Escape from New York **** (1981, Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Donald Pleasence, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Season Hubley, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau) – Classic Movie Review 1177

Director/ co-writer John Carpenter’s tough and exciting futuristic action thriller, made in 1981 but set in 1997, sees the US President forced to land in Manhattan, now a prison ghetto full of baddies who take him hostage.

Kurt Russell (who had just played Elvis in Carpenter’s highly rated 1979 TV movie Elvis – The Movie) now makes an extremely useful, credible action hero, playing Snake Plissken (‘Call me Snake’), the man sent by security boss Lee Van Cleef to rescue the US President, played by another Carpenter regular, Donald Pleasence.

In a crime-ridden United States where Manhattan Island has been converted into a giant maximum security prison, ex-soldier and convicted bank robber Snake is sent in there to effect a rescue. He is given just 22 hours to find the President, captured by prisoners after the crash of Air Force One into Manhattan.

There is a bit of a script problem pulling all the weird ideas and action highlights together, but Carpenter compensates with enormous energy and visual invention. Despite its faults, Escape from New York is nonetheless extremely enjoyable, likeable action fare, with a very strong start and finish, plus some great action, intriguing ideas and arresting moments as the tasty filling in the sandwich in between.

At the head of the very welcome, cultish cast, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Season Hubley, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Atkins and Charles Cyphers also grace the movie.

Russell, nominated for an Emmy for Elvis – The Movie, reteamed with Carpenter for The Thing (1982), Big Trouble in Little China and Escape from LA. Pleasence was of course most memorable in Carpenter’s Halloween (1978). Carpenter, who started writing it in the mid-1970s, co-writes the final screenplay with his film school days friend Nick Castle, who portrayed Michael Myers in Halloween. That film’s success allowed to get the film made. Ironically, he shot most of it in St. Louis, Missouri.

It cost only $6million and was a hit, grossing over $25million. It now enjoys cult status too.

Russell describes Snake as ‘a mercenary, and his style of fighting is a combination of Bruce Lee, The Exterminator and Darth Vader, with Eastwood’s vocal-ness. All that matters to him is ‘the next 60 seconds. Living for exactly that next minute is all there is.’ Welcoming the opportunity to get away from his Disney comedies, he dieted and exercised to portray the lean, muscular hero. He stayed in character between takes but had to remove his eye patch as it affected his depth perception.

Belated sequel: Escape from LA (1996).

On March 18 2013, Joel Silver and his company Silver Pictures teamed with Studio Canal to reboot the film as a trilogy, starting with an origin story.

http://derekwinnert.com/soldier-1998-kurt-russell-classic-film-review-1174/

http://derekwinnert.com/escape-from-la-1996-kurt-russell-classic-film-review-1176/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1177

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Kurt Russell and partner Goldie Hawn.