Review of Escape from New York (1981) by Joe H — 07 Feb 2013
After the success of Halloween (1978), this enabled John Carpenter to make bigger films, and right after he finished up on The Fog (1980), he began work on this sci-fi adventure film, which was seen by Carpenter as a social comment on the aftermath of Watergate.
It's a good film, cemented in B-Movie terminology, but it has an absolutely brilliant cast and some good imaginative set-pieces on display. In 1997, 9 years after Manhattan Island was turned into a giant maximum security prison, in which no-one ever gets off the island, Air Force One, carrying the President (Donald Pleasence) crashes into Manhattan, and the President is taken hostage.
To save him, Police Commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) offers a deal to soldier-turned-criminal Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), that if he gets in to Manhattan, saves the President, and gets out within 24 hours, Plissken will be pardoned of his crimes.
Plissken goes in, and with help from a cabbie (Ernest Borgnine) and The Brain (Harry Dean Stanton), they go to The Duke (Isaac Hayes) who may or may not have the President. It's a suspenseful and well imagined film, even the computer graphics the police use to navigate Manhattan haven't aged.
Russell makes a good action hero, and Carpenter does well with a meagre budget too.
This review of Escape from New York (1981) was written by Joe H on 07 Feb 2013.
Escape from New York has generally received positive reviews.
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