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Dan Owen reviews
Momentum Pictures Home Entertainment As premiered on
danowen.blogspot.com
- Cert:
- Cat.no: MP 334D
- Running time: 99 minutes
- Year: 1981
- Pressing: 2005
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Anamorphic Panavision)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras:Remastered transfer, Audio commentaries, Deleted scenes, Featurette, PhotoGallery, Trailers
Director:
- John Carpenter
Producers:
- Larry J Franco and Debra Hill
Screenplay:
- John Carpenter and Nick Castle
Music:
- John Carpenter, Nick Castle and Alan Howarth
Cast:
- 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 ageneration of filmmakers: Assault On Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978),The Fog (1980), Christine (1983), Big Trouble In LittleChina (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 theappalling Ghosts Of Mars (2001).
Escape From New York arrived in theatres at a time whenCarpenter’s first three movies had all become successes, and is oftenconsidered the director’s crown jewel. It’s easy to see why, as it plays toall of Carpenter’s strengths; a dystopian, violent future, with a memorableanti-hero who gleeful snubs authority…
The plot is wonderful high-concept pulp: in the future (er, 1997) New YorkCity is a maximum security prison, so when Air Force One crash-lands in thecity, the authorities have no choice but to send in a criminal to recoverthe onboard President (Donald Pleasance) so he can attend a crucial seminar.
Kurt Russell plays Snake Plissken, a swaggering one-eyed anti-herowith a major chip on his shoulder. Russell’s career has been linked withCarpenter in a number of films (Elvis, 1979; The Thing; Big Trouble InLittle China), but it was with Escape From New York that the pair reallyfound cohesion.
Snake Plissken is perhaps the sole reason this movie remains as popular asit does, because such badass characters rarely age. The production itselfis steeped in ’80s low-budget atmosphere, with a permanent gloom andwonderfully simplistic synthesized music score (Carpenter’s own work). Thefilm has certainly dated, not helped by its 1997 “futurism” and presence ofthe World Trade Center, but there’s something undeniably fun and oppressivethat still works decades later.
For a $7 million movie, Carpenter does a brilliant job making audiencesreally believe in the situation. A few moments occur off-screen for budgetaryreasons (the Air Force One crash), but the “ghost town” New York, populatedby criminals known as the “Crazies”, is quite brilliantly portrayed sothriftily (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 withjust as much growly brilliance as his Western characters, Ernest Borgnine isannoying as the Cabbie (a character who only serves to hook characters up),Harry Dean Stanton has a nice little role as Brains, Adrienne Barbeau iswasted as Maggie, Donald Pleasance makes a bumbling President (Englishaccent?), while Isaac Hayes’ performance as The Duke should havebeen more sinister than it actually is.
So while the eclectic casting doesn’t really work in some key areas (abetter villain for Snake would have been perfect), the film is essentially avehicle for Kurt Russell to stalk around the city brandishing a gun andgrumbling. It’s not really a stretch, but Russell manages to make Snake oneof modern cinemas more memorable anti-heroes. The cynical ending is a classicthat stays true to the character, and should be applauded for providing sucha perfectly downbeat ending.
Overall, Escape From New York is an entertaining movie with a superbfirst Act, that slowly stagnates in Act II, and eventually limps to aweak climax on a bridge. The problem is that the movie is all premise, andonce the premise has been presented Carpenter doesn’t really have anywherevery interesting to go, so the movie just trundles to its inevitableconclusion.
Carpenter certainly ensures the whole film is dripping with atmosphere andRussell carries the whole movie on his shoulders. For modern audiences, thescenes of a hijacked Air Force One being flown into the side of a buildingalso earn added chills given the events of 9/11.
At time of writing, Carpenters movies are being remade with the director’spermission (Assault On Precinct 13, The Fog, Halloween), but it’s a cruelirony that Escape would gain most from a modern remake to do justice tothe premise – yet Carpenter’s own 1997 sequelEscape From L.A.was practically a remake and failed dismally…
Mind you, would you really remake Escape From New York without KurtRussell as Snake Plissken?
This Special Edition DVD release isn’t particularly special, but it doescontain 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 moodsuperbly.
The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen image has been given an overhaul for thisDVD release. Generally the image is very good considering its age, butthere’s still grain in the odd scene and an understandable lack ofcrispness from a 1981 movie.
Fans will be excited to see the movie has been given a DTS sound mix. TheDD5.1 track is undoubtedly very good, although the rear speakers aren’tused as much as you would perhaps expect. Still, there are some good auralmoments 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 KurtRussell, the other from producer Debra Hill and production designer JoeAlves. 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 themovie, 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 designfacets to the movie.
- Original Opening: We were originally meant to begin the film by seeing Snake rob a bank andattempt to escape in a subway train, and this 12-minute scene is availablefor you to take a look at. The quality isn’t fantastic, and this scene wasrightly 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 interviewswith most of the cast/crew in later years (Russell, Carpenter, Castle, Hayes,Barbeau, Stanton, etc). There are lots of good anecdotes and this is aworthwhile extra.
- Trailers: There’s always something enjoyable about watching the awfully made trailersof 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 transformedin just 20-odd years. “Snake Bites Trailer”, “Theatrical Trailer” and “PromoTrailer” are all here for you to get your retro fix.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.