's something undeniably fun and oppressive
that still works decades later.
For a $7 million movie, Carpenter does a brilliant job making audiences
really believe in the situation. A few moments occur off-screen for budgetary
reasons (the Air Force One crash), but the "ghost town" New York, populated
by criminals known as the "Crazies", is quite brilliantly portrayed so
thriftily (filmed entirely in St Louis, Illinois).
Beyond Russell, Escape's cast is quite a bizarre melting pot of talent.
Legendary Western villain Lee Van Cleef plays prison commissioner Hauk with
just as much growly brilliance as his Western characters, Ernest Borgnine is
annoying as the Cabbie (a character who only serves to hook characters up),
Harry Dean Stanton has a nice little role as Brains, Adrienne Barbeau is
wasted as Maggie, Donald Pleasance makes a bumbling President (English
accent?), while Isaac Hayes' performance as The Duke should have
been more sinister than it actually is.
So while the eclectic casting doesn't really work in some key areas (a
better villain for Snake would have been perfect), the film is essentially a
vehicle for Kurt Russell to stalk around the city brandishing a gun and
grumbling. It's not really a stretch, but Russell manages to make Snake one
of modern cinemas more memorable anti-heroes. The cynical ending is a classic
that stays true to the character, and should be applauded for providing such
a perfectly downbeat ending.
Overall, Escape From New York is an entertaining movie with a superb
first Act, that slowly stagnates in Act II, and eventually limps to a
weak climax on a bridge. The problem is that the movie is all premise, and
once the premise has been presented Carpenter doesn't really have anywhere
very interesting to go, so the movie just trundles to its inevitable
conclusion.
Carpenter certainly ensures the whole film is dripping with atmosphere and
Russell carries the whole movie on his shoulders. For modern audiences, the
scenes of a hijacked Air Force One being flown into the side of a building
also earn added chills given the events of 9/11.
At time of writing, Carpenters movies are being remade with the director's
permission (Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, Halloween), but it's a cruel
irony that Escape would gain most from a modern remake to do justice to
the premise - yet Carpenter's own 1997 sequel
Escape From L.A.
was practically a remake and failed dismally...
Mind you, would you really remake Escape From New York without Kurt
Russell as Snake Plissken?
This Special Edition DVD release isn't particularly special, but it does
contain some interesting extra features and a superb commentary track.
The animated menus are in the style of the movie's "line-graphics",
with Carpenter's throbbing score -- a great appetiser that sets the mood
superbly.
The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image has been given an overhaul for this
DVD release. Generally the image is very good considering its age, but
there's still grain in the odd scene and an understandable lack of
crispness from a 1981 movie.
Fans will be excited to see the movie has been given a DTS sound mix. The
DD5.1 track is undoubtedly very good, although the rear speakers aren't
used as much as you would perhaps expect. Still, there are some good aural
moments to keep you in the movie's reality.
The extras are as follows:
Commentary Tracks:
There are two commentary tracks, one from director John Carpenter and Kurt
Russell, the other from producer Debra Hill and production designer Joe
Alves. Both commentaries were made in 1994 for the movie's laserdisc release,
so everyone occasionally references supplemental material not on the DVD.
Of the two tracks, Carpenter and Russell give a legendary discussion of the
movie, chatting away like two best friends and packing in lots of information.
Hill and Alves are far drier and spend too much time discussing only design
facets to the movie.
Original Opening:
We were originally meant to begin the film by seeing Snake rob a bank and
attempt to escape in a subway train, and this 12-minute scene is available
for you to take a look at. The quality isn't fantastic, and this scene was
rightly cut from the completed movie, but it's still interesting.
Return To Escape From New York:
This is an entertaining 22-minute documentary on the movie, with interviews
with most of the cast/crew in later years (Russell, Carpenter, Castle, Hayes,
Barbeau, Stanton, etc). There are lots of good anecdotes and this is a
worthwhile extra.
Trailers:
There's always something enjoyable about watching the awfully made trailers
of the 80s. We live in an age where trailer-making itself is an art-form,
so it's quite fun to see how fast this aspect of movie-making has transformed
in just 20-odd years. "Snake Bites Trailer", "Theatrical Trailer" and "Promo
Trailer" are all here for you to get your retro fix.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
