Escape From New York: A Tall But Firm Tale

I was born roughly a year after 9/11, so for me, seeing the twin towers grace the Manhattan skyline was perhaps the most unsettling thing about John Carpenter's Escape From New York. Close behind that was all the murder, crime, and depravity you see in it, but honestly, it's close. This is an inescapably strange little B-movie, a circus show of dystopian pulp and sleaze served up with all the expected gung-ho muscle and masculinity of a well-toned army commando from the 80s, or at least Hollywood's idea of him. The tagline of the movie is relatively self-explanatory: 1997. New York City is a walled maximum security prison. Breaking out is impossible. Breaking in is insane. Air Force One is hijacked, and the president taken hostage on Manhattan. And who better to get the beleaguered Commander-in-Chief out than Snake Plissken, a former special forces soldier and newly convicted felon given a second chance? Yes, Escape From New York is the type of movie to name its protagonist Snake, and not once does it apologize for its indifferent posturing.

The premise of this movie is more ambitious than most. The idea of turning Manhattan into a high-security prison is so preposterous that it's irresistible. Yet, almost immediately, we're confronted with the grim truth that such a proposition implies when two prisoners attempting to swim their way across the harbor are unceremoniously blown away by a police patrol helicopter. Escape works as both escapist fantasy and eerily familiar social commentary built around the transformed-for-the-worse island of Manhattan, an atmospheric feat of world-building made possible by Hollywood magic and poor decisions by the government. The tone of this movie is thick enough to pour a bucket of lead paint over the inside of your head. The debris-littered and hollowed-out hellscape of a New York ruled by the criminal element can be eerily quiet, and there is something truly unsettling about seeing a large city so unnaturally tranquil (until it isn't, of course, but you knew that). It's like a post-apocalyptic movie with no apocalypse other than a quiet one of our own making.

As fascinating as Escape can be, it's also careful to avoid overstaying its welcome. The US Government knows better than to let Snake completely off the leash, and so they inject a couple of special timed explosives into his neck with a 24-hour fuse. The only thing keeping Snake alive is the work he's doing for the people who were about to imprison him for life. The inevitable march towards either Snake's success or his death keeps Escape moving with an attractive and efficient air of urgency when it would have been extremely easy for Carpenter's film to become almost rightfully self-indulgent and bloated instead. Nevertheless, not everything about this movie's hustle works, and the most significant issue I take with it is the character of Snake himself.

Snake's freedom and his very survival are what's on the line, but no one involved in writing this movie seems particularly interested in giving him depth. He's a cool yet rather shallow character, the type of disillusioned loner given a second chance we'd seen time and again, even by the early 80s. As a result, many of the stakes in this movie, as well-staged and imaginative as they might be, lack real weight. This movie is cheerfully grim escapism, but lacks a beating heart at its center. I understand that Escape isn't exactly trying to make Snake a particularly complex figure, but when the movie is about him and about what happens to him, I almost felt as if he needed to be. This movie is fueled by its electric premise, but the longer it runs, the more it becomes apparent that it gets a little tired. Escape From New York demands just a little bit more from itself than its intriguing B-movie premise is able to deliver.

Still, I think an excess of creativity is overwhelmingly preferable to an aversion to it. Even if Escape can't nearly live up to its lofty ambition, it sure tries, and does an admittedly good job of mostly doing it, too. Watching it sometimes feels like looking into a magic mirror and seeing a twisted, alternate reality of somewhere readily recognizable, which can be a lot of fun - something Escape From New York is always gleefully ready to allow itself to be. It runs only an hour and thirty-nine minutes too, and somehow manages to feel even shorter. It's far from a cinematic life sentence, and doesn't overstay its welcome in the slightest. I say better an efficient and unapologetically tall tale than a sluggish and timid one that falls short.

Escape From New York - 8/10

Isaiah 1:16-17