Escape From New York

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After the disappointment of Death Proof, I wanted to watch some vintage Kurt Russell, so I rented Escape From New York. This is what a "B" movie should be.

Escape From New York isn't the greatest film ever made, but it is a hugely entertaining bit of escapism (haha). You probably know the plot, so I won't reiterate it or spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it before.

Where Escape From New York succeeds is in creating a world that works. We get a glimpse of a dying culture, one that has had to sacrifice it's greatest city. The idea that a city has been turned into a giant prison works for the most part due to the director's ability to make us believe. John Carpenter is not one of my favorite directors, but he does a great job with a small budget in this movie. It of course helps that for most Americans, New York is not much different in reality than in the movie.

Kurt Russell is very good as Snake Plissken. In this role, he channels Clint Eastwood mixed with John Wayne and a dash of Erroll Flynn. In some ways, I think Carpenter was trying to make a sort of modern version of the "Spaghetti Western" genre. Plissken is the stoic gunfighter, a la Eastwood and the city has replaced the open plains. Other characters fill out some of the usual roles, like Harry Dean Stanton's "Brain" and of course we have a nod to the genre with the inclusion of Lee Van Cleef in a pivotal role.

The only character that felt wrong to me was Cabbie, played by the terribly miscast Ernest Borgnine. Borgnine hits wrong notes throughout, playing it more as comedy than serious. This is not a movie that plays it loose with the self-aware mockery that has become a staple of some "B" movies. It's dark, violent, sadistic, and depressing. For the most part, everyone else is fine, including Adrienne Barbeau. She is little more than eye-candy, but so what - she is showing generous amounts of cleavage in every scene she's in, and on top of that, she gets the tone right.

I like this movie even though it hasn't aged well. The low budget certainly hurt this movie, but the story is the thing, and that is what makes Escape From New York so much fun. It's a tight film, without needless scenes. We get the set-up and off it goes, for a fast-paced ride that keeps you entertained and never makes you laugh at it.