Author and film-maker John Walsh has recently written a fantastic book about the making of John Carpenter’s 1981 sci-fi thriller ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, which commemorates the 40th anniversary release and in honour and tribute, Film And TV Now interviewed the author about the book, available on Amazon and other sources:
In addition, we also look back at the film in a celebratory review.
Watch the interview here:
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was John Carpenter’s fifth major big-screen release, after DARK STAR (1974), ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976), HALLOWEEN (1978) and THE FOG (1979), as well as being director of two acclaimed TV movies, ELVIS (1979) and SOMEONE’S WATCHING ME (1978). ELVIS was released theatrically in the UK as ELVIS – THE MOVIE (1979) and when it played on TV in the US, it beat GONE WITH THE WIND and ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST in the ratings war.
Set in 1997, when the crime rate in America (according to the post-opening credits narration and caption) has risen 400%, New York has become a maximum security prison, with a fifty foot containment wall all around and bridges mined to prevent entry or exit. The rules are simple – once you go in, you don’t come out.
Into this chaos and maelstrom of anarchy, Air Force One is hijacked by a group of terrorists and the President (Donald Pleasance) is taken to an escape pod prior to the plane crashing. Chief of Security Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) recruits ‘the baddest man on the planet’, one-eyed brutality Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell in classic Clint Eastwood impression) who is about to go in for robbing the United States Depository for life, to get the Commander-In-Chief out and perhaps get a Presidential pardon for his actions.
The way in is by glider, but Hauk plants two microscopic charges in Plissken’s neck which will dissolve in twenty-two hours and rip open his neck unless he gets the main man out. So begins the mission…..
ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is flawed and implausible on occasion, but its’ enduring quality is that it is such a unique film, even by 2022 standards, as well as being one of the best major indies produced in the 1980s. The visual effects (overseen in part by future superstar director James Cameron and producer Gale Anne Hurd) are innovative and great physical effects (the book reveals some of the secrets and locations).
Shot in St. Louis, Missouri (doubling as New York), plus several California locations, the movie has a terrific energy about it, coupled with without doubt John Carpenter’s best ever score in association with Alan Howarth. The movie, as with ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, seems much more big-budgeted than the six-million dollar price tag suggests and remains one of the defining sci-fi thrillers of the 1980s.
