Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bad attitude and no future! The greatest hit of John Carpenter, 30 Oct 2007
This movie, together with "Mad Max", started a new sub gender of SF movies - the "post apocalyptics", which describe the humanity gone back to the barbary, after the collapse of civilisation. EFNY and "Mad Max" are also the best of them - in the 90-es there were some attempts to imitate their success, but they all finished with disasters ("No escape" with Ray Liotta, "Waterworld" with Kevin Costner, and the sequel to EFNY, "Escape from L.A.", with Kurt Russell). John Carpenter made some important movies before ("Assault on Precinct 13", "Fog" and especially "Halloween") but here he signed his best movie until now. EFNY didn't age at all in more than 25 years and I believe it will survive indefinitely - because of quality of screenplay and the incredible performance of the actors.
The story is very well known - because of the terrible wave of criminality in USA, the island of Manhattan was transformed in a place of deportation, a giant prison, where people are send for ever and where they can do whatever they want, as long as they do not try to escape. Food and some minimal clothing is regularly provided, by airdrops, but otherwise the inmates (deportees) are left to themselves. A barbaric society develops in the ruins of New York, ruled by band leaders, of which the most terrifying and the most cruel finally claims the position of the supreme ruler - he is the Duke of New York (great role of Isaac Hayes, a gigantic black actor - a very pacific and educated man in private life, who actually won an Oscar earlier as the composer of the song for "Shaft".). There is no firearms in this society, so the warriors who make the ruling class are equipped with clubs, axes, swords, spears and crossbows - but there is still some fuel, so this Dark Ages army is riding in cars.... This is quite a unique vision of society. Of course, there are also outcasts, including a degenerate tribe of cannibals and rat eaters living underground and hunting isolated people....
Then, a disaster happens - in the time of crisis, Air Force One is hijacked by some crazy leftist guerillas on a suicide mission, who deliberately crash the plane on Manhattan. The President of USA (played by the great Hollywood workoholic Donald Pleasance) survives and is taken prisoner by the Duke - who asks that all the inmates are released and amnistied in exchange for President's life. Before considering this option, the government decides to use a prisoner, who is just about to be deported to Manhattan, to try to deliver the President in exchange of a pardon. The prisoner is a renegade former officer turned bandit, Snake Plissken - a one eyed, tattoed, battle scarred, arrogant criminal with more bad attitude than one cinema screen can support. This is the role which started the great career of Kurt Russell, and watching him in this movie is an incredible experience. John Carpenter asked him to play a guy who actually doesn't give @#%£µ! about anything anymore, with just may be a small exception of his own life (although even that is not certain) and who actually is just concerned about playing his role of bada@#%$ until the end. Snake Plissken is possibly the best incarnation of slogan "No Future" I ever saw in an action movie. We know also that he is a kind of legend in the criminal underworld and even in the law enforcement - the police chief Bob Hauk (the last really significant role of great Lee Van Cleef), in charge of Manhattan security area, despises him professionally but clearly shows him also a kind of reluctant respect. Together with Mad Max Rockatansky in "Mad Max II", Snake Plissken is simply the most impressive and the coolest character in all action movies.
There are also other great roles - Ernest Borgnine, quite aged but still valiant, plays the last cab driver in New York, who actually stayed behind when the regular population was evacuted to leave the place for criminals. He armored his yellow cab, collected some weaponry and maintains the great tradition, although with the fuel being now almost impossible to find, he thinks about taking actually a retirement.... Harry Dean Stanton plays "Brain", an inmate with diploma, who serves the Duke and even received an attractive woman for the price of his services. The bandits serving Duke are very colourful and it is a pleasure watching them, especially a short sized but extremely mean and totally crazy clone of Klaus Kinski with punk hair (this famous actor doesn't play in this movie, but this one character looks almost exacly like him....). The action is very fast paced and quite smartly showed and the ending is not stupid at all.
In fact this is a great movie, even better when we place it in context. 1981 is virtually the last great year of punk movement - and this is a great conclusion of those years. The vision of the world shown in EFNY could in fact be resumed in four words: BAD ATTITUDE and NO FUTURE.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Call Me Snake", 18 Mar 2006
By A Customer
You have to hand it to John Carpenter, he's made so many great movies & this is definitely one of them.
Kurt Russell plays outlaw & special forces hero 'Snake Plissken'- sent into New York..which is now a walled prison where the criminals and crazies roam. His mission is to rescue the President (Donald Pleasence) inside of 24 hours.
This great cast also includes Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes & Harry Dean Stanton.
Brilliant DVD aswell. Bonus features include Audio Commentary from - John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Joe Alves & the late Debra Hill. There's also the featurette Return To Esacape From New York, plus Original Opening Bank Robbery Sequence-(deleted scene).Great movie, well worth buying.
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7 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great character in a good film, 21 Dec 2006
Escape From New York brings together two great concepts. One is that New York has been walled up and turned into a prison, so it's become a place even the police don't like to enter. The second is lead character Snake Plissken, a true icon of eighties cinema. Snake is a classic anti-hero and is very much like an old-fashioned western gunslinger, which would probably explain why Russell speaks in very Clint Eastwood-like tones throughout. Captured by the authorities, Snake is the only man dispensible enough to be sent into New York to rescue the president, whose plane has crashed on the island.
Without the Snake Plissken character, this could very easily have been the type of forgettable nonsense that clogged video shelves in the eighties, but Carpenter and Russell have worked brilliantly here to make this something special. Despite Snake's selfish, uncaring, almost psychopathic demeanor, there is something about him that makes you want him to succeed. Maybe it's because he's been set up and used by the government, or maybe it's because he represents a dying sense of individuality and freedom, but chances are you will be cheering Snake on at every step.
As great as this film is, there a couple of downsides. One is that the film, which is obviously set in New York, doesn't do enough to remind you where Snake is. The film was made on a relatively low budget, with the bulk of it being shot in a burned out area of St. Louis, but a little more effort to make it actually look like Manhattan would have helped. The second is the special effects, which haven't aged well. This is a much more forgivable flaw, but there are some very unconvincing miniatures and matte paintings in this one.
Even with these small complaints, this film is deserving of its cult classic status. It's one of the best from Carpenter and Russell, and fans of outlaw anti-heroes should definitely check it out.
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