Escape from New York - 1981

"Escape from New York" - 1981
Dir. by John Carpenter - 1 hr. 39 min.

Original Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

I'm not sure the original intention behind "Escape from New York" was to create a film that functions extremely well as a cult classic; I'd say it's more likely that someone wanted to get the flavor of "Mad Max" set in America, and to just make a gnarly movie all the way around.  The idea behind the film is excellent, and the execution of the idea is solid, considering the budget for the film.  The story has held up well, and even if some of the costumes and such seem bizarre, it's aged in a way that actually works pretty well.

1n 1997 (which is now, according to the film), crime has skyrocketed, and Manhattan has been abandoned as a defacto prison island.  Those who enter do not leave.  Air Force One is hijacked by a crazed militant, who rams the plane into a building, leaving only the President (Donald Pleaseance) surviving, having escaped in an escape pod.  The President is quickly kidnapped by prisoners, to be ransomed.  The problem with this is that the President's presence is required at a peace summit, which will fall apart if he is not rescued roughly twenty-four hours hence. The out-of-the-box solution: enlist the help of notorious criminal Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), a former special ops soldier with an eye-patch and a perpetually shitty attitude.  Snake gets offered a full pardon in exchange for being dropped into Manhattan and rescuing the President within (now) twenty-two hours.  Fail, and Snake will die, thanks to micro-explosive implants in his neck.

One of the things most striking about movies like "Escape from New York" is the vastly different opinion of the city itself.  Now, movies that take place in New York often have characters viewing their surroundings with a magical gleam in their eyes, and there's an "only in New York" tone to a lot of what happens.  But if you travel back to the films from the '70s and '80s, before everything got cleaned up, you see that the prevailing opinion was that New York was a cesspool, overfilled with people who are only half a step above animals, decorated in aerosol, and generally an unsavory place to be.  Granted, this film was supposed to be roughly fifteen years in the future, but "Escape from New York's" New York has the ambiance of a dump, with all the rats scurrying around for added flavor.  In this environment, it's not crazy to think that the only reasonable response to getting someone out of a trash heap is to send in a foul-mouthed, specially-trained asshole in.

If you were going to cast a weird, violent dystopian sci-fi movie, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better batch of actors than here.  "Escape" was part of Kurt Russell's attempt to escape his Disney past, but there's also Isaac Hayes as the Duke of New York (A number one!), Harry Dean Stanton as the Brain, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Van Cleef...  That's a good stack of distinct, oddball actors that all bring something unique to what's admittedly a pretty odd film.  And they all pop up one after another; it's like getting a gift inside of each gift that you've received.  As far as the action goes, it's not bad for what it is.  Fight scenes weren't choreographed in 1981 the way that they are now; a punch or two is about all anyone's going to get.  "Escape" isn't short on action, but it relies more heavily on the tone of the film, the grimy setting, and the imposed tension of a literal deadline hanging over Snake's head.  And it succeeds on that front.

Part of what I like about "Escape" is that it's a distinct kind of film from a specific point in the history of cinema.  There are certainly other films like this, and some of them have their own merits, but "Escape" is weird enough, and violent enough, and just plainly good enough of a story (with a really good protagonist with an excellent sneer) that I enjoy watching it every so often.  Some of the cheesiness in it is due to budgetary constraints, but if you sit down and watch "Waterworld," a bloated dystopian sci-fi film that is in the same lineage as "Escape," it's clear that money can't fix everything.  It's fun watching Kurt Russell be a badass, it's fun watching Ernest Borgnine do anything, and it's fun to watch "Escape from New York."

3. 5 / 5 - TV (HD)

They Live - 1988

"They Live" - 1988
Dir. by John Carpenter - 1 hr. 33 min.

Official Trailer

by Clayton Hollifield

Magic sunglasses!  Oh man, if you're making a low-budget-ish kind of movie, there's almost no better gimmick than magic sunglasses.  I'm kind of upset that I had never seen "They Live" until last night, because it's a piece of glorious trash.  There are aliens, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, subliminal messages, a heavy critique of 80's consumerism...  All the things that add up to a superlative trashy movie.

Nada (Piper) wanders into Los Angeles in search of a job.  He manages to hook on as a day-laborer with a construction crew, where he meets Frank (Keith David).  Frank brings him back to the shantytown he stays at, where he can stay and eat until he gets on his feet.  But there's something hinky going on with the church across the street, and Nada can't resist prying.  The church is a front for a group of people who have been hacking into local broadcasts and talking about conspiracy theories.  Before he can say anything, a SWAT team rolls in, dozing the shantytown, chasing down the people from the church, and sending everyone fleeing in every direction.  Nada returns the next day, and finds some magic sunglasses in a hidden compartment in the church.  These glasses allow Nada to see things as they really are; advertising is boiled down to simple messages like "obey" and "submit," and that there are alien ghouls that walk among people unnoticed.  A lot of them.  Once they discover that Nada can tell them apart, he has to go on the run.

Director John Carpenter kind of specializes in great sci-fi ideas on a shoe-string budget (with both "Escape from New York" and "Starman" to his credit, among other films), and this one is a doozy, too.  Part of the appeal is showing off unusual settings, and I can't remember too many films from the 1980s taking place in a homeless camp.  And part of what you might think of when you think of that decade are yuppies.  "They Live" is a direct critique of that lifestyle.  One character even tells them that "we all sell out every day, might as well be on the winning team."  Maybe the most pointed barb is, when Nada sees a fistful of money through his magic sunglasses, they read "this is your god."  Although, I must point out, the idea that the alien ghouls are out solely to extract money from people also means that money is everyone's god.  If it's worth enough to fight, defend, and die for, you also have placed money on a pedestal.

Roddy Piper is exactly the right guy for a movie like this, and him being in it is the main reason that I wanted to watch it.  His wrestling persona is fairly jittery and hyperactive, so it was nice to see him play someone a little more composed than I was used to seeing.  At the same time, only he could deliver lines like "I'm all out of bubblegum," and have it just feel right.  Also, Nada's extended alley fistfight with Frank was a lot of fun.  Piper managed to work several wrestling moves and even a couple of suplexes into the fight (belly-to-back and gutwrench, if you're keeping score at home), and the whole thing was drawn out and ridicuously awesome.  And Nada has a way with women...

Seriously, if you're even half-way into trashy, high-concept/low-budget sci-fi stuff, there's no reason you shouldn't have already seen "They Live."  I can't believe that it took me this long to finally see it.  It's a ton of fun, quotable as all get out, and goes by really quickly.  It's an 80's film in all the best ways.  But most of all, it's just super-fun.  There's no other way to put it.

3.5 / 5 - TV