ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK [1981] review

I try to catch up on famous or well-known movies from the past whenever I can, and am always excited to finally see such films.  So it was for ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.  Not all films of this type satisfy my sense of discovery though.  So it was yet again for EFNY.

John Carpenter’s music was very good at setting a tone for the film, and his direction and camera work were creative, I think my interest never went above low-medium level because the character of Snake Plissken didn’t come off as badass or nearly interesting enough for me.  Everyone thinks he was dead?  If he was such a badass, how did he ever get caught?  

The story has the president being hijacked on Air Force One and crash landed into Manhattan, which is now just a huge prison.  Snake was headed there anyway, so is offered a deal to get his conviction overturned if he can spring the POTUS from the prison-city.  Interesting setup.  And the brief mentions of the societies that had developed on the city-prison I thought were really interesting.  I would have liked the movie to show more of them and how they work.  

Instead there are a few actions scenes punctuating characters commenting on how they thought Snake was dead.  They really say that a lot.  

It’s not an amazing sci-fi movie, but it is perhaps barely decent enough to warrant watching if none has never seen it.  There is at least some eye candy on screen for the second half of the film.

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