1996, the best year in movie history, pt. 43: Escape from L.A.
These movies came to mind while I was watching Escape from L.A.:
Kurt Russell reprises his role as “Snake” Plissken, from Escape from New York (1981). Like Ed Harris in The Rock, he’s a war hero who has gone rogue; and like Sean Connery in The Rock, he is captured by the U.S. government and forced to go up against a rebel group that is threatening the nation’s security. I doubt that either movie plagiarized from the other, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they both took these elements from Escape from New York.
As in The Rock, the hero must travel to an island. The island is Los Angeles. It has been cut off from the mainland by earthquakes and tsunamis, and now it is used as a deportation site for misfits who have been stripped of their citizenship by the ultra-moralistic U.S. President. Gangsters rule the island. (The joke is that the dystopia is not so unlike certain common ideas of the real Los Angeles.) The main gangster is “Cuervo” Jones, a “Che” Guevara figure from Peru’s Shining Path. “Snake” Plissken must track “Cuervo” down and retrieve the doomsday device that he has stolen.
“Snake” has a series of bizarre encounters with the inhabitants of L.A. This is what the movie is really about, and the reason it reminds me of Labyrinth – and, for that matter, the Inferno (which I continue to read). A lot of the people “Snake” meets are depicted by classic oddball actors. One of my favorite characters, played by Peter Fonda, is an old surfer who rides the tsunamis; another is played by the haunted-looking, scene-stealing Valeria Golino. She is a beacon of warmth in a mostly cynical movie.
There are chase scenes and fight scenes. “Snake” likes to shoot first and ask questions later. Sometimes, I’d feel a little sorry for the gangsters.
In the following still picture, Golino and Russell are tied up so that their features can be harvested for plastic surgery. (You know: L.A., and all that.)
The visuals are slick, except when they’re obviously meant to be goofy. There are some good laughs. I had a good time.
- the Rambo series
- Independence Day and The Rock (both from 1996)
- The Day After Tomorrow
- Children of Men
- and, weirdly, Labyrinth
Kurt Russell reprises his role as “Snake” Plissken, from Escape from New York (1981). Like Ed Harris in The Rock, he’s a war hero who has gone rogue; and like Sean Connery in The Rock, he is captured by the U.S. government and forced to go up against a rebel group that is threatening the nation’s security. I doubt that either movie plagiarized from the other, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they both took these elements from Escape from New York.
As in The Rock, the hero must travel to an island. The island is Los Angeles. It has been cut off from the mainland by earthquakes and tsunamis, and now it is used as a deportation site for misfits who have been stripped of their citizenship by the ultra-moralistic U.S. President. Gangsters rule the island. (The joke is that the dystopia is not so unlike certain common ideas of the real Los Angeles.) The main gangster is “Cuervo” Jones, a “Che” Guevara figure from Peru’s Shining Path. “Snake” Plissken must track “Cuervo” down and retrieve the doomsday device that he has stolen.
“Snake” has a series of bizarre encounters with the inhabitants of L.A. This is what the movie is really about, and the reason it reminds me of Labyrinth – and, for that matter, the Inferno (which I continue to read). A lot of the people “Snake” meets are depicted by classic oddball actors. One of my favorite characters, played by Peter Fonda, is an old surfer who rides the tsunamis; another is played by the haunted-looking, scene-stealing Valeria Golino. She is a beacon of warmth in a mostly cynical movie.
There are chase scenes and fight scenes. “Snake” likes to shoot first and ask questions later. Sometimes, I’d feel a little sorry for the gangsters.
In the following still picture, Golino and Russell are tied up so that their features can be harvested for plastic surgery. (You know: L.A., and all that.)
The visuals are slick, except when they’re obviously meant to be goofy. There are some good laughs. I had a good time.