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ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK review
In the briefest of time I’ve had the joy of seeing a
collection of some of my absolute most favorite films
in 35mm and even one in 70mm here in Austin.
These films were ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK,
SUPERMAN, GHOSTBUSTERS and CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND definitive
director’s cut.
Wow.
I love living in this town. A town with a strong sense
of film history and diversity. The upcoming
Peckinpah and Lucio Fulci festivals.... The First
Annual Cannibal Film Festival. A Hitchcock
Festival. WIZARD OF OZ with real original
Munchkins present including one of the original
Lollypop Guild guys. John Waters is coming to
town, and through it all.... I just feel lucky.
I’ve decided to review these four films, and I’ll start
with John Carpenter’s ESCAPE FROM NEW
YORK...
First, I went and saw this one twice. First, last
Thursday, then again Saturday night. And man....
This movie just kicks ass.
Now that we are on the otherside of the ‘timeframe’
called for in the film, it seems a bit odd. I remember
as a kid being frightened that we would be headed
into a semi-fascist state where tough ass-kickers like
Snake Plissken walked the Earth flinging cigarettes
and throwing out cool utterances like you wouldn’t
believe.
But now... Now I see it as merely an alternative
timeline. A parallel universe where everything went
to shit. Kinda like RED DAWN. A dark period,
where I was raped and murdered by Quint and his
gang of weirdoes.
They are definitely living with the crazies in the
sewers of the Manhattan prison. A scary world for
sure.
It’s also a bit odd watching this film on the otherside
of ESCAPE FROM L.A. A film that does not
succeed nearly as well for me despite the increase in
budget and effects.
What makes this film work?
First and foremost it’s that damn cool score with it’s
casio coolness and synthesized screams.
Next the understatement of the script. Actions speak
louder than words and the few words Snake utters
ooze that Parker badass feel from them old dime
novels of yesteryear.
Matte Paintings. I love Matte Paintings. You can
force perspectives... shrink land mass to fit the shot.
Cheat all over the place for the sole sake of making it
look cool. You can take out the uninteresting
buildings and let the city be the way you want it to
look. As a result.... New York looks awesome. Even
the miniatures work for me. Sure you can tell a bit
here and there, but I don’t care because the story is
always moving forward, the clock is always ticking.
Each second brings them damn microscopic
explosives closer to the ‘BANG’.
Then there is that classic sense of urgency and
immediacy. No time to use logic, you simply must go
forward. No time for sleep, love or relationships.
This is do or die time. Snake doesn’t want to get to
know any of these people. He just wants to get the
job done and get the hell out of here.
He doesn’t give a shit for anyone, or so he’d like you
to think. He’s machismo bravura that he can back up
with a spiked baseball bat to the back of your head, or
a throwing star to the center of your forehead or a
knife across your throat.
His character just screams a history. How’d he lose
that eye? Why’d he stop believing in his country?
What turned him to a life of crime?
I don’t know and I don’t need to know. We can each
make up our own beliefs and backgrounds for Snake.
In those 5 hour (Midnight till dawn) conversations we
can, if so stimulated, go on about what happened
before, after and during this story.
It’s a mythological universe that for me is
inexplicably tied to that same world of ROAD
WARRIOR. Somewhere.... Halfway round the
world, Australia was left in flames. Max came out of
that, whilst America went to hell. The hell that Snake
lives in.
For me, ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is one of
those perfect set films. You can tell they are living in
a lived in environment. It’s not all glossy with faerie
endings.
When all is said and done, he’s alive to live another
day and quite honestly he could just give a fuck about
the rest of the world.
This film was shown at
Drafthouse as one of their Midnight films.
Before hand they were showing clips of FIST OF
LEGEND and a cool as hell Star Wars/Titanic Parody
Short called TIE-TANIC which just kicks ass.
For the second showing ol Robert Rodriguez showed
up with various friends of his, and folks... let me tell
ya. Robert just LOVES this film. More than any
other film I know of, Robert walks around quoting
from this one. On his guitar, he plays the theme. He
digs ol Snake Plissken.
But ya know, I can hang and talk about Robert later,
let’s continue with ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK....
Then we have a great supporting cast that didn’t feel
like a bunch of cameos. In ESCAPE FROM L.A.,
Well... I just felt like everyone was just... Popping in
and out as Cameos. But here... Everything makes
sense in the construct of the narrative.
