Réalisation:
John CarpenterPhotographie:
Dean CundeyActeurs·trices:
Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes, Season Hubley, Tom Atkins, Charles Cyphers, Harry Dean Stanton (plus)Résumés(1)
En 1997, Manhattan est devenu une immense prison ghetto où vivent, en micro-société, trois millions de prisonniers. Victime d’un attentat, l’avion du Président des États-Unis s’écrase en plein Manhattan avec des documents ultra-secrets. Snake, un dangereux criminel, est chargé, en échange de sa grâce, de partir à la recherche du Président. Parachuté dans Manhattan, il dispose de vingt-quatre heures pour mener à bien sa mission… (Splendor Films)
(plus)Critiques (11)
Carpenter’s famous cult movie didn’t work on me. The atmosphere is fine, Russell is tough as nails, but the very premise of Manhattan as a prison (that was set up god knows why) is very silly. I know looking for logic in films of this kind is nonsense, but in Escape from New York all those inconsistencies were way too evident.
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A typical, distinctive Carpenter film, as only he can do it. The low budget and the associated minimalism are enough to play a solid B-movie etude about one tough guy who stood up to everyone and fucked them all up... Kurt Russell is a man par excellence, who needs little to satisfy similarly-minded fans - the pissed-off face, synth music, and an hour and a half-long sequence of tense scenes that can be described in several pages of genre textbooks today. 4 ½.
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A more than a decent B-movie with a tough Kurt Russell. Solid entertainment. Now a classic, but not necessarily to everyone's taste.
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This is a film with value only for nostalgics and fans of thematic genre films. It’s nothing for me, and it stars a piddle-eyed little mop with a snake tattooed on her belly. Basically, this is a film frozen in time.
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Typical John Carpenter’s madness set in an insanely looking New York as big prison, with tasteless and uninspiring action scenes, and characters that look like they've just had a stroke. The whole thing looks like one big fetish flick. We have a boxing ring, pseudo-futuristic machines, the World Trade Center, where a glider can land, all of that crowned by a tough and taciturn hero played by Kurt Russell, whom everyone knows and nobody calls anything other than Snake. It's crazy nonsense, but entertaining at times. The script is practically nonexistent and the plot is also nothing special. The only thing that stands out is precisely the cheapness and wackiness of the whole project, which is basically Carpenter's main weapon to impress the audience.
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Carpenter’s precise B-movie hit demands that you not think about the wider context of the story and instead adapt to the requirements of low-brow entertainment, but the director will pay you back with interest. Kurt Russell is great and is accompanied by a host of top-acting talent and, despite the occasional silliness, this is pure filmmaking that, even within its premise, can be taken pretty seriously. The uncontrolled “trash” fun will come with the sequel. 75%
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The president’s plane crashes in Manhattan, which is a giant self-governing prison, and the biggest tough mudafucka with an eye patch has 24 hours to get him out of there like FTW. If I'd known this movie when I was a kid, I wouldn't have made it out of third grade. And I'd probably starve to death in front of the video. The ideal cure for a creative crisis, I think, would be just listening to kids play on a road carpet.
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I understand that with a film that's 38 years old, I can't set my expectations too high, but I was still quite disappointed. I’m a big fan of Carpenter as a director; I will never stop praising The Thing, but this one didn’t quite meet expectations. The idea of a prison on Manhattan appealed to me; it had something to it, and I could overlook the plot element of rescuing the American president as the main focus of the story. Yes, it's not innovative at all, but on the other hand, such a plot was typical of many action films of that era, so I don't think it’s fair to hold that against this film. Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken was intentionally over-the-top in the script, which actually suited his character, so I don’t see a problem there either. However, the execution faltered; at times it felt almost like a theatrical production, which isn’t my cup of tea. The plot moved forward very slowly, and the climax with crossing the booby-trapped bridge felt more amusing than serious. I understand that many people consider it a classic. Maybe I needed to be born at that time; to me, it seemed like a complete brain drain that made less and less sense as the minutes went by. But definitely check it out just for Russell and form your own opinion. I give it 51%.
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I like John Carpenter, but I've found that I haven't seen some quite significant films he directed - and there are quite a few of them. Yes, this was one of them. I was expecting it to be a bit crazier, but I definitely wasn't disappointed. There are excellent characters here, but above all, the environment is beautifully brutal. Man evolves long enough to eventually become this. Well, we couldn't be surprised, even though the year 1997 is successfully behind us.
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Escape from New York is a great example of what an inventive director can achieve with little money. No wonder the film has become a model for many low-budget filmmakers (including Robert Rodriguez). One of the most striking aspects of Carpenter's iconic low-budget film is the surprisingly elaborate production design. The impressive drawings of a ruined New York City were done by a then-unknown James Cameron, who got his start in filmmaking as a production designer. Carpenter wrote the original version of the script back in the 1970s in response to the Watergate affair, and the cynicism of the time is evident in every inch of the film. Snake Plissken is the quintessential individualistic anti-hero. He once fought for his country, but circumstances forced him to turn against authority. He has become a renegade and an outlaw who cares only for himself, while still being more human than many of the characters around him. Casting Kurt Russell (at the time known for family films) was a big risk, but it worked out perfectly. Russell's minimalist acting, stone-faced, quiet voice and slow gait are reminiscent of Clint Eastwood's nameless gunslinger roles. And the film is essentially a kind of futuristic western. New York, which here functions as a prison without guards where the inmates create their own world, is reminiscent of the Wild West in a way, and legendary western actor Lee Van Cleef plays one of the supporting roles.
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Annonces