Escape From New York 40 Years Later

Ahoy Captain Cats here and today we are going to look at a classic film that still holds relevance to this day in terms of cynicism towards both the president and the political machine and that film is Escape From New York.

The film was directed by John Carpenter, who also co-wrote it with Nick Castle and did the music with Alan Howarth. Carpenter wrote the script amidst the infamous Watergate Scandal in 1976. His response was that there exists “real cynicism about the president.” This theme still exists to this day regardless of political affiliations. Carpenter had to wait until 1980 to get funding and approval due to the script’s nature, violence, and political atmosphere.

The film stars Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, Lee Van Cleef as Police Commissioner Bob Hauk, Donald Pleasence as President John Harker, and Isaac Hayes as “The Duke.” The film follows Snake Plissken as he was forced to save the president by the request of Commissioner Hauk within 24 hours before the micro-explosives that Snake was injected blows up his carotid arteries and dies.

The film and opening track became cult classics and Snake Plissken became an icon in his own right, don’t believe me then look at the main character from the Metal Gear Solid series and influenced Cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson to write “Neuromancer.” Take your time and go watch this cult classic and see why this film still stands to this day.