Review of Escape from New York (1981) by Joe A — 16 Jan 2013
One of my favorite all time B movies and a bonafide film classic. I instantly fell in love with this film upon seeing it opening night at the legendary Oritani Theater in Hackensack, N.J. An outrageously original idea, New York City turned into a maximum security prison, and John Carpenter makes it work by taking his subject matter just seriously enough to make the audience buy it.
Add to that a colorful cast of characters, including one of the greatest, and, sadly underused, film anti-heros of all time, Snake Plissken. Kurt Russell does his best Eastwood as Snake and it's only natural then to pair him up with Eastwood co-star Lee Van Cleef as Police Commissioner Bob Hauk.
Rounding out the cast is Halloween vet Donald Pleasence as the President, Harry Dean Stanton as Brain, Carpenter's then wife Adrienne Barbeau as Maggie, Ernest Borgnine as Cabbie and legendary soul man Issac Hayes as The Duke of New York.
The world inside New York is effectively portrayed on a small budget and the film is fast paced and action packed. Another film that inspired many and was imitated many times. A bit of trivia: The studio wanted Charles Bronson as Snake, but, Carpenter fought for his choice of former Disney child actor, Russell and the rest is history.
Also,the SPFX were done in part by a then unknown James Cameron, who went on to direct Terminator and Titanic. And despite it's setting, most of the film was lensed in St. Louis and L.A. with only one night actual shooting in NYC at the Statue of Liberty.
One of the greatest B-movies of all time!
This review of Escape from New York (1981) was written by Joe A on 16 Jan 2013.
Escape from New York has generally received positive reviews.
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