Escape From New York Special Edition

By: The Dweeb

December 2003

DVD Features Video: 2.35:1 Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, FRENCH: Dolby Digital Mono Disc One: Audio Commentary by Director John Carpenter and Star Kurt Russell Audio Commentary by Producer Debra Hill and Production Designer Joe Alves Disc Two: Deleted Opening Sequence: The never-before-seen 10-minute bank robbery scene with commentary by John Carpenter and Kurt Russell “Return to Escape From New York” Featurette The Making of John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles Comic Interactive Menu Features Photo Gallery Trailers Theatrical release: 7/10/1981 DVD released on 12/16/2003 by MGM/UA Running time of 99 minutes Starring: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Isaac Hayes, Ernest Borgnine , Donald Pleasence Director: John Carpenter Plot: A condemned criminal and former war hero is offered his freedom if he can rescue the President of the United States from the walled prison island of Manhattan after a terrorist brings down the President’s plane in this futuristic adventure.

I have always heard about this movie but never got around to seeing it, until now. I get a kick out of films that portray our world in the future, but not far enough ahead! Like in Terminator 2, or 2001, what the worlds that were supposed to be like in the mid nineties just did not materialize did they? Anyways, so in the far off future of 1997, Manhattan has been turned into a prison. Okay, a wacky concept but it seems to work for this film, even with all the unexplained plot holes.

In a typical Hollywood move, John Carpenter spins a simple idea into this far out sci fi story, almost taking it to the point of the ridiculous. Carpenter borrows heavily from other films and it is basically a combination of several movies like The Road Warrior, Apocalypse Now , Tron and even another cult film, The Warriors. This film is supposed to be on that same level, but to me, this is B grade material. Or is that what makes this a cult film, because the cheese factor is pretty high? The music track alone is this crappy synthesizer sound, which could very well be used in a porno flick. There are only  two kinds of campy films, good or  bad. This is not good camp, yet it isn’t bad either. I’m undecided as to which camp this belongs in.  

The concept is simple and focuses on one main character, Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), who must find the President on this prison island before his head blows up, for reasons I’m not sure why. Russell does his best impersonation of a Clint Eastwood character from the old Spaghetti Westerns in here. “Call me Snake” seems to be a favorite line. With one eye he goes around sneering at everyone looking for the President, kicking some butt, and in turn getting his own butt kicked for a bit. This prison seems to find the time to setup a wrestling match with him.

Snake interacts with a bunch of interesting characters, most of them with the depth of a piece of paper but that’s not the point of this film. It was funny seeing Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York, he’s one bad mutha. I like his car too, the chandeliers are a nice touch. I had a hard time dealing with Donald Pleasence playing the President. Somehow, a British accent does not seem to fit right for an American. He looked like a mouse trapped in a jar for most of the film. “You’re A number one Duke!”

There are several versions of this flick on DVD already, so I’m not sure if this is a new transfer or not. The sound is mixed well and video is fairly clean, even though it is a very dark movie. Many scenes take place in the firelight. There are all the usual additions of extras, such as a documentary and deleted scenes. Of note, they also include a mini comic book, which is pretty unique, and on the extras there’s a section on how that was created. It’s not a bad overall package, but this film just isn’t my cup of tea. It was worth a one time viewing just to check out what the fuss was about.

Reviewer’s Opinion: BORROW IT!!