John Carpenter’s early career is something that today he is having trouble living up to, classics like ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ , ‘Halloween’ , and ‘Escape From New York’ all happened within a five year period. All of them low budget movies, full of style and harked a new voice in successful indie filmmaking. With the omission of his early 'Dark Star' , his cult movie, every other movie that was produced turned in a handsome profit for the young filmmaker who would then go on to bigger things… His first main studio movie, a remake of Howard Hawks ‘The Thing From Another World’ turned the gore and claustrophobic meter way up and scored another hit with the horror fans, if not the box office due to everyone going to cry at the cinema with Spielberg’s religious allegory, ‘E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial’ , that year.
‘Escape From New York’ had Carpenter reunite with the star of his previous TV movie ‘Elvis’ , and Kurt Russell donned his best Clint Eastwood impression, complete with eye patch, stubble and long hair, he gives the world an anti-hero it had been waiting for. Snake Plissken was a larger than life movie icon in the making, filled to the brim with anti-establishment urges and harking back to many a western that the director is so fond of. Throw him into the mix of an action adventure story with a slightly futuristic take, a president in peril and Snake is the man to get him at the time of the American hostages in Iran, and you have box office gold (a formula they tried again, but this time the world was shown a corny slice of hokum they would much rather forget in ‘Escape From LA’ ).1997.
The President (Donald Pleasance) is aboard Airforce 1 when it is hi-jacked and deliberately crashed into the maximum-security prison that was once New York. The streets are littered and filled with gangs, there’s darkness and danger on every corner. Police commissioner Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) needs to act fast as the President was carrying something very important, and that something has a time limit on its value.
Snake Plissken, caught for committing a robbery, is about to be put away for a very long time that is until Hauk sees him as the answer to his problem. Snake must go into New York, rescue the President and come back with the goods in time, and for an extra incentive they plant some small explosives in his neck with a countdown to his mission success or a quick goodbye. The clock is ticking…
Carpenter gives us a basic story and has fun all the way with his panto characters, filled with an ensemble cast, with music legend Isaac Hayes playing the colourful and deadly the Duke of New York, with one of the best character actors of all time, Harry Dean Stanton as Brains, who is anything but, and his moll Maggie, played by Adrienne Barbeau, the aforementioned Russell, Van Cleef and Pleasance, and last but not least Ernest Borgnine as the bubbly chubby Cabbie. There’s also a suitably scary performance from Frank Doubleday as the Duke’s punky killer ambassador Romero. A class act by all.
This release is the best looking ‘Escape From New York’ we have ever had, scoped to its correct ratio and the sound has been given both a 5.1 and DTS option (the latter is not available on the US version). But the problem, and yes there had to be one didn’t there ? The problem is that the extras have been slimmed down from the US 2 disc release. We still have the audio commentaries, the first and better is from Carpenter and Russell (the fun kicks off after Carpenter announces ‘by the way both our ex-wives are in this movie’), the second being very bland and comes from the late Debra Hill and Production Designer Joe Alves. Both are filled with great snippets of info, from the animated beginning in the days before CG to sneaking a plane onto the burned out streets of St. Louis, but the second one just lacks any sense of fun to be a good listen. The original bank robbery opening is present as a grainy deleted scene; the US version also has a commentary on this that is not present on the UK edition. ‘Return to Escape From New York’ is a 23 minute making of featurette. ‘Snake Bites’ is a montage from Snake’s finest moments with an original score from Michael Kross. A Theatrical and Promo Trailers fill the remainder of the UK edition….
The US edition has a brief text-and-picture segment, 'The Making of John Carpenter's Snake Plissken Chronicles Comic' and includes the first edition, two teaser trailers, and a gallery of behind-the-scenes, production, and lobby card photos. Why these are missing on this release ? I can only guess it is due to the fact of including DTS track and wanting to keep it as a single disc release… but if I had to choose, I would go for the DTS option everytime.
'Escape From New York Special Edition' is available to buy via Amazon and AmazonUK .
You can read more about the DVD in our database .
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