{"id":2723,"date":"2025-08-01T01:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2723"},"modified":"2025-08-31T10:44:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T14:44:42","slug":"escape-from-new-york-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2723","title":{"rendered":"Escape from New York-1981"},"content":{"rendered":"

Escape from New York-1981<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director John Carpenter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Kurt Russell, Adrienne Barbeau<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #141<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #344<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"60002839\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed January 9, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Escape from New York (1981) epitomizes a great action film to me.<\/p>\n

Too often, action films are filled with run-of-the-mill characters, are plot-driven, and are mediocre stories that lack creativity. I adore Escape from New York, however.<\/p>\n

The creativity and amazing direction by John Carpenter allows the film to soar high above what is typical for this genre.<\/p>\n

The unique premise sets things off immediately as we follow the mission of ex-con Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) to save an important figure in peril.<\/p>\n

In futuristic 1997, we learn that due to skyrocketing crime throughout the United States, New York City has been fenced off and turned into a maximum-security prison.<\/p>\n

All of the most hardened and demonic criminals have been isolated on Manhattan Island to fend for themselves- free to kill or be killed as they like.<\/p>\n

The rest of the country is presumably crime-free- though we never see the rest of the country.<\/p>\n

The President of the United States (Donald Pleasence) is taken hostage when Air Force One crashes on Manhattan Island. Snake is injected with a poison that will kill him in twenty-four hours unless he successfully rescues the president and returns him alive and well.<\/p>\n

I love this film because it is strictly Carpenter’s vision.<\/p>\n

Due to the success of 1978’s Halloween, he was given creative freedom and a big budget to film in St. Louis (doubling for New York).<\/p>\n

The film contains eerie synthesizer music (reminiscent of Halloween and Halloween II) which sets the tone exceptionally well. The dark and abandoned sets are wonderful and capture a futuristic world oh so well.<\/p>\n

The audience will undoubtedly become enraptured as Snake’s mission is to do or die- if he does not save the president he dies. As Snake arrives atop the World Trade Center via glider, now post 9\/11, this scene takes on a haunting quality.<\/p>\n

Snake then immerses himself into the gloomy world of Manhattan facing all sorts of dangers along the way. Punk rock-looking creatures scurry around the city- many insane, and Snake meets odd character after odd character in his quest to save the president.<\/p>\n

His main ally is Cabbie, played by Ernest Borgnine.<\/p>\n

The villain of the story is Duke, not well cast nor well developed, but this can be overlooked because of his super rad Cadillac and his two fascinating accomplices- Maggie (Barbeau) and Brain (Harry Dean Stanton).<\/p>\n

The lavish sets include the New York Public Library and Grand Central Station- I love that there are so many iconic New York City locales featured- but the fact that they are not shot in the genuine areas does not bother me.<\/p>\n

The art direction is done so well that I was fooled.<\/p>\n

Escapism fare, but a unique entry in the action genre. Thanks to fantastic direction and a likable star, Escape from New York (1981) succeeds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Escape from New York-1981 Director John Carpenter Starring Kurt Russell, Adrienne Barbeau Top 250 Films #141 Scott’s Review #344 Reviewed January 9, 2016 Grade: A Escape from New York (1981) epitomizes a great action film to me. Too often, action films are filled with run-of-the-mill characters, are plot-driven, and are mediocre stories that lack creativity. … Continue reading Escape from New York-1981<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7858,143,151,1184,712,970,1426,2449,1216,5937,6883,7464],"tags":[7859,254,152,1187,713,973,1430,2450,1217,5938,6887,7460],"class_list":["post-2723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-141-favorite-film","category-1981-movie-reviews","category-actionfilms","category-adrienne-barbeau","category-donald-pleasance","category-ernest-borgnine","category-harry-dean-stanton","category-john-carpenter","category-kurt-russell","category-lee-van-cleef","category-nick-castle","category-top-250-films","tag-141-favorite-film","tag-1981-movie-reviews","tag-action-films","tag-adrienne-barbeau","tag-donald-pleasance","tag-ernest-borgnine","tag-harry-dean-stanton","tag-john-carpenter","tag-kurt-russell","tag-lee-van-cleef","tag-nick-castle","tag-top-250-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2723"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21898,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2723\/revisions\/21898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}