When I decided to watch Escape from New York, there were a few good reasons;
The setting's awesome: one of the world's largest metropolis' is in ruins, turned into a huge prison. I don't know about you, but I always dreamed of spending a day in a humongous city, devoid of peace and order, full of scum ready to get their asses kicked. There's simply something in the idea of survival in an urban hell that is appealing and gives you great ingredients for a good story.
Snake Plissken looks like one tough bad-ass: at least when he's not speaking. I mean the eye patch, the stubble beard, the gloriously violent past, the general dirty look: Snake's a picture of a bad-ass pirate, only cooler, because of all the gun-toting. But as I mentioned earlier, the way he speaks disturbed me. It was a little forced and cheesy, as if Kurt Russel tried to emulate Clint Eastwood's legendary attitude, and failed.
So where does John Carpenter fail in this movie? He's got an awesome premise, a decent actor in the shoes of the perfect anti-hero, what can go wrong? Well nearly everything; The guy is simply unable to use his material well. I'll pass over the cheesiness of the soundtrack, since it didn't sound that out of place back in the 80s' sci-fi and action flicks. But there are absolutely no suspense, tension, "F*** YEAH" moments, etc. when you feel there should be. We're introduced to a world of pure visual genius and general awesomeness for the first 15 or so minutes (it's amazing, all the things you can do with lights and shadows. Pay attention to those 15 minutes if you happen to watch the film again) and then it's your usual, boring string of events movie. I wouldn't care if those events were presented in an interesting way. I mean just take a look at what the hell James Cameron has achieved in the prologue of Terminator 2: the sight of a burning swing, plus a couple of instruments playing in the background, and drama ensures. THAT is cinema; Being able to dramatize a goddamn playground toy. Whereas in Escape from NY, I was unable to even feel a few nerves tingling at the sight of two bad-asses about to split each others' skull in half. Yep. The swing wins, John. Man it's so depressing. This movie could've been awesome at the hands of an action movie expert like James Cameron, but I can't blame him. He was only background painter at the time. Oh well. I gotta admit, though, the ending made me laugh for a long time. Awesomest ending ever.
So as you can see, I was very disappointed with Carpenter's work here, but...
When I think of all the amazing people this film has inspired, (William Gibson, JJ Abrams, Hideo Kojima, among others...) it kinda makes the time I watched this average movie worthwhile. Plus you don't get to see that kind of anti-hero with attitude that much anymore.
The setting's awesome: one of the world's largest metropolis' is in ruins, turned into a huge prison. I don't know about you, but I always dreamed of spending a day in a humongous city, devoid of peace and order, full of scum ready to get their asses kicked. There's simply something in the idea of survival in an urban hell that is appealing and gives you great ingredients for a good story.
Snake Plissken looks like one tough bad-ass: at least when he's not speaking. I mean the eye patch, the stubble beard, the gloriously violent past, the general dirty look: Snake's a picture of a bad-ass pirate, only cooler, because of all the gun-toting. But as I mentioned earlier, the way he speaks disturbed me. It was a little forced and cheesy, as if Kurt Russel tried to emulate Clint Eastwood's legendary attitude, and failed.
So where does John Carpenter fail in this movie? He's got an awesome premise, a decent actor in the shoes of the perfect anti-hero, what can go wrong? Well nearly everything; The guy is simply unable to use his material well. I'll pass over the cheesiness of the soundtrack, since it didn't sound that out of place back in the 80s' sci-fi and action flicks. But there are absolutely no suspense, tension, "F*** YEAH" moments, etc. when you feel there should be. We're introduced to a world of pure visual genius and general awesomeness for the first 15 or so minutes (it's amazing, all the things you can do with lights and shadows. Pay attention to those 15 minutes if you happen to watch the film again) and then it's your usual, boring string of events movie. I wouldn't care if those events were presented in an interesting way. I mean just take a look at what the hell James Cameron has achieved in the prologue of Terminator 2: the sight of a burning swing, plus a couple of instruments playing in the background, and drama ensures. THAT is cinema; Being able to dramatize a goddamn playground toy. Whereas in Escape from NY, I was unable to even feel a few nerves tingling at the sight of two bad-asses about to split each others' skull in half. Yep. The swing wins, John. Man it's so depressing. This movie could've been awesome at the hands of an action movie expert like James Cameron, but I can't blame him. He was only background painter at the time. Oh well. I gotta admit, though, the ending made me laugh for a long time. Awesomest ending ever.
So as you can see, I was very disappointed with Carpenter's work here, but...
When I think of all the amazing people this film has inspired, (William Gibson, JJ Abrams, Hideo Kojima, among others...) it kinda makes the time I watched this average movie worthwhile. Plus you don't get to see that kind of anti-hero with attitude that much anymore.
