‘ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK’: JOHN CARPENTER’S THRILLING, PUMPED-UP RIDE THROUGH THE STREETS OF A DYSTOPIAN NEW YORK CITY
In the post-Watergate period of America struggling with insecurity, distrust and national embarrassment, USC-educated filmmaker John Carpenter wrote a script for a dystopian futuristic action film entitled
Escape from New York, but despite his active campaigning, none of the studios wanted to back the project, calling it “too violent, too scary, too weird.” The shocking success of Carpenter’s low-budget slasher classic
Halloween, however, turned the situation around, as AVCO Embassy Pictures, logically impressed by what the director managed to do in such wanting circumstances, soon offered Carpenter and his producing partner Debra Hill a two-picture deal. After making
The Fog and then abandoning the planned adaptation of Charles Berlitz and William F. Moore’s 1979 novel ‘The Philadelphia Story: Project Invisibility,’ Carpenter allegedly uttered the
famous sentence “I have this script in my trunk” and
Escape from New York suddenly became a green-lighted film with a solid 6-million-dollar budget. Having twenty times as much money as on the production of
Halloween was a big leap for the promising filmmaker, but at the same time it still presented a huge challenge. The script expected Carpenter to create the dystopian vision of a ruined, burnt, derelict New York City. Luckily for the film crew, and extremely unluckily for the city’s residents, production designer Joe Alves and location manager Barry Bernardi stumbled upon East St. Louis, a city filled with old buildings that barely survived a devastating 1976 fire that left the town with a visual quality desperately needed for
Escape from New York. After demanding five months of night-time filming, the movie was finished in November, 1980, and premiered to critical acclaim and good box office results in July, 1981. Most of the critics were charmed by the dark, grubby visuality of the picture, by a convincingly murky atmosphere, Carpenter’s virtuosity in filming action, as well as the movie’s humor and acting performances of its stars.
Written by Carpenter himself, who later brought on his friend Nick Castle, who previously played The Shape in the filmmaker’s break-out film
Halloween, to do last-minute rewrites and add humor to the story,
Escape from New York is one of the
best sci-fi action films of the eighties and a film that steadily grew large cult following. Even though the studio preferred more experienced and reputable Charles Bronson, Chuck Norris or Tommy Lee Jones to jump in the shoes of the lead hero Snake Plissken, Carpenter stuck with his original choice, allowing Kurt Russell to break away from the image he created by starring in several light Disney comedies. In Russell’s interpretation, Plissken became one of the most famous action film characters of all time. It’s the same kind of bravery on Carpenter’s part that allowed him to cast Donald Pleasence both in
Escape from New York and in
Halloween. Carpenter took a risk and it paid off brilliantly. Besides Russell and Pleasence, quality actors such as Ernest Borgnine, Lee van Cleef, Isaac Hayes and Harry Dean Stanton joined the project. Carpenter also
provided the score, with the help of American composer and sound engineer Alan Howarth. Cinematography was handled by Carpenter’s frequent associate
Dean Cundey, while it’s certainly interesting to note that young James Cameron worked on the film as borrowed help from Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. Cameron produced several matte paintings to simulate the New York skyline.
Escape from New York is a highly enjoyable, expertly directed thrilling ride that helped establish Carpenter’s reputation as one of the most skilled filmmakers of his generation. 35 years since its release, the film is still a visually strong exhibition of the talent of a man so knowledgeable in his field, so inspired and ahead of its time and at the same time so modest and down-to-earth, it’s a shame he doesn’t get the right opportunities anymore. ...
http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org/esc...-pumped-ride-streets-dystopian-new-york-city/