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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Although this two DVD set
has a bit of unnecessary padding, "Escape from New
York" Special Edition is a huge improvement on the
original DVD release from a couple of years ago.
It's 1997 and Manhattan Island is now a prison
with no guards, and prisoners left to fend for
themselves. Air Force One (which is en route to an
important conference with the Soviet Union and
Chinese Government) is hijacked by a group of
political terrorists. The President, who was set
to present important information at the
conference, and the rest of the crew, go down
inside the walls of the prison.
Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is a decorated war
veteran who has become a notorious outlaw. When
captured Plissken is sentenced to the Island
prison. Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) the head of the
prison recognizes Plissken and hatches a plan to
get the president and the vital info out. He plans
on sending in Plissken and has arranged for
amnesty in return. To insure that Plissken
completes his assignment he has two microscopic
explosives planted in his neck. If, in 22 hours,
he hasn't returned with the president, the charges
will explode.
"Escape" is one of Carpenter's best known films
and a cult classic. It's also one of his most
visually dazzling films. Despite working with a
budget of only about $6 million, Carpenter worked
wonders using a variety of locations (St. Louis
and Arizona for the exteriors and Los Angeles for
the interiors, with only a few second unit shots
of New York to establish the tone). Given the time
the film was made and the limitations of the
budget, Carpenter, his cast and production crew
(which featured a young James Cameron working on
optical effects) created a minor science fiction
classic. As Carpenter himself notes, "Escape From
New York" (like most sci-fi films) is as much
about the present as it is about the future.
Carpenter's satire is often sharp and pointed.
"Escape" operates as a broad social satire in
addition to a sci-fi adventure. While there's
little subtle about it, that's also part of the
film's charm.
Any film is only as good as its central
performance and Russell's irony etched performance
as Snake echoes Clint Eastwood's various
anti-heroes. Russell makes his portrayal more than
an imitation and invests Snake with pathos beneath
his cool exterior. What starts as a sketch of a
character becomes flesh and bone by the end of the
film. That's not to suggest "Escape" is a deep
film. It's pure entertainment but it isn't as
empty as it appears to be on the surface. And Van
Cleef's performance acts as a perfect
counterweight to Russell's more elaborate
performance. Since Van Cleef was Eastwood's foil
in two of the three Man With No Name westerns
directed by Sergio Leone, the performance gains
added weight if you've seen those two films.
Rounded out by an excellent supporting cast
featuring Ernest Borgnine, Adriene Barbeau, Harry
Dean Stanton as Brain (aka Harold), Issac Hayes as
the Duke of New York and, of course, Donald
Pleasance as the President, "Escape" manages to
out perform its modest origin as a sci-fi B-movie.
This deluxe edition is a marked improvement over
the previous edition. The high definition transfer
isn't marred with a lot of analog or digital
compression problems. The re-mastered sound is
generally very good, enhancing Carpenter's unique
synthesizer-based score. It compares favorably to
the laserdisc edition that was put out about a
decade ago. In fact, for all intents and purposes,
the latest edition of "Escape" is a spiffed
up version of the laserdisc edition. That's a good
thing since that laserdisc was one of the best
produced outside of the many Criterion Collection
versions put out from the same time. If you think
that the commentary track by Russell and Carpenter
sounds familiar, you're right, since it was lifted
intact from the laserdisc and added to the DVD.
It's clear the dynamic duo are having a blast
together and it's almost as much fun to listen to
them as it is to listen to the film. There are
some unique insights from Russell: For example,
there's one sequence where he rounds a street
corner. Since the crew was on the other side of
the building, he was quite nervous as he waited to
hear "action." Evidently, one time as Russell was
waiting he ran into two people out for a walk in
rundown St. Louis (where much of the exteriors
were shot). They see Russell and do a 180 back the
way they came when they see the prop weapons he
has in his hand. Producer Debra Hill ("Halloween")
and production designer Joe Alves ("Jaws") also
provide a commentary track that sticks more to the
nuts and bolts of the production.
Disc two features the complete bank robbery
sequence cut from the opening of the original film
by Carpenter (he's right -- it wasn't really
necessary and the film works much better without
it). Carpenter has also composed a new score for
this sequence (since either the original was never
completed or is missing). It's very much in
keeping with the spirit and style of the original
score that Carpenter wrote with Alan Holdworth.
There's a fine new featurette discussing the
film's origin and impact featuring new interviews
with Russell, Hill, Carpenter and others from the
production crew. The second featurette focuses on
the creation and final production of a new comic
book based on the character. An issue of the final
product is included in miniature form. While it
isn't relevant to the film directly, it's
interesting. There are the usual theatrical
trailers and an odd featurette that focuses on key
scenes of Russell and music cues from the film.
You probably won't watch the latter more than
once.
The photo gallery provides a nice
behind-the-scenes glimpse. Although the packaging
makes a big deal out some new liner notes penned
by Carpenter, they are only a couple of paragraphs
commenting on the new musical score for the bank
robbery scene and a brief comment about how
pleased he is about the high definition transfer.
I'm not a big fan of accordion packaging and
that's the single flaw with this package.
Otherwise, the packaging is attractive. The
cardboard will probably not stand up to wear and
tear well, so I'd suggest getting a couple of snap
cases to put the film in and storing the packaging
by itself if you're a collector. The inclusion of
the Snake Plissken comic book is a nice extra that
will probably disappear with later reissues. |
