Review of Escape from New York (1981) by Kevin G — 03 Jul 2011

There's no doubting it, it's a pretty fantastic movie. So many things about this are just timeless and lovable. The whole concept of New York being sectioned off and converted into a high security prison has got to be one of the most insane, yet somehow darkly realistic ideas I've ever seen brought to life.

The great thing is this pulls off such an irreverently bleak and dystopian depiction of the future, while also just being a flat out terrific action movie. Some of it almost reminded me of Gotham City and Arkham Asylum, though it's very unique in it's own right by being even more radical and slimy in some ways.

There's really just so much to love here, most importantly being Kurt Russell's truly amazing portrayal of Snake Plissken, clearly the most bad ass human being to ever set foot into that giant penitentiary of chaos.

I also just can't get enough of the synthesized score and heavily 80's production design. It's just so outstandingly cool and dated in the most perfect of ways. I love that they still use cassette tapes in the future and the Cold War is still going on.

Even better, the set design and rubble that encompasses the shithole that is New York is just incredible. It honestly looks and feels like a place where deadbeats and psychotics reign supreme. The other cast members in this are great to have around as well, including a typically tough-as-nails Lee Van Cleef, a lovable Ernest Borgnine, and Harry Dean Stanton doing what he does best, playing another low-life of sorts.

More than anything what I love is the atmosphere, the super-cool action sequences and dark humor this has thrown around in here. It's just SO beautifully charming with all it's despicable cast of characters and grimy, gloomy set pieces.

Additionally, it even manges to fit in a little bit of a message about war and nuclear weapons, just another example of how multifaceted this is. In summary, if you're not at least somewhat in love with Snake Plissken by the end of this movie, I'd be incredibly disappointed.

His character and the world he lives in is just so inspired and nuts, it's definitely one of John Carpenter's finest of what I've seen so far. Just don't watch it on instant streaming off Netflix, the quality was dreadfully bad.