Review of Escape from New York (1981) by Erik R — 12 Jan 2014

You'd have a hard time finding a bigger fan of Carpenter/Russell collaborations than I: The Thing is one of my favorite movies. It's one of the films that I can watch repeatedly; the atmosphere & setting are genius, never less than chilling. I revel in the glorious, gross practical effects; you really can't find their equal in films today. And Big Trouble in Little China? That's part of my childhood, man! You just remember what ol' Jack Burton always says at a time like that: "Have ya paid your dues Jack?" "Yessir the check is in the mail." And I have remembered.

So it's with no small amount of sadness that I admit Escape from New York just didn't do it for me.

Which isn't to say there's not a great deal of fun to be had in the film. The premise is ingenious: the crime rate in the US has skyrocketed. In response, Manhattan is walled in and turned into the country's only maximum security prison. Into this cesspool of crime (and cannibals) goes Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell, and considered by some - not me - to be the ultimate badass. Along the way, Snake meets a slew of colorful characters, including Lee Van Cleef as Hauk, Harry Dean Stanton as Brain, Isaac Hayes as the Duke. My particular favorite character was Ernest Borgnine's Cabbie, a NY cabbie who still remembers the old days. He reminded me, strangely enough, of the ghost cabbie in the very first episode of Are You Afraid Of the Dark?

The low-budget special effects are always a delight, and the film does an excellent job of making you believe that the events really are occurring in a run-down, crime-infested Manhattan.

Unfortunately, despite these positives, the film ultimately left me feeling dissatisfied. It has more ideas than it has the steam (or budget, as the case may be) to execute them. Indeed, it suffers from a short-falling that I've taken to calling "The Lost Syndrome" after the TV show. Succinctly put: the plot promises more than it delivers. Plot strands are brought up, given undue significance, and are then never tied up. In particular, I'd say that the film's greatest shortfall is its failure to explore the society & economy that would surely have sprung up amongst these doomed criminals. The type of thing you can find in Mad Max, or the video game Arkham City.

Final Say: Escape from New York is populated by a colorful cast set in a dreary, expertly filmed dystopia Manhattan. Unfortunately, its script leaves much to be desired; its promising premise is ultimately left unfulfilled.

How to Watch It: Though this not an opinion largely shared by others, I think you'd be much better off watching the superior The Thing, or Big Trouble in Little China.

Trivia: If you carefully watch through the credits, you'll find one Jim Cameron credited as a matte painter. Yep. That's none other than the famous James Cameron, in one of his earliest jobs in Hollywood.