{"id":15627,"date":"2015-06-17T22:34:30","date_gmt":"2015-06-18T02:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=15627"},"modified":"2015-06-17T22:36:48","modified_gmt":"2015-06-18T02:36:48","slug":"escape-from-new-york-1981-blu-ray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/17\/escape-from-new-york-1981-blu-ray\/","title":{"rendered":"Escape From New York (1981) [Blu-ray]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With \u201cEscape from New York,\u201d director John Carpenter once again evokes the western by delivering his own trademark twist of the sub-genre. Through his film he offers up a classic tale of a hero in the badlands while also introducing us to one of the most colorful figures in the Carpenter gallery: Snake Plissken. Plissken is a role only Kurt Russsell could have played, a brooding and rebellious anti hero who is also very cunning and of few words.<\/p>\n

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Though with some it may feel like a Clint Eastwood impression, Russell makes it in to a worthy and brilliant homage to the man with no name. Who knows it Snake Plissken is even his real name? We just know that Plissken is a mercenary and he\u2019s hired to work for a government that\u2019s less than tidy when it comes to its inner circle. With Plissken, Russell is a mixture of Rooster Cogburn, The Man with No Name, Lee Van Cleef, and Lee Marvin. He\u2019s a swaggering and stone cold survivor of a new world, and a vicious cowboy as one should be when society has evolved as it has in Carpenter\u2019s ouvre. Russell is a banner superhero, a mixture of Western tropes for a new age of civilization and that\u2019s just the way Carpenter loves it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the wild west in contemporary America, much in the realm of the spiritual prequel \u201cAssault on Precinct 13.\u201d Now with a 400 percent increase in crime in America, New York has become a high security prison. A fifty foot wall has been built around the border of the island, allowing criminals from within to form their own civilization and world, if only they stay within the walls. The outside is patrolled heavily, keeping any and all prisoners from attempting to escape. When the president crash lands on the island with crucial state information, Snake Plissken, a former Special Forces officer is hired to go inside and rescue him, not to mention save the information. But that proves troublesome when Snake has to come across all kinds of sub-civilizations to get to the president, including The Duke, as played by Isaac Hayes.<\/p>\n

With such a small budget, and enough ingenuity, Carpenter is able to transform New York in to a harrowing wasteland with a futuristic bent that turns it in to a jungle where only the strong survive. There\u2019s a dense mood present where Carpenter is able to invoke a futuristic world dominated by crime where one of the biggest cities is now a war world and stomping ground for the scourge of the planet. The film is filled with strong performances from Russell, Donald Pleasance, and Lee Van Cleef, right down to Adrienne Barbeau and Isaac Hayes. Yet another of Carpenter\u2019s films often imitated \u201cEscape from New York\u201d is a dazzling effort from Carpenter, and a one of a kind apocalyptic epic that has yet to be rivaled in action and storytelling quality.<\/p>\n

There are three audio commentaries for fans. One New Audio Commentary with Actress Adrienne Barbeau and Director of Photographer Dean Cundey, an Audio Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Actor Kurt Russell and an Audio Commentary with Producer Debra Hill and Production Designer Joe Alves. For Disco Two there\u2019s Big Challenges in Little Manhattan: The Visual Effects of Escape from New York, a fourteen minute look at the Special Visual FX of \u201cEscape\u201d with interviews from the DP\u2019s and Matte Artists.<\/p>\n

Scoring the Escape: A Discussion with Composer Alan Howarth is a tour of Alan Howarth\u2019s new studio with some biographical background for good measure; as well there is a look at his collaboration with Carpenter on the score for Escape from New York. On Set with John Carpenter: The Images of Escape from New York is a feature about Carpenter\u2019s work with Still Photographer Kim Gottlieb-Walker. There\u2019s the eight minute I Am Taylor: An Interview with Actor Joe Unger, the great recollection by David DeCoteau My Night on Set: An Interview with Filmmaker David DeCoteau. There\u2019s The Original Deleted Bank Robbery Sequence which clocks in at ten minutes, the classic EPK clocking in at twenty three minutes Return to Escape from New York. Finally there\u2019s the theatrical trailers, and four photo galleries for fans of the movie.<\/p>\n