Product Description

A thrilling landmark film that jolts along at a breakneck pace, Escape From New York leapt to cult status with high-octane action, edge-of-your-seat suspense and a mind-blowing vision of a lone warrior (Kurt Russell) battling his way out of a post-apocalyptic Manhattan! Hailed as "stylish and scary" (Los Angeles Times), "dark and dangerous" (Newsweek) and "gloriously...fun" (Tyler Morning Telegraph), this fast-paced and furiously entertaining thriller grabs you by the throat and won't let go! In a world ravaged by crime, the entire island of Manhattan has been converted to a walled prison where brutal prisoners roam. But when the U.S. President (Donald Pleasence) crash-lands inside, only one man can bring him back: notorious outlaw and former Special Forces war hero Snake Plissken (Russell). But time is short: in 24 hours, an explosive device implanted in his neck will end Snake's missionand his lifeunless he succeeds!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12544 in DVD
• Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
• Released on: 2003-12-16
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.com
In the future, crime is out of control and New York City is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President's plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables. Kurt Russell put his Disney days behind him as the nicest bad guy in the picture. All comic-book sensibilities and macho posturing, this is one of writer-director John Carpenter's better brainless escapes. There are snappy one-liners and explosive action scenes. However, the film lacks tension and some believability even within the realm of SF fantasy. Even when it fails to gel, though, it always manages to amuse, thanks in great part to a varied and unusual supporting cast (watch for Ernest Borgnine as a cabdriver). Followed in 1996 by Carpenter's overdone and campy Escape from L.A. --Rochelle O'Gorman

DVD features
Fans of the cult favorite have known about the original opening ever since the film debuted in 1980. Twenty-three years later, this first reel (about 8 minutes of footage) is seen, and folks, you didn't miss a thing. The opening robbery attempt (which lands hero Snake Plissken in the New York City jail) shows the low-key and cash-strapped production at its worst. On the optional commentary track, director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell talk about the opening and come to the conclusion it was something good to trim. Also on this two-disc set is a new, deft 25-minute featurette on the production, too many notes on the new comic book series, and two commentary tracks. The Carpenter-Russell one from the 1984 laser disc (before the sequel Escape from L.A. was made) is a detailed and delightful reminiscence; the new one from producer Debra Hill and production designer Joe Alves track is for die-hard fans only. Both the picture and sound have been souped up here, making the low-cost film look and sound better than its grassroots origins probably deserve. --Doug Thomas

Customer Reviews

Kurt Russell Rocks
This is a good movie and kind of scary to see how close to home it really is in these days and times.

"Call me Snake."
Carpenter's classic with Kurt Russell playing a short mean Clint Eastwood with an eye patch (ala John Wayne), Lee Van Cleef as the warden and a cast that includes Ernest Borgine, Adrienne Barbeau, Isaac Hayes and Harry Dean Stanton. Let us not forget Donald Pleasance at the President of the United States. ("You're the Duke, you're A no. 1!") Manhatten as a prison, a downed Air Force One and Snake Plisken sent in to effect a rescue and return before impacted explosive charges blow his head off. Eerie night shooting in a burned out section of St. Louis subbing for New York and an effective Carpenter score. A classic.

Like A 911 Ahead Of It's Time!
Escape From New York was quite an interesting flick regarding a movie of the future with a prison and a police force ahead of it's time that has everything under control the way it should be, with the exception of the kidnapping hostage situation of the president(Donald Pleasance)inclining the police commissioner(Lee Van-Cleef) to make an exceptional proposition to a sadistic convicted felon(Kurt Russell)who becomes the only solution to rescue the president, since the dangerous Snake Plisskin(Kurt Russell) is the only person who knows all the right moves, which somewhat resulted in a case where it took a criminal to defeat a criminal, which in this case was the Duke(Isaac Hayes).

It was also cool how the police force was able to use techniques and strategies that still don't exist to this very day and making New York City like a big city dump and ghost town, plus it was kinda cool and neat how Hauk(Lee Van-Cleef) was able to have the doctor inject a sensory device into Snake Plisskin without any needles to be able to make sure that Snake brought the president back within less than 24 hours and neutralize the effects after the mission was accomplished, in case Snake had decided to sneak away instead of proceeding with the mission, which is something that would be cool for the authorities to use nowadays too, in order to help reduce crime and/or probation and parole violations.

In addition to what made this movie interesting; it was neat seeing actors and actresses from other John Carpenter flicks co-starring in this movie like Donald Pleasance(HALLOWEEN), Tom Atkins(THE FOG), Charles Cyphers(HALLOWEEN & THE FOG), Adrienne Barbeau(THE FOG), Harry-Dean Stanton(CHRISTINE), Kurt Russell(THE THING), Nancy Stephens(HALLOWEEN), etc., except ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was an action movie, not a horror movie, plus this was probably the first action movie directed by John Carpenter as well, since most of the other movies Carpenter made back then were horror flicks and thrillers.

In fact, I actually liked ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK a lot better than Carpenter's sequel ESCAPE FROM L.A.; even though ESCAPE FROM LA was alot more upgraded and alot more sophisticated than ESCAPE FROM N.Y. was, but I thought the action and the actors in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK were better and a lot less predictable than they were in ESCAPE FROM LA, especially since the original flicks of each saga are usually better than the sequels are, which is another reason why ESCAPE FROM L.A. wasn't as good as ESCAPE FROM N.Y.