Director: John Carpenter
Starring: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins
Another excellent review by Adam Truscott of another Carpenter classic.
The One Where I Heart Escape From New York, And You Should Too.
After The Thing and Big Trouble In Little China, my trilogy closer has to be Escape From New York.
Incredibly, it came out in 1981. The year I was born. Even as a baby I imagine I was slobbering over Dads laserdisc. The front cover just captured my imagination.
A little bit older than a baby, but still acting like one, I studied that cover in detail.
Once I knew what the Statue Of Liberty was, I tried to get my head around how/why her head was on the floor.
Then you had a guy in a vest, (what is it with Kurt Russell and vests??). Wearing an eye patch. His gun, which pre Call Of Duty I couldn’t name, looked cool. Plus it had a little bit of gunfire coming out of the top, as Snake Pliskinn helped two people to safety. In the background were marauding gang members, seemingly chasing them.
And that’s Escape From New York.
When I finally saw it, the idea was brilliant. New York walled off, now a prison. The President gets shot down behind the walls… God, I hate it when that happens! Who do you send in? Snake. The perfect person. But recently jailed himself, his days as a war hero seem long ago. Can he be trusted?
Cue some John Carpenter synth music. Cue a brilliant model of a tiny plane, and a crash landing on a roof top – totally aped in Resident Evil: Afterlife. Snake is in New York. But crucially, he has less than twenty-four hours, after being injected with a serum that will kill him if he fails.
It’s hard to pick a favourite moment. The fight in the ring? Ending so memorably with a mace to the back of the head? Brooklyn Bridge being mined? Snakes one-liners? Cars with chandeliers. This film has it all.
Escape From New York is all about big ideas played simple. Scaled back. Almost home made. John Carpenter already had Dark Star (never really got it), Assault On Precinct 13 (stone cold classic) and Halloween (Unsurpassable) under his belt. None of those cost an awful lot, and all had similar traits to Escape.
Carpenters early films were grimy, and dirty. A sort of grungy feel to them. With that early run of films his fans tended to be devotees. He offered something different. Something personal in scale, but spectacular to look at. How many Directors make purely enjoyable films? I’m a Tarantino fan boy, but are his films made to be just enjoyable? I think Carpenter does that. Scorsese? Number one for me, but do I enjoy Kundun? Or Mean Streets? I think I appreciate them more than anything.
I watched Prince Of Darkness the other day. It falls into the below par Carpenter category for me – but only because everything else is so good.
I saw They Live too. Phil is spot on putting that in the best fight scenes ever. Just a crazy, fun film.
Christ, even Vampires was fun. Ghost Of Mars… OK. Ghosts was heinous. I’m here to encourage forgiveness for Carpenter, though.
The Ward comes out soon. This early review has me excited for it. As Carpenter fans, we need to get behind it. Buy the T-Shirt.
Why?
Because despite the surfing down Sunset Boulevard. Despite million to one shots in basketball. Despite air gliding into battle. Despite terrible CGI underwater sequences.
I still want Escape From Earth. More than anything.
