Director John Carpenter has had quite the interesting career. His films include cult classics (“Halloween”, “Assault of Precinct 13”, “The Thing”) as well as huge flops (“Ghosts of Mars”, “In the Mouth of Madness”), but his fan base has never wavered. There is a certain style to Carpenter’s work, and I can generally find something to like about most of his films. But of course, I do have my favorites. High on that list is 1981’s “Escape from New York.” The premise is fairly simple. Kurt Russell is Snake Plissken, an ex-Special Forces Officer turned criminal who is ‘enlisted’ (re: blackmailed) into taking on a mission to save the President. It seems the President’s plane has gone down in the New York area and has gone missing. Normally you might think this would be a simple operation, but the year is 1997 and the entire city of New York has become a Federal Prison which houses all of the countries worst criminals.

You can’t just walk in and walk out. (Oddly enough, I remember visiting New York in 1997 and somehow missed the check points.)

I can’t tell you how much I loved this flick when it first came out. First there was Carpenter’s driving score (he generally does the music for his films) which had this great bass beat. Then there was Kurt Russell. “Escape from New York” marked a major turning point in his career. Prior to this movie, audiences were familiar with the squeaky clean image that he exhibited through years and years of work in Disney films. Remembering him from “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and “The Barefoot Executive”, Russell was almost unrecognizable as the tough-talking, long-haired, eye-patch wearing Snake Plissken. With this character, he crossed the line into cult icon status and by continuing his affiliation with Carpenter in two more films cemented his status as a box-office draw.

Years ago, when more and more of Carpenter’s films were given the Special Edition treatment, among them “The Thing”, The Fog, and “Big Trouble in Little China” (the last one being a commercial flop, but a fan’s guilty pleasure), I was especially thankful to see the release of a Special Edition release for “Escape from New York.” Back then, MGM spared no expense in turning out a terrific 2-disc DVD set. It housed in a colorfully designed fold-out disc holder that fits into an equally handsome slipcase. This fold-out included a full size pocket that held a miniature copy of the 1st issue of “John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken Chronicles”, a comic book that was being put out by Cross Gen. There were also tons of extra features, commentaries and the like.

But now we flash forward to 2010, and a new release of “Escape from New York” on Bluray. It is both refreshing and horribly disappointing. What is refreshing is placing the Bluray disc into your player and being blown away by what is easily the best looking transfer of this movie to date. Comparing to the older DVD discs, there is a huge difference. It’s not the best Bluray out there, but definitely an improvement over older releases.

What is disappointing is that this new release (which also houses an extra DVD copy) has no extra features whatsoever. Gone are the commentaries, the documentaries, everything. To be honest, rather than including the extra DVD copy of the film, I would have much rather have had a disc full of all of the extra features from back in the day. This is the only thing that makes me knock this release and not necessarily recommend it.

Though “Escape from New York” is not everyone’s cup of tea, with its ultra-violent approach and anti-hero Plissken, it definitely sits high on the list of cult classics and even spawned a (less than stellar) sequel. Back in 2003, the MGM release sat on my ‘must-have’ list. This new Bluray is a ‘must have’ only if you cannot find the older DVD release.

Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Isaac Hayes, Season Hubley, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau
Extras: DVD Disc Included
Specifications: Widescreen (2.35:1) Enhanced for 16X9 Televisions, 6.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Studio: MGM
Release Date: 8/3/2010
MPAA Rating: R
Website

We'll give Escape from New York (Bluray) a C.