Smell the Movies
Smell the TV
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 | |
| Year: | 1981 |
| Country of origin: | USA / UK |
| Director: | John Carpenter |
| Genre: | Cyberpunk action |
| Starring: | Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Isaac Hayes, Donald Pleasence |
| Rating: | 5/5 |
| IMDB link: | http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082340/ |
| Tagline: | The world's greatest leader is a hostage in the most dangerous place on Earth. Now only the deadliest man alive can save him. |
| Favourite line: | "I heard you were dead!" |
John Carpenter's sublime sci-fi action movie.
Kurt Russell is magnificent as that man of few words, Snake Plissken, a hardened criminal with scant regard for his fellow man.
It's the near future - well, 1997 - and New York's Manhattan Island has been turned into the national penitentiary for the most dangerous criminals. A huge wall has been constructed around the entire perimeter, there are no guards within and, once inside, you don't come out. Problem is Airforce One, the US President's jet, has crash landed within the boundaries, and Snake has only 23 hours to get him out alive, else a poison injected into his system will activate and kill him in an instant.
It's a nonsense premise of course, but this is easily ignored, as the dystopian future world depicted by Carpenter is an absolute treat.
The subsidiary characters are a wonder to behold - Ernest Bornine's Cabbie, Harry Dean Stanton's Brain to name but two - and it's influence can be clearly felt in movies as different as Blade Runner to The Matrix.
Not the genre Carpenter is best known for, that obviously being horror (Halloween, The Fog et al), this is still a majestic piece of movie-making.
No comments:
Post a Comment