Ernest Borgnine is so ALIVE as cabbie. When you
see him getting down while watching the musical, his
eyes shining sparks of charisma... I just can’t help but
smile.
Lee Van Cleef as Hauk just has the right amount of
menace and... I won’t take any shit off of you sonny...
seriousness that he just makes me understand Plissken
more. For me, it was someone like Hauk that made
Plissken leave the service. And in ESCAPE FROM
L.A., I really wanted to see someone like Clint
Eastwood play the prison warden... And have him be
Plissken’s direct supervising officer from when he
was in the service. His Louis Gosset Jr to his Zack
Mayo, ya know what I mean?
Then you have Isaac Hayes, Duke of New York,
A-#1, Truck Turner and the singer of the ballad of
Shaft. There are few people on this planet that are
worthy of the clinging balls of shit on the hairs of Isaac
Hayes’ ass, and so it is in this movie. He doesn't do or say much of anything, but what he does say, and what he does do... Well... He rocks so completely that everytime
his eye twitches in that nervous tick, I feel like
cheering. “What did I teach you?” Aaaaaaah...
Perfection.
Donald Pleasence as the President of the United
States is perfect. When Snake releases him, and tells
him to like stay close (I believe) and Pleasence
responds, “Ya goddamn right I will” It kills me. He’s
so fucked with. I mean. They don’t cut somebody
else’s finger off with the Presidential ring. They
really just hack off the President’s finger. These guys
are psychos.... And they turn the President of the
United States into a psycho. Their madness rubs off
on him. It’s great. Perfect. Wonderful. God I miss
Donald Pleasence. A favorite of mine.
Harry Dean Stanton as Harold (aka Brain) is another
purely classic character. These aren’t actors
HAMMING it up. These are merely eccentric
characters. Brain is just plain smart. Nothing more
complicated than that. Well... Not even very smart,
but smart enough to know he’d best play like he’s
VERY SMART to stay alive in this hell hole. He is
loyal to Snake to a degree.
Adrienne Barbeau is such a babe in this movie as
Maggie. She’s more than just eye-candy, she actually
cares for and kicks ass for Brain. Not in an
exaggerated Mortal Kombat sort of way, but in that...
I have no qualms in taking human life to keep what’s
mine- sort of way.
Then, lastly there is Tom Atkins, who is simply
strange. And that’s enough. He’s that weird
cockroach of a human that has somehow survived to
become a Pit Bull’s favorite pet. Eccentric and
bizarre. Stylized in his movements and vocal
delivery. He’s from... a different time and place, and
fits so perfectly in this universe.
This film is a great example of a low budget working
better than any low budget has the right to. It forced
them to do model work and matte paintings. The
wire-frame of N.Y. is a low tech masterpiece. What a
dirty mean nasty beautiful violent masterpiece of film.
A hero to nihilist everywhere.
Snake Plissken huh? I heard he’ll never die.
Lastly, as a John Carpenter film, the movie is just fantastic. This, along with, THE THING, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, HALLOWEEN, DARK STAR, VAMPIRES and THEY LIVE ranks as his best film. Of course, that's just my take on the subject.
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remember, in his enternal wisdom, "The Haunting is better than Star Wars." If that don't clue you in, I dunno what will. BTW, if Escape from LA is any indication, I think I'll miss out on the "classic" escape from New York. I mean, John Carpenter did that piece of cinematic trash, er, genius, Vampires, so any of his films give me an alergic reaction almost as bad as a Leo movie. . .except maybe THE BEACH (gotta love the Trainspotting boys) I orginally had a point to make, but I lost it. Oh well. . .
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I may be first...if so, woo hoo.
Snake Plissken? I thought you were dead!
p.s. all AICN readers are invited to check out my new movie review site. I rate 'em on a percentage scale. The site is brand new, and doesn't have many reviews yet, but I want to invite Harry & all the AICN geeks (whom I respect greatly) to the birth of this site!!
http://www.seanet.com/~markmurphy/MarksMarks.html -
I agree with Harry, "Escape From New York" is John Carpenter's best film to date. That's kind of a sad statement because it was made back in the VERY early Eighties. Tall Boy above may have a personal point about Harry's opinions, but he obviously hasn't seen this awesome film. I want the REAL Director's Cut that would include the whole TEN minutes of footage only hinted at in the Carpenter interview. The scenes where Snake and buddies hold up the gold depository and then escape on a trans-continental underground subway. Snake is betrayed and arrested when the subway reaches the west coast. It would edit in perfectly just before the main credit sequence and really help establish Snake Pliskin's character to the viewer. --Sigh-- Maybee someday.
