ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
BANDSTAND BOOGIE Edition
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++THE PITCH++
John
Carpenter was never the filmmaker that his cult status made him out to
be. I'm ripping off that take from somewhere else. But I love it that he
is finding some renewed love over the years from the industry and
culture at large. Always fun seeing him teased on The Colbert Show about
who is The Thing at the end. And with the Halloween film revivals it
sounds like he was (finally) treated with some much deserved respect and
allowed some shadow directing there.
To
be clear, I'm not a Carpenter super fan. But I admire the man. He is
anti-authoritarian to a (pathological?) fault. And when he is good he is
good. They Live (1987) is a great story wrapped up in some meh
filmmaking, but still is decent none the less. The Thing remake he did
in '82 has to be the most ripped off space fantasy horror film in
history, and has also received some renewed love over the years (for
those coming in late, it flopped in theaters).
Which
brings me to Carpenter one true masterpiece. Escape from New York
(1981). That's a movie for all of us. And a good movie should be that,
IMHO. The Thing is fine, but it is a niche. Escape from New York is not
only Carpenter swinging for the fences, but him telling a great story in
a great way. Protip: all films may have a plot, even a good one, but
rarely tell a good story. You can feel Carpenter indulging in the joy of
great storytelling while maintaining a discipline that, arguably, is
rare for many of his other films. Probably didn't hurt that a young Jim
Cameron was helping out behind the scenes (you can feel his energy and
presence in many spots here).
So
if this movie is SO great, why a fan edit? Well, Escape from New York
is one of the first, and maybe the best, of the future shock movies back
in the day about the dreaded inevitable fascism from beyond (looking at
you, MAGA). It's the first movie to allow production design to be the
star of the movie in a modern sense. That would influence the likes of
movies of this ilk including Blade Runner, Running Man, and Robocop
(i.e. the peak art version of this sorta movie).
But
did you notice that the new Running Man flopped? Well, it is because
you can argue that it isn't much of a parody these days. The future
really is now. And Escape From New York's charm was giving us a tiny bit
of sci-fi (like 5% of it) against a bleak vision of the future as a
giant pile of garbage. America as our collective rock bottom.
But as a reaction to the Running Man flop, my fan edit seems to hit differently. Check out why...
++HIGHLIGHTS++
This
movie has an innocence to it that taps both Carpenter and actor Kurt
Russell (who plays the great anti-hero Snake Plissken) and their karmic
choice to be a man who is an island as a middle finger to the heavens.
That works here in ways that are timeless.
So
in honor of that, some fun quality of life tweaks. Like making the
prologue more vague. We don't need the dates. This movie could be us in a
few years given the nature of current events.
More production value with the militarized police force guarding the New York State Maximum security, um, nation?!
That
great wit you will find in 'Escape' is courtesy of Carpenter friend and
collaborator Nick Castle. And make no mistake that the makers of
Robocop picked up on it and turned up the volume to eleven. So there's
more of that here, in the form of some sci-fi patriotism satire. And a
bit of the news media making its presence (a little goes a long way, and
certainly would have a role in a totalitarian world like this).
And one more thing...
MONSTERS! More on that in a minute...
Not
to hit this on the nose too hardly, but what I loved about the original
movie is how well everything is done. The world building here is so
good, gritty, REAL, tactile... you believe pretty much anything that
comes after. The film came during that rare shrinking window between the
end of the NEW 70s Hollywood golden age and the resurgence of corporate
filmmaking where anything goes, and Hollywood was having fun taking
it's job seriously to make movies good, even fantasy ones dismissed by
stuffed shirts as for kids, without taking themselves too seriously?
Watch the Wicked movies for everything wrong about fantasy Hollywood
movies these days. Even a spirited effort like the new Fantastic Four
just can't seem to get it right, and I think it is because of the
community and how it differs now. The new Hollywood of the 70s really
was just thriving off the fumes of the 60s and the rock roll revolution,
so with the previous film studio system in shambles it made sense that
movies that rock would fill the void. And boy, did they! Especially the
fantasy ones. Jaws, Empire Strikes Back, Dawn of the Dead, Invasion of
the Body Snatchers (my fav). So it's nothing short of a miracle that a
movie like Escape looks so good, as the industry had lightened up just
enough to let an artist be an artist while reigning in excess just
enough to give us a good film for everyone.
That
said, this movie looks to lived in, so good, as a kid I always imagined
what-if situations where a zombie might wander in, or a mutant. In this
movie, you'd totally buy it, and that would be a deep fantasy dive if
there was any. A glimpse of that, you could argue, is that the makers of
Robocop did with this subgenre of future shock apocalypse movies. In
that movie you get ED209 and a toxic mutant and a lot of fun sci-fi.
So
for my purposes, I decided to also turn up the sci-fi elements up a
little bit. Part of the charm of Escape is that it is 5% sci fi and the
rest of it a nihilistic thriller. Those micro-time-bombs implanted into
Snake's neck, the mention of nuclear fusion, hints of battles with
Russia (Snake is a war hero turned hippie criminal), gave this movie
just enough mystery to keep you hooked. In the awful sequel Escape from
LA (which, I guess works if you treat it like a parody, or a drinking
game of Carpenter's greatest hits) you at least got the cult of plastic
surgery addict zombie mutants led by the Surgeon General of Beverly
Hills (played straight by the great Bruce Campbell). I think the
audience wants (needs?) a bit more of that. It's not like we are going
to get another Escape movie any time soon and even if we did, today's
corporate shithole Hollywood tribe (read: no longer a community) would
likely find a way to fuck it up.
So....
I decided to turn up the volume of the sci-fi here a bit to 10%. Now we
get some underground mutants from CHUD (I mean, that movie could be
part of this expanded universe, why not?) and some other occasional
carnivorous mutants that creep up on occasion. Without giving away too
much.
+++FINAL THOUGHTS+++
With
all my gushing, I almost feel guilty messing with a masterpiece like
Escape from New York. Again, those films found renewed life in brilliant
fun follow ups of sorts like Blade Runner, Running Man, Robocop. Even
the new underrated "One Battle After Another"(2025) feels like it could
be included here. So when a movie is sublime, while re-invent the wheel?
But I think, for me at least, what I'd like to bring to fan-editing is
part of that John Carpenter and Kurt Russell anti-authority spirit. Show
you guys something you haven't seen before while also preserving the
spirit of peak cinema in those rare places where it shined brightest. We
are not getting those films anymore, so why not rebel a bit and use fan
editing to give a taste of what could be? There is a great article
that, in its own way, says this better than I ever could. But I digress.
The
tl;dr version of this- We all love Snake Plissken, us niche cult fans,
and who doesn't want to see him kick some mutant ass in addition to
trying to save the world while giving it the middle finger all at the
same time. Well, now you can!
ENJOY!
And while you are it....
ENTER THE THEATER!
