BEFORE: I saw bits of this film when I was a kid, but I don't think I've ever watched the whole thing straight through. The film was made in 1981, and was set in the far-off future of 1997, by which time Manhattan had become a prison, separated from the rest of the country by a giant wall, with its own rules, a near-lawless society. Oh, if only they knew how accurate their prediction would be...
THE PLOT: In 1997, when the US President crashes into Manhattan, now a giant maximum security prison, a convicted bank robber is sent in for a rescue.
AFTER: Unfortunately this is another film that doesn't really hold up years later - it was made very cheaply, and it looks like it, and special effects have become so great since then, that the future looks very outdated. Hmmm, what tense do I use to describe events that were in the future at the time, but now have come and gone, and not taken place? Past future subjunctive?
Air Force One crashes (willan on-crash) down in New York City, and the convicts take (willan on-take) him hostage. Snake Plisken (Kurt Russell) is given (wioll given be) a chance to clear his name by entering (have enteront) the prison, finding (willing founden) the President, and then getting (mayan on-gotten) him out. Screw it, this is too hard...
Snake lands his glider on top of the World Trade Center (you could still do that in 1997...) and then checks out the devastated downtown area - yep, still too soon. These images still hit too close to the mark for New Yorkers, I think. Snake has under 24 hours to infiltrate this city-sized prison society, figure out who's in charge, who has the President, and how to get him out. You should have just fought in the Thunderdome, Snake - it would have been much easier...
Fortunately Snake has a reputation, and some old friends in the NY lock-up, like Brain (Harry Dean Stanton) and Cabbie (Ernest Borgnine). Together with Maggie (Adrienne Barbeau, in her most famous role) they go up against the Duke (Isaac Hayes) to try and rescue the president (Donald Pleasance).
It's funny, people in the "future" still use cassette tapes instead of CDs, and walkie-talkies instead of cell phones...though I guess within the prison environment, you use whatever technology you have.
And they manage to drive from the World Trade Center to the 59th Street Bridge in under 20 minutes - see what you can do when there's no other traffic on the streets?
Not a bad little film, perhaps a bit over-the-top and campy.
RATING: 5 out of 10 molotov cocktails
No comments:
Post a Comment