ABOUT, PLOT

Condemned criminal Snake Plisskin (Kurt Russel) is offered his freedom if he can rescue the President of the United States( Donald Pleasance) from the walled prison island of Manhattan after a terrorist brings down the President's plane in this futuristic fight for survival adventure.

DEVELOPMENT

Carpenter originally wrote the screenplay for Escape from New York in 1976, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal Carpenter said, "The whole feeling of the nation was one of real cynicism about the President."

The plot is at its roots a western, greatly indebted to the work of Sergio Leone and Howard Hawks. However the originality of Escape From New York lies in its daring central concept of depicting Manhattan as a grim and dangerous high security prison. Carpenter showcased in this film a fascist, brutal, bleak and nihilistic future where freedom and civil rights are totally absent, even outside the penal complex. In a sense, Escape From New York presents a cynical view of the greed, crime, violence, corruption, overpopulation and selfishness found in contemporary America.

He was also inspired by the film Death Wish which was very popular at the time. Carpenter did not agree with this film's philosophy but liked how it conveyed "the sense of New York as a kind of jungle, and I wanted to make a science fiction film along these lines".

LEGACY

ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is one of the best entries in the once popular post apocalyptic genre which included ROAD WARRIOR and THE TERMINATOR. Carpenter’s film spawned countless imitations and its influence can be found today in cyberpunk, video games and films as recent as Cloverfield.

KURT RUSSEL

REVIEWS