New York State of Mind

Every once in a while, I surprise some people with a particular movie that I haven't seen. One that came up in the last year or so was Escape from New York. I'd seen most of writer-director John Carpenter's other films, including the forgettable sequel Escape from L.A., but the original had slid through the cracks somewhere. Recently, I got around to crossing it off the list.

Escape from New York is a clearly influential film, likely spawning First Blood and a raft of other "one-man army" movies that cluttered the 80s. It's interesting that this mindless action would be the Hollywood takeaway from the movie, when by all accounts John Carpenter was actually trying to tap a deeper nerve. Though it took him years to get the movie made, he reportedly first wrote it in the wake of the Watergate scandal, his primary purpose to depict a dystopian future with an untrustworthy president. But then, it's hardly surprising this element was overlooked, as it doesn't seem to play much in the finished product.

It's hard to know how critical to be of the film's countless cliches, as part of me wonders how many of those cliches this movie may have actually inspired. But even trying to allow the movie some rope, I found myself a bit weary as it marched on. The parade of shallow characters seems put there only to set up heroic one-liners for the protagonist, or provide him someone to fight. That protagonist is a bit too much of an inscrutable cipher to be really likeable, and it seems like we hear people tell us he's a badass more than we see him actually being a badass. For my money, John Carpenter nailed a strong man of few words better in The Thing -- and also using Kurt Russell, at that.

There is some fun to be had watching the movie, certainly. But it's the sort of fun that evaporates almost instantly once the end credits have rolled, leaving a vague sense of "it was alright, but could have -- should have -- been better." I'd give it a C-. It's not even remotely the worst example of its subgenre, though I'm not quite sure what inspires the cult enthusiasm for it.