Here comes another one of John Carpenter‘s extraordinary 80′s films. For this Flashback Friday I give you the 1981 ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Kurt Russell seems to be to John Carpenter what Johnny Depp is to Tim Burton. He’s been in several Carpenter films, but Snake Plissken I think has been the favorite of most audiences.
Plissken is a prisoner. But when the President (Donald Pleasence) is lost behind the walls of the New York Prison City, Snake is sent in to rescue him. The President has to get out to deliver a special message to the public Just to make sure Snake doesn’t just run away and leave the president to die, Police Commissioner Bob Hauk puts a micro-bomb in his neck, set to go off 24 hours later.
While Plissken looks for the President, he runs into all sorts of characters. There’s “Cabbie” (Ernest Borgnine), a guy named ‘Brain’ (Harry Dean Stanton), and Brain’s girlfriend Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau). But the biggest threat Plissken has to face is in the form of the “Duke of New York” played by the ever-cool and dearly departed Issac Hayes.
The movie is a non-stop, run for your life flick, with Crazies, a barbarian arena battle, and a shoot’em up car chase at the end.
This all comes from the twisted mind of one of my favorite directors of the 80′s. Carpenter wasn’t afraid to try something new and different. Rent it or buy it or give it to that 80′s pop culture lover you know. It’s total cheese at its best.
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