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What is all this talk of Escape From New York being Carpenter's best? call me trendy, but Halloween is the true champion. Is there anyone else out there who DIDN't really get into Escape From New York like all these other geeks (by the way, this is the only site that I know of where the word geek is not used as an insult)??? Well, maybe I need to see a version besides the crappy VHS copy that rests in the cult classics section within Hollywood Video. That'll do it, but, by the way, I have this really strange feeling I need confirmation on: did the Paramount in Austin show plays before movies. I could have sworn that I saw A Christmas Carol performed there when I was like 10.
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Aug 02, 1999 1:06:00 AM CDT
Harry, the clinging balls of shit remark was a little too much f
by reni
I can't handle it...
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Aug 02, 1999 2:27:09 AM CDT
"I've come here to do two things: chew bubblegum and kick ass...
by martin q blank
Ye-eehh. Don't dismiss the coolness of 'They Live.' Unfortunately not meeting New York's pinnacle, but damn it feels good to write that classic line.
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That would be a cool video game. Personally, I think Big Trouble in Little China is Carpenter's best movie, because it parodies perfectly all the white-hero-in-amongst-the-exotic-and-dangerous-Chinese bullshit Hollywood has thrown out there (ie: Year of the Dragon and Black Rain). The Thing is another good Carpenter movie, by the way, if anyone hasn't seen it. Now, just a question...who is the cooler character? Snake Plisskin or Jack Burton? I gotta love Jack, but then I favor that movie. "I can see thing no one else can see. Why are you dressed like that?"
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...in your gushing over this film you fail to even once mention Mr. Carpenter. I guess he had nothing to do with the movie being the classic that it is?
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THAT, really got my attention. You are right, the two universes are perfect tie ins. I couldn't think of any way to actually join the two without it being totally cheezy(Freddy vs Jason) but the images will churn in my brain for the next few days as I fall asleep.....Just as they did with EP1 (which was a better movie to dream about than see, I STILL imagine what it could've been).
Ag, whenever I try to put a scenario into my head, images of THE POSTMAN and WATERWORLD pop up. Gotta face it I guess, the post apocatalyptic action movie genre has been sucked dry.
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Aug 02, 1999 8:31:35 AM CDT
Click on the Alamo Draft house link, Wizard of Oz and Dark side
by spike lee
And Rambo playing. That is incredible. I live in Houston and we never get anything that cool. I look on the bright side of things, at least Sandra Bullock does not call our town home.
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If Harry likes a movie, he likes a movie. Not everyone will share the same opinion. Hell, I had an argument with my parents last night. "Blair Witch sucked!" "No it didn't!" If you rely on a person to tell you what movie to see, its your own problem. Now that that's out of the way, EFNY is a kick ass movie. I happenned to be at that screening at it rocked on the big screen. Its even more fun when you play the Snake Plisken Drinking Game. "Snake Pliskin, I thought you were dead!" Drink up! It makes a difference on the big screen. My wife hated Big Trouble in Little China until we saw it at the Alamo. But I must disagree with Harry. EFNY is a damn fine film, but cannot touch Assult on Precinct 13 or The Thing. The Thing is perfection, and if you have not seen it, get it today. John Carpenter is the master.
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John Carpenter has made some of my favorite movies of all time (EFNY, The Thing, AP13). Very few directors can evoke a mood or feeling from film to film that easily identifies the director. Carpenter had that touch, but the man who made those great movies from the 80's is no longer with us. IMHO, every film since They Live seems motivated by money and lacks Carpenter's great approach to making b-movies with style and intelligence (i.e. EFNY).
