Escape From New York (1981).  Director: John Carpenter.  Starring Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasance, Isaac Hayes, Adrienne Barbeau.

It isn't often you get a science fictional film that features a concept as unique and interesting as the one presented here: In the near future (1997), crime has become so rampant within the United States that Manhattan is walled up and all felons are dumped there, never to be seen again.  The U.S. government monitors the walls surrounding Manhattan, and anyone foolish enough to try to escape is brutally taken care of.

And then the president's plane is hijacked and blown up.  The president, safely locked away in an escape capsule, drops into the walled in prison, and then the "fun" truly begins, as one of the largest gangs within the prison walls have captured the president and they expect to get plenty for him.  It's up Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell, sporting Clint Eastwood's raspy speech) to get in there and somehow free the president in time for him to deliver a very important speech regarding world peace.  If he doesn't, the results could be catastrophic.

When it was originally released in 1981, I had to see this film.  It just looked so damn good and I was a BIG fan of Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13, which this film looked a little like.  Anyway, what little I knew of the plot I loved. What little I saw in the commercials fascinated me.  Maybe my expectations were a little too high, but after seeing the film, I was mildly disappointed.  It wasn't until years later that I realized this was due to the movie's miniscule budget.  The fact was that the poster, featuring the Statue of Liberty's head on a Manhattan street, promised something larger than Carpenter could deliver.  At about the halfway point, it was obvious that this was a very inexpensively made film trying its best to look "bigger" than it was.

Now, John Carpenter had succeeded with a miniscule budget with the already mentioned Assault on Precinct 13, but that movie was set almost entirely within a single dilapidated building while Escape From New York promised us an apocalyptic Manhattan.

Regardless, my opinion of the film has improved over time.  While I still feel Assault on Precinct 13 is Carpenter's best film (and for those who haven't seen it or have only seen the really lame 2005 remake, then what are you waiting for?  Find it, see it!), I would rank Escape From New York third or fourth on the list.  Behind The Thing but up there with Big Trouble in Little China.  By the way, I'm not ignoring Halloween.  It is undoubtedly a great horror film.  It just isn't my cup of tea.

When the Escape From New York laserdisc was released, I found it fascinating that the film originally had an extended opening sequence that details how the police caught Snake Plissken shortly before he appeared in shackles on his way to Manhattan.  This sequence was deemed unnecessary and cut from the film before it was released.  Alas, the laserdisc only featured a few clips of this sequence, noting that the rest was lost.

However, by the time the special edition DVD made it to the store shelves, the entire sequence was found, cleaned up, and presented in its entirety (with optional commentary by Carpenter and Russell) for the first time.  The sequence was not, however, reinserted into the film itself.  The theatrical cut of the film, therefore, is the final cut of the film.  However, it is incredibly interesting to see Plissken in action, robbing a bank with his partner in crime and almost making a clean getaway through the subway.  Plissken's partner is shot dead while Plissken is cornered and apprehended.  Next stop, Manhattan.

The sequence adds a little more dimension to what comes next but I would agree with Kurt Russell's commentary: "It was a good cut."