Escape From New York Collector’s Edition hits Blu-ray on 4/21/15 from Scream Factory
I’ve spent countless hours of my life both enjoying and investing in Escape From New York. I don’t remember when I first discovered it; I’m not even sure I knew it was a “John Carpenter film” or what that really meant when I first took it in. I’ve owned it on Special Edition DVD, bare bones Blu-ray, and now Collector’s Edition Blu-ray. When Cinapse had a 2 year anniversary and we decided to host a 35mm double feature screening, one of the films was Escape From New York. So when I say I’ve invested in the movie, I mean that quite literally. I put in dollars, sweat and tears in order to show the film on 35mm here in Austin, and I loved every minute of that privileged experience. Everyone who saw the film at that screening seemed to love every minute as well. And that is because not only is Escape From New York a personal all-time favorite film of mine, but I don’t know almost anyone who doesn’t like the movie. As far as cult cinema goes, it is an uncontested all-time great.
There’s a reason for that. Escape From New York fires on every cylinder. It has a killer concept, iconic characters, legendary art design and musical score, is above the feeling of being “dated” even though it takes place in a “future” 1997 due to its eternally rebellious spirit, and the writing and direction are so tight you’re on the edge of your seat every time, even if you know how it is all going to turn out. John Carpenter is my favorite director of all time and with Escape From New York he may have created the very best film of his formidable career. On top of directing, he also co-wrote it with Nick Castle and scored the film along with Alan Howarth. When you really step back to think about it, Carpenter’s fingerprints are all over this film in a way that only a handful of directors ever accomplish. And the wearing of many hats didn’t seem to spread Carpenter thin so much as allow him to thrive, delivering an iconic and oft-homaged musical score that is eminently hummable, and drafting an endlessly inventive, humorous, exciting, and rebellious screenplay as well.
Snake Plissken, it turns out, is Kurt Russell’s absolute favorite character he has ever played over one of Hollywood’s most long-lasting and iconic careers… and I have trouble disagreeing with him. There’s dark and political comedy gold running throughout Escape From New York, but Plissken himself won’t smile a single time, and he’ll only rasp out a few dozen Clint Eastwood inspired lines of dialog over the whole picture. On top of Russell’s performance, there’s also that costume, that snake tattoo, and the ever expanding legend surrounding him such that every character in the post apocalyptic film not only knows who Snake is, but even what he looks like, what he’s done, and they’ve all heard the whispered rumors that he might be dead. Every element of the film adds to Snake’s legend, and when the final twist happens, Snake’s ultimate act of defiance and libertarian “I am an island” sentiment cements his place in the anti-hero annals.
I could go on and on about Escape From New York, highlighting every actor’s embodiment of every major character, the fantastic camera work and visual effects and production design, and more. Escape From New York is so magic, it makes you eager to eat up any information about the film you can find. And fortunately, now that there’s a Collector’s Edition Blu-ray of the film, fans can indulge just about every itch they’ve ever needed scratched. So I’ll go into further detail about the film as I discuss the features on this brand new release. But in the meantime, if you heard Snake Plissken was dead… you couldn’t have been more wrong. Don’t hesitate to pick up this Escape From New York Collector’s Edition Blu-ray from Scream Factory.
The Package
This is the real deal. The definitive home video edition of Escape From New York, featuring an all new digital high definition 2K transfer, a new commentary track, some new bonus features, and all the ported over bonus features from the Special Edition DVD release. Sticklers will note that the Special Edition DVD featured a comic book and some promotional material related to that comic book, none of which is present here in the new Escape From New York Blu-ray. But at the very least fans will want to replace the previous bare bones Blu-ray release which featured only the benefit of having the film in dual formats, both Blu-ray and DVD. At the time of release, it was worth getting the barebones Blu-ray just to have the film in high definition. But I couldn’t personally let go of the Special Edition DVD and lose all those special features, perhaps the most enjoyable of which being an audio commentary featuring John Carpenter and Kurt Russell together, laughing and joking and having a great time between old friends. I’ll break down some of my specific thoughts on the bonus content below, but now fans can have it all. The thrill of seeing a favorite film look as good as it has since its theatrical release, along with so many bonus features that only the elite few will ever actually ingest them all. So yes, I’d say this release is a must own for fans of the film. Or if you’ve somehow never seen it before or owned any of the previous iterations of the disc, now is the time to blind buy this sucker and find out for yourself whether he’d prefer that you call him Snake, or Plissken.