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Harry, EFNY is definitely one of the coolest "badass" flicks ever made, but top honors at my house go to Big Trouble in Little China. We quote lines from it (and a million other flicks) all the time. Because the boy and I are real ninja types, this gem is also number one on the top ten martial arts movies list (of which there are only eight, by the way)at our house. Our second favorite Carpenter film - almost a tie with EFNY - is They Live. Escape is great in so many ways and TL has some glaring problems, but somehow it works. I play the theme from it on the guitar...great bass lick. To me, TL had an edge they should have done with the "V" crap on NBC a few years ago. Oh well, my 2 cents worth. As always, if you don't like what I say, then BOOT TO THE HEAD! :-)
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Well you know what Jack Burton always saws.Haha i just couldnt resist.
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opps i mean says
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Not to name drop, but I told Joel Hodgson the above once and his jaw dropped. "Carpenter is Christ?" he
said. The next time I saw him (trust me, he's the only semi-famous person I have ever known), months later, he told me (winking) that he still "doesn't agree with me about John Carpenter?" Well, damn it, I THINK JOHN CARPENTER IS THE BEST GENRE DIRECTOR ALIVE, MAYBE THE BEST THIS COUNTRY HAS EVER PRODUCED. He's underrated, mostly because he has never really attempted to break out of his bastardized niche. When I was working at Video Archives (yes, THAT Video Archives), my first project was "The JOHn Carpenter Wall", wherein I collected all of his films and tried to get people interested. And they were. They even rented "Black Moon Rising", which our man wrote. He's just so KICKASS!! That's the word, a stupid one. But that's the word.
I mean, look at the resume: "Assault On Precinct 13", "Halloween", "The Fog", "Escape From New York", "CHristine", "The Thing", "Starman", "Prince OF Darkness", "They LIve", "In The MOuth OF Madness", "Escape From L.A.", "Vampires"--he's so terrific! His films are so MACHO, they're so COMPACT, they always end on a harsh cut to black, his SCORES are great, he always shoots in 2.35:1--my God, what more could you want in a cause celebrer director? Quentin's got De Palma, and I've got Carpenter. (Anybody else hungry for a DVD release of his two TV films, "Elvis" and "Somebody's Watching Me?" -
You hit the nail on the head about Carpenter being The Man. Of all the great directors I admire (from Hitchcock to DePalma to Kubrick to Cronenberg) the one I actually own the most films by and re-watch the most are those of Carpenter. He may not always scale the heights of the aforementioned geniuses but he has one of the few filmographies in cinema truly deserving of being considered autuerish. His films are so distinctive not only visually but thematically. His tough, cynical, paranoid, misanthropic films form a consistent body of work that distinguish his films from that of his peers. And I do think that it's Carpenter's refusal to pay attention to popular trends that has unfairly marginalized him in the eyes of many critics and equally why so many of his films seem to emerge as classics only long after their initial release (The Thing, Big Trouble in Little China, Prince of Darkness, They Live, to name a few and I suspect the followings for In the Mouth of Madness and Vampires will similarly expand in time). For me a new Carpenter film is always an event. For my money, film for film he's the best genre director America has ever produced.
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I'm not much of a John Carpenter fan. In fact, I only consider three of his movies to be worthwhile (and I've seen 'em all): HALLOWEEN, ELVIS, and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. But can someone answer me a question: a few years ago, New Line Home Video released a "director's cut" of the film, boasting that it contained the original opening, showing Plissken committing his crime. Yet the tape shows about thirty seconds of this footage over a John Carpenter interview, and the movie is the same theatrical version that's been shown since 1981. Why does the tape case SAY it contains missing footage when it doesn't? Oh well. On another note, Ernest Borgnine spoke at my college graduation in 1997 (I graduated in New Haven, and Borgnine was a Hamden [next town over] resident). Unfortunately, I didn't have the balls to approach him, even though, before the ceremony, he was only a few feet away from me.
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Are we talking about this flick on AICN??? This is my favorite movie of all time, I can repeat the dialogue verbatum. "You gonna tell me Brain, or do I gotta beat it out of your squeeze?" I just bought the soundtrack, and I also bought the limited edition soundtrack to Big Trouble because it has a previously unreleased track from Escape on it. I too want to see the edited opening scene replaced on a DVD Director's Cut, not that pussy shit on the VHS version. Does anyone else wonder what the fuck is up when Escape from LA is out on DVD, and not the far superior Escape from New York???
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If you looked up "badass" in the dictionary, Snake Plissken would be in the illustration.
