Escape from New York

Original movie poster.

From time time here at Spam Alternative we feel it's compelling to dedicate some quality time to remarkable films that are not of the B quality we're used to worship on this blog but sometimes it is very good to make exceptions, and today's exception is John Carpenter's 1981 Gem Escape from New York.

So, it's the 1997 the 80's imagined and Manhattan Island is nothing but a prison, and despite that our president is set to check New York's mayhem in his Air Force One plane,which unfortunately is taken over by a terrorist and our  president ejects out in his safety pod. Sadly for him he lands right in the middle of Manhattan Island, when an armed unit lands inside the walls they are told that the president has been taken hostage and they must get out of their prison as soon as possible. At a loss what to do, the authorities decide to send one man in alone, ex war hero turned criminal, Snake Plissken, not only does he have to contend with surviving the incredibly hostile prison, he also has a time bomb implanted in his body that, should he not get the president out safely within 24 hours, will explode and mean no more Snake Plissken!.

Snake Plissken.

Terminator?

Made in 1981 and set in 1997, it's safe to say John Carpenter is not the best predictor of the future around. However his vision of a future where America has thrown all it's criminals on one island, where they create their own society out of harms way, has to rank as an incredibly adroit piece of work. This place is grim and deadly, the flotsam and jetsam of society thrust together in this bleak and desolate place of class separation. 

What Carpenter has achieved with his usual minimal budget allowance is a smouldering sci-fi classic that may be as daft as they come, but it pulses with cool and cheekily slaps you round the face with its cheeky satirical edginess. I must give kudos at this point to the great production design from Joe Alves, who along with Carpenter has crafted this brilliantly dirty netherworld of crime.

Our anti-hero of the piece, Snake Plissken, is superbly played by Kurt Russell, the original choice interestingly was Tommy Lee Jones, but Russell fuels Plissken's mantra to make him one of the eighties coolest grumpy bastards!, and his work here is first class in terms of the films apocalyptic structure. Surroundning Russell is a wealth of quality performers each adding their personal bits to this tick-tock stew, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau and Isaac Hayes all earn their money and flesh out the story to the end.

Download this cool wallpaper.

The recently released Blu-Ray. Pristine quality.

Trouble? 

Say hello the Heaven.

Calling Escape From New York an action picture would be setting first time viewers up for a real let down, what action there is is minimal but highly effective, the machismo flourishes acting more as a point of reference to the pictures time bomb urgency. I like to think of the film as more a sci-fi adventure yarn laced with darkly comic humour, with of course machismo thrown in as a side salad to accentuate the bleakness of it all, wonderful.

A must for every sci-fi lover, look for it on Blu-Ray!

The original movie trailer:

Some dude with no stage panic reviewing the blu-ray edition:

Next review will be "Big Trouble in Little China" a personal favorite.