My next movie for #Johnuary was Escape from New York. Again I had never seen this before, but obviously I had heard so much about it and knew the name Snake Plissken very well. One thing I was looking forward to was seeing Kurt Russell in an action film. I’d only really seen him in films like Unlawful Entry where he plays fairly straight laced or even weak characters. I’d never seen him in a proper action role.
And this film does have a great cast. Kurt Russell, Lee van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Isaac Hayes, Harry Dean Stanton. Wow. And of course his regulars, Charles Cyphers and Adrienne Barbeau. And Tom Atkins too.
Here come my random thoughts about the movie:
- I’m sure a soldier gave a callsign “Gotham 4” right at the start. That was quite cool
- I loved the long slow pan at the start. Again not rushed at all. Classic Carpenter
- John Carpenter sure loves his helicopters. I know he was a helicopter pilot and he even flies helicopters in some of his movies. Many of his films feature helicopters
- I have to say, Snake’s trousers are pretty awesome
- It’s a great intro to Ernest Borgnine, laughing away in the cinema. That’s exactly how I always picture Ernest Borgnine. Smiling and laughing
- Chock Full O Nuts – great name for a store
- There’s another nice Carpenter trope of having the camera moving backwards facing a character as they walk down a corridor and then cut to the character’s point of view
- There is some great music when they steal the car. Probably written by Carpenter again
- I thought the 3D wireframe graphics of the buildings for were pretty cool for 1981. Nice vector graphics, akin to the Atari Star Wars arcade game
- It is rather convenient how Snake finds Brain on the building and then Cabbie downstairs and Cabbie has the tape. It helps move the action on but it does just come across as very convenient
- There is an amazing walkie talkie near the end. One of those massive jobs that Colonel Decker used to use on The A-Team. I always wanted one of them
- I’m not quite sure why the President stopped the winch near the end? Can anyone explain that to me?
- And is there a reason why Snake swapped the tapes other than to have a bit of a laugh? Fair enough, if so
I have to say I really enjoyed this film and I think if I had seen it back in the day I would have absolutely loved it and I would watch it regularly. The character of Snake Plissken is so over the top it’s almost funny, and yet Kurt Russell manages to pull it off perfectly. Great cast, great atmosphere, great film. This one should rank highly in my ranking at the end of the week.
Images from Blu-Ray.com
Noel
Jan 4, 2017 -
The cool thing about the wireframe CG is that it’s not even actually CG. It’s a miniature made to look like wireframe with reflective tape and a blacklight. That’s some of James Cameron’s work.
Retromash
Jan 4, 2017 -
Ah awesome. It’s a great look. There’s so much more I want to learn about Carpenter’s work. This watchthrough and my reviews have been quite high level. I can’t wait to go through commentaries on DVD etc to drill down a bit more. Do you have any documentaries or featurettes you can recommend?
Noel
Jan 5, 2017 -
The documentary on The Thing is I believe longer than the film, and incredibly in depth. Dark Star’s doc is also a feature in itself, though John declined to participate. Fog and Escape from New York also have some good docs on the recent releases.
Most of his commentaries are great, especially when he’s got a bud there to riff off of, like the Russell ones, Piper on They Live, Peter Jason on Prince of Darkness. I’d love to hear the Starman commentary he did with Jeff Bridges, but for some reason that’s exclusive to the UK release.
Retromash
Jan 5, 2017 -
Brilliant. Thanks Noel. I’ll see if I can get hold of the UK Starman one.