Escape From New York

• Co-Written, Co-Scored and Directed by John Carpenter
• July 10, 1981 (US)

An ex-soldier (now a federal prisoner) is given just 24 hours to go into the island of Manhattan (now a federal prison) and rescue the President of the United States whose plane crashed there in order to get a pardon.

John Carpenter in his prime was a man of unique vision with the films he made. Halloween, They Live, Starman among others were and still are unlike so many to hit the screen. Escape From New York has perhaps one of the best and most original dark visions of the future. What makes it special is there was no great war or disease to cause the issues. It seems to come from a point where nothing lasts forever and things are bad because that is what eventually happens.

What is so amazing is that in a little under 100 minutes of narrative Kurt Russell under the guiding hand of John Carpenter gave us an iconic screen character. Snake Plissken stands out among loner characters in general and loner characters in dark futures. He has no love for the world and treats everything with perhaps a touch of disdain. His goal is his own survival and if that benefits others so be it, but he is not altruistic. He begins and ends the film never becoming a hero but just a guy that gives people what he feels they deserve.

This was probably my introduction to Lee Van Cleef. Van Cleef is good as Police Commissioner Bob Hauk who is a hard ass in charge of the prison that has become Manhattan. Don’t think too deeply how some of the most valuable real estate and the economic center for the country became that but rather move on. Hauk does not fade into the background when Plissken comes on but rather holds his own. They are very similar, but Hauk has not given up on society while Plissken has.

Donald Pleasence was a great pick for the president. He crafts a believable politician who ultimately is just a sniveling and weak piece of crap. Add to this his apparent view the people he is supposed to serve and people in general are to serve him. Worse the people who helped rescue him he ultimately screws over. He just had to say the decent thing and not the politically safe thing and the finale of the film would’ve been completely different. Anywho…

The main threat in the story is The Duke (Isaac Hayes). He has captured the President after the crash and plans on using him as part of an escape plan. The President is to be a shield to not only get him but everyone else that is willing to follow out of Manhattan Prison. Is that the name? I’m not sure if they actually give it a name in the movie. That never occurred to me until now.

Russell and company are joined in Escape From New York by Ernest Borgnine as “Cabbie”, Harry Dean Stanton as Harold “Brain” Hellman, Adrienne Barbeau as Maggie, Tom Atkins as Captain Rehme, and Buck Flower appeared as the “Drunk with the president’s tracker” among others. Because of a relatively small cast of characters that contribute they all manage to make a mark. That is not a knock against them but rather it allows each performer to shine no matter the amount of screentime they get. Buck Flower really stands out to me and he might only be there for two minutes or so.

A lot of movies try to craft a crazy environment. And by that I mean the world the characters are functioning in has gone insane. Mad Max tried it and mostly succeeded to one extent or another. It is a tough thing to get on the screen and most creators can only make it to ‘weird.’ Carpenter makes the jump to insane to the point if you think about presented elements you will be unnerved.

My major gripe about this film is the year in which Escape From New York was set. The year 1997 was pretty close to when this came out. Putting a future set film so close to the present ages it visually very quickly and may even make it a punchline. Plus it may make a societal decline as clearly happened here difficult to buy. And that does not account for physical things that may take a long time to occur like the fifty-foot wall along the shoreline around Manhattan. Sixteen years seems like a very short time for all that. Mercifully the speak very little about the year so it is not front and center.

Escape From New York was written in the wake of Watergate and it shows. Snake is very cynical and perhaps the ultimate culmination of the attitudes that were born from that. The President is a clear swipe at Nixon and the US of the film is what people thought we were headed towards.

Escape From New York is a great bit of future science fiction with an iconic central character. With Carpenter at the helm, you get something that no other director of the time could produce making this a must see!