Escape from New York (2000, DVD)

Up here in Canada, stores hold their best sales during the week after Christmas. They call them Boxing Week sales. (This peculiar custom its genesis, evolution and nonsense is deserving of its own review.) This year s Boxing Week shopping yielded me good deals on several DVDs. While mainly I consummated long desired acquisitions, one purchase was pure impulse. When I spotted the newly released DVD of John Carpenter s Escape from New York as a door-crasher, priced at the equivalent of US$6.50, I could not resist. The last time I had seen it was on the big screen, back when it was released in 1981. The world and I have come a long way in the 20 years since. I was curious to see how time has treated Escape from New York, and how my recollections of it would compare with my current perceptions.


Synopsis

In 1998 (a future as seen from 1981), the United States is crime ridden and Manhattan Island is a penal colony, where prisoners are sent for life. When Air Force One crashes on the island, a notorious new convict, ex-commando Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell: Breakdown; Executive Decision), is offered a full pardon if he can rescue the President (Donald Pleasence: Halloween; You Only Live Twice) within 24 hours. The warden, Bob Hauk (Lee van Cleef: For a Few Dollars More), provides further motivation by implanting charges in Plissken s neck that will explode unless deactivated within 24 hours. Plissken s exploration of the dark and brutal world of the prisoners is eased when he meets friendly and knowledgeable Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine: McHale s Navy; Marty). Cabbie introduces Plissken to Brain (Harry Dean Stanton: Paris, Texas; The Straight Story), and Brain s girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau: Swamp Thing; Maude (TV)). Brain is an aid to The Duke (Isaac Hayes: Reindeer Games; It Could Happen to You), the leader of the prisoners society, who is holding the President and plans to use the situation to his advantage.

John Carpenter directed, co-wrote, and scored or co-scored (depending whether you believe the credits or www.imdb.com). Carpenter had little success in the 1990 s, following his moderate success in the 1980 s with Starman, The Fog, Escape from New York and his remake of Howard Hawk s 1951 classic The Thing. Carpenter has yet to re-strike the critical/commercial chord as well as he did with 1978 s Halloween.


Perceptions Then and Now

Before inserting the DVD, I tried to recall the movie, based on my 1981 viewing of it. My overall impression of Escape from New York was that was an above average action adventure, with a intriguing premise and setting, and a creative look. I remembered the plot concept, but few of its details. Russell s eye-patch wearing antihero was memorable, but none of the other characters were; I could vaguely recall the Ernest Borgnine character, Adrienne Barbeau s cleavage, and that was about it.

It is interesting how those recollections map to what I now see as being the strengths and weaknesses of the movie.

My first impression, during the credit roll, was how surprisingly reminiscent the musical theme of Escape from New York is to The Terminator s theme. The melody and the synthesised keyboard sound are strikingly similar to those heard in James Cameron s breakthrough movie, which showed up three years later. As far as I can tell, John Carpenter had nothing to do with The Terminator. Imitation or coincidence?

(There was another surprise during the title credit roll. After the credits for Russell, Van Cleef, Borgnine, Pleasence, and Hayes, and before Stanton s and Barbeau s credits, the screen reads, for six seconds(!), Special Appearance by Season Hubley . Season Hubley, I wondered? Who the hell is Season Hubley, and what s she doing up there between Isaac Hayes and Harry Dean Stanton? Have I totally forgotten both the actress and her character in this movie? Was she some fast rising star at the time? What happened, did she die young? Quite a boggle and I was drawing a total blank. It turns out that she appears in a reassuringly unmemorable two-character scene with Kurt Russell, which lasts little longer than her title credit does. So how did she get the great billing? A little post-movie digging at IMDB.com turned up the likely answer. While her filmography is unremarkable to say the least, guess who was Kurt Russell s wife when Escape from New York was made? You can bet your eye patch that Season s appearance and billing were terms of Kurt s contract. IMDB also reminded me that Adrienne Barbeau and John Carpenter were a married couple back in 1981. Ah yes, Hollywood, sex and nepotism, forever intertwined.)

Escape from New York now comes across as a great high concept movie with an unabashedly absurd premise. What surprised me during this viewing was how unsuspenseful it is, and how little tension and action there is in it. The plot is linear and predictable. There is never any reason to doubt that Plissken is going to find the President and get him out of there in the nick of time. The few action scenes, including the finale, are directed and edited in a workmanlike fashion.

