Blu-ray Review: Escape From New York (1981)

(aka Dirty Snake.)
Release Date: July 10th, 1981.
Country: USA.
Rating: R.
Written by: John Carpenter and Nick Castle.
Directed by: John Carpenter.
Starring: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau, and Tom Atkins.

In 1988, the island of Manhattan is walled-off and converted into a massive super-max prison to combat the rising crime rate, and because no one really likes New Yorkers. Being sentenced to Manhattan is a life sentence; you can opt to kill yourself instead of serving your time, but once you go in, you're stuck there for life. As life-long Detroiters, this premise hits remarkably close to home for us.

THEY SHOULD TOTALLY DO THIS IN REAL LIFE WITH MONTANA, OR ONE OF THE DAKOTAS OR SOMETHING.

When the President's plane crashes in New York, it's up to legendary criminal/now convict Snake Plissken to go in and rescue him. He doesn't want to do it, because fuck the government, but the promise of a clean record and freedom are just too much for him to resist. The explosive charges embedded in his neck that will only be removed once the president is safe make for a pretty compelling reason too.

NOT A MAN YOU WANT TO PISS OFF.

Once inside, Snake must work together with a band of criminal misfits to survive the city's murderous inhabitants, while searching for the President. NYC's feared ruler, The Duke of New York (A-Number One), just so happens to have the President, and plans to use him to negotiate the release of every prisoner on the island... Great plan, Duke. They'll surely go for that.

Anti-Hero bad-assery ensues.

'MURICA!

If you really think about John Carpenter's films, Escape From New York might only be his 3rd or 4th best effort; we'd be hard pressed to rank it above Halloween or The Thing, and we may even love Prince of Darkness more, even though it's objectively not a "Better" film. Wherever it ranks though, this is one of the man's best movies, and one of our favorite flicks of the 80's.

It's dark, moody, fun, and it captures the Post-Apocalyptic feel perfectly. It also doesn't waste any time; it starts quickly, gets to the point, and by the time it's all over, you're left  wondering how 90-minutes went by so fast. If nothing else, Carpenter was great at trimming the fat from his early work, and this movie is a perfect example of that.

The heart of this movie, and the reason that it's as good as it is, has to do with Kurt Russell and his portrayal of Snake Plissken. Not only is Russell one hell of an actor, but Snake Plissken is one of the best anti-heroes ever created. Maybe even the best. It's no surprise that Russell modeled the character after Clint Eastwood, because Snake Plissken is definitely a mixture of Dirty Harry and every dusty, trail-worn cowboy that Eastwood ever played. He's a bad guy who's a good guy, and there's really nothing about him that doesn't scream bad-ass.

This movie also oozes charm and atmosphere. The running gag involving Snake's name, and the "I thought you were dead" bit make it darkly humorous, and the movie's supporting cast only makes the whole thing better; the intensity of Lee Van Cleef; the likability of Ernest Borgnine and Tom Atkins; and just the mere presence of Donald Pleasence lend this movie a credibility that most genre efforts of its type could never hope to attain.

Adrienne Barbeau was pretty 80's hot in this one too. 

CALL HIM SNAKE! OR PLISSKEN! JUST CALL HIM WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU TO CALL HIM!

As much as we love this movie, we never really bought the whole bridge sequence at the end as being very realistic.For the entire movie, we're told that you need a special map to get across the bridge, because it's mined... but then when they're escaping across the bridge at the end, there are burned out cars everywhere, so really, all you can do is drive around them. Which they do. You don't need a map for that!

YOU KNOW WE'RE RIGHT, LEE VAN CLEEF!

As great as Escape From New York is, how did its sequel, Escape From L.A., end up being so bad? Snake Plissken is the perfect anti-hero, and in the hands of both John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, any movie involving him should have been top-tier entertainment. If anything, it seems like Carpenter may have purposely played this one more tongue-in-cheek than its predecessor, and its cartoonish tone just didn't work that well. Or at all, really.

WATCHING THIS SCENE ACTUALLY HURT.

There's lots of violence in this one, but it's not all that heavy on the gore. It plays more like an action flick than it does a Horror movie, which it really is, so it's all good.

THIS GUY WAS CREEPY ENOUGH THAT HE HIMSELF SHOULD BE CONSIDERED GORE.

Aside from one very brief shot of a woman getting her shirt torn off, there's no nudity or sexuality in this movie... unless of course you count Adrienne Barbeau's massive, sweaty cleavage being on display as nudity. We don't, but it's still worth noting.

ERNEST BORGNINE IS SUCH A CLASSY GENT THAT HE'S ACTUALLY LOOKING AT HER FACE.

For a movie that uses a new 2k transfer scanned from the original negative, this new version of Escape From New York doesn't look as sharp as you'd expect a 2k scan to look. The source material was so deliberately dark to begin with, so there's really only so much that anyone can do with it, but if you're looking for this disc to blow you away with its visuals, you'll most likely be a bit disappointed. It still looks really good, and we're perfectly happy with it, it's just not as sharp as we'd hoped it would be.

The audio, on the other hand, is pretty fantastic.

As for Special Features: 

Disc One:

• New Audio Commentary with Actress Adrienne Barbeau and DOP Dean Cundey.
• Audio Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Actor Kurt Russell.
• Audio Commentary with Producer Debra Hill and Production Designer Joe Alves.

Disc Two:

• Big Challenges in Little Manhattan: The Visual Effects of Escape from New York.
• Scoring the Escape: A Discussion with Composer Alan Howarth.
• On Set with John Carpenter: The Images of Escape from New York.
• I Am Taylor: An Interview with Actor Joe Unger.
• My Night on Set: An Interview with Filmmaker David DeCoteau.
• Deleted Scene: The Original Opening Bank Robbery Sequence.
• Return to Escape from New York Featurette.
• Theatrical Trailers.
• Photo Galleries: Movie Stills and Behind the Scenes Photos.
• Photo Galleries: Posters and Lobby Cards.

DONALD PLEASENCE: AN ALL-TIME GREAT.

John Carpenter is Horror God. Also, Kurt Russell is one of the best actors ever.

Also...

• An uncredited Jamie Lee Curtis provides the voice of the computer and for the film's opening narration.
• Co-writer Nick Castle played The Shape in the original Halloween.
• EFNY is the 4th highest-grossing movie of Carpenter's career. 
• Chuck Norris, Nick Nolte, Tommy Lee Jones, and Clint Eastwood were all considered for the role of Snake Plissken.
• The shot of Maggie's dead body was done after production had wrapped, in John Carpenter's garage, at the suggestion of a then teenage J.J. Abrams. Huh.
• A young James Cameron did the matte paintings of New York for the film.

BEST ANTI-HERO EVER. OR AT THE VERY LEAST, HE'S TOP 5.

One of Carpenter's best, one of Russell's best, one of the best Post-Apocalyptic movies ever... Escape From New York is just one of those movies that we could watch over and over again, and never grow tired of. This new Scream Factory Blu-ray may not be perfect visually, but it's probably the best version of the movie to own. Whatever the case, own it you must.

A

Escape from New York is available now on Blu-ray, DVD, and VOD.

Adrienne Barbeau is a true 80's Horror Hottie who boasted some of the best sweater kittens ever captured on film. Also, Jamie Lee Curtis's voice makes a cameo in this one, and she's pretty hot too.