"The President of what?" - Lee Van Cleef and Kurt Russell
In this dark dystopian sci-fi adventure, ultimate tough guy Snake Plissken is sent on a mission to enter New York, a city now turned into the world's largest penitentiary with a huge retaining wall, to rescue the President from a group of the roughest and most violent criminals imaginable. Sounds awesome, right?
Escape From New York has all the right elements to make something awesome. The premise, the characters, the settings, and the overall essence of the film are indeed awesome. However, in the hands of John Carpenter, the film moves at a slow and brooding pace. It’s the same creepy, methodic style that makes his other movies - Halloween, The Fog, Christine, The Thing – so effective. For this movie, I never felt that it works as well as it should: the film creeps along so much in the dark that all sense of action and excitement is dampened. When action does hit – a few pedestrian scenes where bad guys throw rocks and sticks, beat and rape a few people, throw Snake into a death match arena, and then finally chase the heroes across a mined bridge – it’s all pretty lightweight, lacking in particularly deep impact or thrills. I can’t help but to think that, in the hands of guys like John McTiernan or Paul Verhoeven, Escape From NY could be the awesomest, pulpiest, and most badass movie out there. As it is, it’s mildly cool, but it never fully capitalizes off of its own potential.
The story this film tells is pretty neat, filled with some far-out sci-fi concepts (ideas that would be replicated in plenty of other films, most blatant of which is Doomdsay). The actual plot is pretty standard; it gives you just enough to the story and characters to understand what’s going on and to kick off the big adventure, but there’s not much depth or exploration offered beyond the surface-level expositions. Characters are pretty flat and lifeless all around, except for Snake Plissken, who is the epitome of cool, with his moody, dangerous, devil-may-care attitude. His character is not only a great antihero, but also a massive influence on other popular characters (remember Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid?). The only problem is, you never really learn much about Snake beyond that surface level; he is as one-dimensional as everybody else. There are moments where I also wonder if this movie tries to pick at some social themes regarding American society and culture; after all, this is one of America's biggest and most popular cities turned into a total hellhole, and it's the American President caught up in the middle of the chaos. There are times when it seems like the film is underscoring the ugly undercurrent of social corruption and decay, but these themes never really materialize into anything tangible.
This film uses rather pedestrian photography, in a manner not much different than Halloween. The camera moves and angles are interesting at times, but the shots are so long that they appear pretty indistinctive. Lighting is very dark throughout, for appropriate effect. Editing is good. Acting is generally okay: Kurt Russell is the man throughout, opposite Lee Van Cleef and Isaac Hayes, who also try their best to be tough. Ernest Borgnine provides a little bit of goofiness to the mix, and Adrienne Barbeau adds a little bit of sex appeal. Harry Dean Stanton isn't given much to do, and his role is ultimately forgettable. And, Donald Pleasence is pretty much himself. Writing is okay; there are a few amusing lines. This movie uses sets, props, and costumes that show some limitations, but get the job done very well. John Carpenter’s music score is pretty darn cool.
Escape From New York has its share of coolness, but it could be cooler yet. It’s not terribly exciting, but it is mildly interesting and mildly satisfying. Given its popularity, the film is a must-see for fans of dark and violent dystopian sci-fi.
3.5/5 (Entertainment: Pretty Good | Story: Average | Film: Pretty Good)
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