DISC ONE
· NEW 2K High Definition scan of the inter-positive, struck from the original negative · NEW Audio Commentary with actress Adrienne Barbeau and directory of photography Dean Cundey · Audio Commentary with director John Carpenter and actor Kurt Russell
· Audio Commentary by producer Debra Hill and production designer Joe Alves
Not only does this disc have 3 individual commentary tracks, but they offer a wildly different experience with each one. I had listened to and enjoyed the track previously recorded by Carpenter and Russell for the last release. It is a treasure. But I hadn’t listened to the Debra Hill/Joe Alves track. Producer and Production Designer, respectively, trade off story after story as the movie plays out, focusing largely on their own unique experiences on the film. Hill’s stories from a producers angle are wonderful, and you’ll hear Alves speak about everything from the creation of the egg-shaped escape pod for the President, on down to how they hauled in wreckage of a de-commissioned plane, lit it on fire, and captured one of the best shots of the film without any real permits… per se. But finally there’s the new commentary, hosted by a knowledgeable blogger and featuring Barbeau (who played Maggie) and Cundy (longtime Carpenter cinematographer). Weirdly, the actual mix on this track is poor, with the film playing too loudly overtop of the talent and making it hard to hear Cundy from time to time. But aside from this forgivable if head scratching issue, the track is a delight to listen to. Hearing about the use of brand new HMI lighting to capture a different kind of “night” than had ever been seen on film before was fascinating, as one example. Three commentary tracks on any disc is a massive nod to fans, and between these three tracks you get almost every facet of the movie discussed by almost everyone you’d want to hear from.
DISC TWO
· NEW Big Challenges in Little Manhattan: The Visual Effects of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK · NEW Scoring the Escape: A Discussion with composer Alan Howarth · NEW On Set with John Carpenter: The Images of ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK with photographer Kim Gottlieb-Walker · NEW I Am Taylor: an interview with actor Joe Unger · NEW My Night on the Set: an interview with filmmaker David DeCoteau · Deleted Scene: The Original Opening Bank Robbery Sequence · Return to Escape from New York Featurette · Theatrical Trailers
· Photo Galleries — Behind-the-Scenes, Posters and Lobby Cards
These new featurettes are pretty great, if largely standard talking head-type stuff. The visual effects featurette spends a lot of time talking about James Cameron’s contributions to the film, which is obviously very interesting in retrospect. And that featurette might be the most illuminating as while the film’s visual effects might be “dated” in the sense that they’d all be done by CGI nowadays, there is still a lost magic to how the computer effects and giant, sweeping city shots were done.
There’s a pretty heavy focus in this release on the deleted bank robbery sequence which originally opened the film and which was excised to make Snake more mysterious. For the life of me, I don’t remember ever having seen the sequence, in spite of it having been available on a previous release. There’s Carpenter/Russell commentary optional for the sequence, and there’s the aforementioned Joe Unger interview which is newly recorded. I had a blast checking this sequence out, even if I wholeheartedly agree that the film is better without it. To see the intended introduction to Snake Plissken is to see a whole extra bonus adventure of our beloved anti-hero.
I could have written forever about the film itself, and I could write forever about the various insights gleaned from the 8 or so hours I invested in this new home video release. But instead, I’m going to wrap this up and recommend that you attempt the insane, break in to Manhattan Island and soak in all the glory that this release has in store for you.
And I’m Out.