Snake Plissken, Hero or Rogue

“Escape from New York” (1981) is outdated and primitive next to the CGI movies of today, but that doesn’t prevent it from being fun and entertaining. And Kurt Russell fans, at least those of the funkier variety, love to think of him as Snake Plissken, gnarly bad and muscular, a black patch over one eye, a former war hero now a jailbird who will do just about anything to gain his freedom. “Escape from New York” is John Carpenter’s effective futuristic fantasy about the U.S. as a police State in 1997, with Manhattan now a top security prison with high walls around it. Like the Leper Colony on Molokai, where the original inmates were simply dumped on the small spit of land and had to survive on their own, criminals of the worse sort were dumped on Manhattan and had to sort things out for themselves. Carpenter’s hook for his tale is this: The President of the United States (Donald Pleasance) has crashed on Air Force One within the confines of the prison and is being held by a man known as ‘The Duke,’ (Isaac Hayes), the criminal chieftain, like King Rat reigning in a terminal sewer; and the warden of the prison, Bob Hauk (Lee Van Cleef) recruits Snake Plissken to go in and reclaim the President who had been on his way to save the world from another war. Knowing that Snake is not likely to volunteer for this next to impossible assignment, he pretends to inject him in the neck with a tiny explosive device, which would go off in if he isn’t back with the President. He has 24 hours to get the task done. Otherwise it’s bye, bye Snake.

What I liked most about the movie is its dark mood and anarchic atmosphere, the sense of Hobbsian rat-hole degradation of a formerly majestic city, and the low-life species of a retrograde humanity that seems to flourish in this fallen Gotham. The worse criminals, the so-called “crazies,” and other denizens of the night roam the streets like hyenas and lions roam the Serengeti. There’s even a cab with Earnest Borgnine behind the wheel who helps Snake locate The Duke. Why a cab should be operating there is odd but why not. If it aids the fantasy, let it be. The city is dark, in ruins, with fires burning and trash scattered everywhere, as all signs of a coherent or civilized community are absent, or in radical decline. The rule of the jungle prevails. .

But in the end there is Snake Plissken, a wonderful mix of hero and villain. It’s unbelievable that Snake was never given an encore performance, a sequel. Or maybe a comic book. For all I know maybe he has. He deserves one.