User Reviews

This short reunion of the cast and crew of Escape from New York offers some informative anecdotes and trivia, some of which are expanded upon in the equally interesting audio commentaries that come with the 2003 DVD release (which are also referenced below). To start with, John Carpenter drops a bit of a controversial statement right away: he truly has a problem with authority and likes to stick it to 'the man' as much as possible. Kurt Russell chimes in to say he and John C. both believe that a man can be an island island and some, like Snake Plissken, prefer to be so.

Carpenter explains how Bob Rehme of AVCO pictures asked him to make direct The Philidelphia Experiment but John opted to show him his 1976 script for Escape from NY. Nick Castle was brought in to help him flesh out the script and add some humorous touches. Kurt Russell had just starred in Carpenter's TV movie 'Elvis' (where Kurt met his first wife Season Hubley, who is also in Escape). Snake Plissken turned out not only to be a turning point in Russell's career but also the most favorite character he ever played. And most every one else involved with the picture seems to agree with him: Snake was the only character with any honor left in a world where everybody was corrupt.

The supporting cast is each given their due. Lee van Cleef didn't like to be near helicopters and was the reason that Kurt Russell decided to speak like Clint Eastwood. Adrienne Barbeau, Carpenters wife at the time was of course written to be Maggie. Harry Dean Stanton got permission to change the lines, as long as he didn't change the plot. As Brain, he didn't want to be called Harold, just like Snake was particular about who called him what. Playing the American President, Donald Pleasance apparently made up his own back story about Margaret Thatcher taking over the world and making The United States a colony of England once more. And Isaac Hayes enjoyed playing the powerful Duke so much he begged producer Debra Hill to return in Snake's second outing Escape from L.A. (which is never mentioned in this documentary). Isaac also had fond memories of listening to Ernerst Borgnine's Hollywood stories.

On a budget of 5 million bucks, shooting in and trashing NY city was out of the question, so St. Louis, Missouri was found to be the dirtiest, most rundown stand-in. Debra Hill explains that the waterfront area had been mostly burned down by a urban fire and was perfect for the post apocalyptic look. Director of photography Dean Cundy and his crew would fill up three or four dump trucks with nondescript junk from the junk yard and litter the streets with them for each nights shooting, and at dawn it would all be gathered up again. Just developed Panavision ultra speed lenses allowed them to shoot with sources that would normally not have provided enough light. One of art director Joe Alves' proudest achievements was buying a DC-8 airplane in Tuscon. This was then cut into three peaces, trucked into St. Louis at three o'clock at night and laid down on set to pose as the crashed Airforce One.

Other amusing tidbits elaborated upon are the fact that Escape from New York is basically a Western set in the future. Kurt and Isaac talk about the Carpenter style of filming that was very different and innovative at the time. Much praise is giving to Russel for standing his ground against giant wrestler Ox Baker. Meanwhile Isaac was fighting mosquito's as big as bats on the Chain O'Rocks bridge. Also mentioned is the last shot of Adrienne Barbeau's character Maggie which was shot in the Carpenter's garage. At the time this DVD was released, there was a Snake Plissken comic book in the works (which unfortunately only ran for one four issue mini series) and plans for a television series. As of this writing, the planned remake that was to star Gerald Butler seems to be stuck in development hell, and rightly so. For despite the fact that all of Carpenter's films are getting the 'reboot' treatment of late, it's obvious that he and Kurt still have one outing in them. Bring on Escape from Earth!

8 out of 10