Escape from New York

A typical, distinctive Carpenter film, as only he can do it. The low budget and the associated minimalism are enough to play a solid B-movie etude about one tough guy who stood up to everyone and fucked them all up... Kurt Russell is a man par excellence, who needs little to satisfy similarly-minded fans - the pissed-off face, synth music, and an hour and a half-long sequence of tense scenes that can be described in several pages of genre textbooks today. 4 ½. (05/16/2008)

Escape from New York is a great example of what an inventive director can achieve with little money. No wonder the film has become a model for many low-budget filmmakers (including Robert Rodriguez). One of the most striking aspects of Carpenter's iconic low-budget film is the surprisingly elaborate production design. The impressive drawings of a ruined New York City were done by a then-unknown James Cameron, who got his start in filmmaking as a production designer. Carpenter wrote the original version of the script back in the 1970s in response to the Watergate affair, and the cynicism of the time is evident in every inch of the film. Snake Plissken is the quintessential individualistic anti-hero. He once fought for his country, but circumstances forced him to turn against authority. He has become a renegade and an outlaw who cares only for himself, while still being more human than many of the characters around him. Casting Kurt Russell (at the time known for family films) was a big risk, but it worked out perfectly. Russell's minimalist acting, stone-faced, quiet voice and slow gait are reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's nameless gunslinger roles. And the film is essentially a kind of futuristic western. New York, which here functions as a prison without guards where the inmates create their own world, is reminiscent of the Wild West in a way, and legendary western actor Lee Van Cleef plays one of the supporting roles. (06/22/2013)

Carpenter’s famous cult movie didn’t work on me. The atmosphere is fine, Russell is tough as nails, but the very premise of Manhattan as a prison (that was set up god knows why) is very silly. I know looking for logic in films of this kind is nonsense, but in Escape from New York all those inconsistencies were way too evident. (07/07/2011)

The president’s plane crashes in Manhattan, which is a giant self-governing prison, and the biggest tough mudafucka with an eye patch has 24 hours to get him out of there like FTW. If I'd known this movie when I was a kid, I wouldn't have made it out of third grade. And I'd probably starve to death in front of the video. The ideal cure for a creative crisis, I think, would be just listening to kids play on a road carpet. (09/24/2020)

I like John Carpenter, but I found out that there are some quite essential movies he made - and that there are many of them - that I haven't seen yet. Yes, this was one of them. I was expecting it to be a little bit crazier, but I definitely wasn't disappointed. There are excellent characters here, but above all, the environment is beautifully brutal. A person evolves for so long, only for this to become of them in the end. Well, we couldn't be surprised, even though the year 1997 is successfully behind us. (03/20/2015)