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By DOUG BELL
Film Critic
With Escape From New York John
Carpentei (Halloween, The Fog)has created
one of the few pessimistic films that works
successfully as entertainment.
An adventure film combining sciencefiction
and political intrugue, Escape envisions
a world in which crime has reached
nearly catastrophic proportions.
The vear is 1997. New York City's crime
problem is so un-controllably advanced that
Manhattan is turned into a death-row
prison. Impregnable walls are erected
around the island: no one gets out. In time,
the city becomes a chaotic nightmare where
men are like rats, scurrying without aim or
identity.
ONE NIGHT, the Presidential jet falls
within the citv eates. The President (Donald
Pleasance) survives the crash but is abducted
by the "Duke" (Issac Hayes), the
ruthless leader of terrorist-like cult. Almost
immediately, the tough, brash warden (Lee
Van Cleef) formulates a rescue plan, the
success of which depends on one manSnake
(Kurt Russell)
A prisoner himself, Snake is irreverent,
unkempt, and utterly self-concerned.
Pictorially, Russell is surprisingly effective
in the part. The problem is his performance:
instead of creating the role of
Snake, Russell imitates Clint Eastwood. The
vocal resemblance to Eastwood couldn't be
coincidence: it's unmistakably Clint? low,
laconic and angry. Russell obviously
mimics him intentionally. It constitutes a
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Van Cleef offers Snake a complete pardon
for the safe rescue of the President. And to
provide extra incentive, Van Cleef has him
injected, without Snake's consent, with
some sort of self-destructive serum: if the
mission isn't completed within 22 hours, solong
Snake.
Hawind liMlo phnipn in Ihp mntlpr SnalfP
performs with the deftness of Indiana Jones.
He gets the job done despite formidable
complications, such as a gladiator-like
battle in the "Duke's" Colosseum (the ruins
of the Stock Exchanee).
BUT HE doesn't bring it all off singlehandedly.
He needs, even demands
assistance, most memorably from Ernest
Borgnine, and ageing, slightly senile cab
driver. Borgnine's cabbie resembles Walter
Brennan's "rummy" in Howard Hawks'
1944 To Have and Have Not. (Hawks ifs
reportedly Carpenter's favorite director.)
In keeping with the film's hard-bitten spirit,
nearly every one who lends a hand dies
(Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne
Barbeau), to Snake's indifference.
Though flawed, it is an absorbing film.
The dark, debris-ridden city (well
photographed by Dean Cundey) is truly
chilling. Carpenter's pessimism seems a
mature response to contemporary events,
and it is to his credit that Escape From New
York is so satisfying an entertainment.
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