One particular aggravation with the plot is that every character that Plissken encounters says something to the effect of, Hey, I recognize you. I heard that you were dead. This is insufficiently and unsatisfactorily explained by an early scene where warden Hauk describes Plissken as being behind a big bank heist attempt, and a decorated war hero. Apparently Carpenter cut an entire opening sequence featuring the bank heist, which might have better established Snake s character and his reputation. Unfortunately the new DVD does nothing to shed any light on this, as it contains no deleted scenes, director s commentary, or any other special features other than the original trailer. This what a small world problem is exacerbated when Plissken recognizes Brain as a former cohort.

Both, the Snake character, and Russell s performance, seem to have been heavily inspired by Clint Eastwood s Man with No Name from the Sergio Leone westerns. Carpenter s overt admiration of this source is reflected in his casting of van Cleef, Eastwood s co-star in For a Few Dollars More. Derivative though he may be, Snake was an effective and durable creation. Russell reappeared as Snake in Carpenter s ill-fated 1996 sequel, Escape from L.A.. A web search today uncovered two sites dedicated to the character.

The supporting performances, like Russell s, are low key. Borgnine mugs it up somewhat, but for an unrepentant and chronic scenery chewer like Borgnine, his performance here is at least relatively tame. Most of the rest, including Stanton, van Cleef, Hayes, and Barbeau keep the histrionics well in check. The fact that none of the performances other than Russell s is remarkable or memorable, is due not to the actors, but to the script which gives them so little to react to. Barbeau has an emotional scene at the end, but her motivation for the choice that she makes then is so poorly established, that the scene is just a spectacle. Speaking of spectacle, her d colletage, which imprinted itself so vividly in my memory 20 years ago, renewed its lease there for another 20.

The best element of the film is its atmosphere. The spectre of the blackened Manhattan cityscape with its abandoned, ghetto-y, littered, graffiti-marked streets, still evokes a sense of mad chaos. The early 80 s punk styled appearance of the rogues and gang members still looks right. As he demonstrates here and in other films, John Carpenter knows how to create beauty and tension with incandescently lit, steam-streaked night scenes every bit as well as his contemporary Spielberg, who is probably better known for this look. In Escape s night scenes, Carpenter makes particularly creative, almost surreal, use of bold splashes of intense blue and red light. This is not to say that the movie looks great. For the most part, the sets have a low budget B-movie look. Much of the movie, including key outdoor scenes, appears to have been shot on a backlot or in the studio. Manhattan landmarks are scrupulously avoided, with the exceptions of Broadway and The World Trade Center, neither of which is presented in a remotely believably fashion. Never once did I feel that I was in Manhattan. I strongly suspect that none of Escape was filmed on location there.

There are anachronisms, but surprisingly few. The computer vector graphics are very Atari coin-op. Microelectronics have not evolved in this future; apparently macro-electronic mutants, including wristwatches with 3cm x 8cm LED displays, and 5 kilo walkie-talkies, have supplanted them. The biggest clanger comes when the police force requests a key piece of information by sending a telex (snicker). As for goofs of another sort, try not by distracted by the fact that when Plissken s countdown starts, it is the dead of night, and when his 24 hours is up, it is the middle of the day.

There is a small gem buried in Escape from New York. At one point, Plissken wanders into a derelict theatre. Convicts are seated watching a torch lit stage, where a singing and dancing performance by other convicts is underway. The show has Plissken s attention for a few moments, and we hear a snippet of some funny lyrics that cleverly describe Manhattan s deterioration.

I think the central problem with Escape from New York is exemplified by that scene. Carpenter seems to have decided to play the movie straight, but throughout you get the feeling that he is flirting with the notion of playing it for laughs. Maybe this explains why the action in Escape from New York is consistently limp, while campy humour always seems just out of reach.

The end credits delivered a final surprise. A certain Jim Cameron is listed as both a director of visual effects photography and as a matte artist. IMDB confirms him to be THAT James Cameron. I had wondered while listening to the title theme whether the director of Escape had had anything to do with The Terminator, and it turns out to be the other way around! I do not know which mattes and effects shots in Escape Cameron was responsible for, but the panoramic shots of the lifeless Manhattan skyline at dusk are reminiscent of the Armageddon scenes in The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.


Recommendation

I can recommend Escape from New York as an interesting piece of fluff, particularly if you re a film buff who would enjoy looking for the similarities to Spielberg, Eastwood, Leone, and Cameron. The new DVD edition would have been much more desirable had it included the deleted bank heist scene (which apparently was included on a previously issued laser disk edition - go figure). As it is, you may want to wait for your local equivalent of a Boxing Week sale.