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Before everyone goes off on a John Carpenter jizzfest, let's not forget that he's had his share of seriously bad movies. Body Bags is *complete* crap--oh, no, scary hair!!!--and Vampires could have been cool, but just ended being a scriptless piece of brainless-action foolishness. Personally, I think Halloween is overrated, too: I saw it for the first time recently (I'm in my late-20s, and can remember all the buzz when this first appeared 20-odd years ago on the then-fledgling HBO), and couldn't believe how nonscary it was. (Love the theme music, though.) I'm sure no one will agree with me, but I actually thought Halloween: H20, where Jamie Lee goes ballistic and actually pursues Michael with a vengeance, was way more exciting.
I must say, though, that The Thing remake is a damn fine movie, and I liked Escape From New York, too. But Carpenter's not immune from serving up some real shit once in a while.
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The above link will take you to some Carpenter Fanfiction (at Patrick Kerrs John Carpenter page), including my story KANSAS CITY, FOUR YEARS AGO which details the bank heist involving Snake, Brain, and Fresno Bob that was mentiones in EFNY (I also have a FOG story there as well).
Glad you finally reviewed this classic film, Harry. I saw EFNY at the tender age of 12 back in 1982 and it, along with HALLOWEEN, had such an impact on me that I knew I someday wanted to be a writer and filmmaker. The hard edged, laconic characters, the eriee setting, the powerful, futuristic/gothic music, and the beautiful cinematography firmly imbedded themselves in my psyche and not a day goes by that I don't seem to rattle off a line or an entire scene off to my girlfriend or a family member. EFNY has been, and alway will be, my all time favorite film, for personal as well as obvious reasons- it's pretty much my STAR WARS (and hey, I love that little gem as well). The absolutley perfect ending tracking shot, with Snake walking off to fight another day, fucking over THE MAN (yeah!) with a slight smile on his face, all to the incredibly cool main title theme still make me feel like a 12 year old every time I see it. I always wondered where Snake went after that (I try to think of LA as a fever dream he had) and I just had to revist him in the past at least, with KANSAS CITY. For those of you who check it out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And Harry- I think a great poll would be one in which you do a survey to drum up intrest for ESCAPE FROM EARTH. Maybe even see if Robert would put his directorial power behind it. He's the only one besides Carpenter that I would want to see bring Snake Plissken back to the big screen. And if he would let me show him my treatment/Screenplay for ESCAPE FROM EARTH, hey, I'd be happier than a Crazy in a dank sewer tunnel. Take care, guys!
Kirk Howard Hazen ---http://home.earthlink.net/~quietbob/carp/stories/ -
I was waiting for a review in there somewhere.
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The classic original actor who played Pit Bull's bird like man,
Tom Aikin played Hauk's right hand man!!!
Credit where credits due Frank also played the cool Gang White warlord who shoots the little girl with the ice cream! -
First J.T. Walsh and now this: I read while browsing the Hallowee.com site that the highly underrated character actor Tom Atkins passed away recently from heart problems. Being a Pittsburgher (Atkins hometown), I saw him just last November looking tough as nails at the local south hills Borders books. Tom really had a unique screen presence (he rooted the supernatural elements in THE FOG with a blue collar reality and likewise had the same regular tough guy charm in ESCAPE and other films and TV shows like NIGHT OF THE CREEPS and THE ROCKFORD FILES) and he had a way of delivering his lines that just stole every scene he was in (witness his speech as Det. Cameron in CREEPS, where he tells Spanky about his 'cover-up'- GREAT stuff!). It's a little eriee; I have a script that I've been working on for the past year and a half and have had three actors in mind for the main role- Tom Atkins, Darwin Joston (who played the great Napoleon Wilson in ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13) and Robert Forster (of JACKIE BROWN and THE BLACK HOLE fame), all mature character actors, perfect for my main character. Well, Darwin Joston sadly passed away last year and now Tom is gone. I wish Robert Forster the best of health, and hope like hell that my project's not jinxed! My sympathies to Mr. Atkins family- we movie fans will miss his presence dearly.
Kirk Hazen -
There seems to be some confusion reguarding Tom Atkin's demise: there have been some very recent local sightings (he apparently was at the local Pittsburgh Borders south within the last week), so there might just be some misinformation out there. There are folks looking into this, so hopefully we'll find Mr Atkins alive and kicking and ready to tear into another meaty character part on the screen soon...
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