ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981) Blu-ray Review

Escape from New York (1981) d. John Carpenter (USA)

As the second of their two-picture deal with Avco-Embassy (following The Fog), producer Debra Hill and writer/director Carpenter set their eye on realizing a sci-fi/action script he had written in the mid-’70s, with the entire island of Manhattan having been turned into a maximum security prison with a 50-foot detainment wall built around its perimeter. Into this scenario Carpenter and co-screenwriter Nick Castle (who had played “The Shape” in 1978’s breakout Halloween) dropped ruthless and charismatic mercenary Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) and a wild, do-or-die plot about rescuing the President of the United States (Donald Pleasence) after Air Force One is hijacked and crash-landed in the Big Apple. On a budget of $6 million (substantial, but still smallish for the project’s ambitious scale), the creative team – with special nods to production designer Joe Alves, cinematographer Dean Cundey, and one of the coolest ensemble casts EVER – emerged with a critical and box office hit . . . and an all-time iconic character in “Call me Snake” Plissken.

MASSACRE GUN, BLIND WOMAN'S CURSE, DAY OF ANGER Blu-ray Reviews

Having devoted a full review to the lone full-on horror outing in the mix – the supremely tawdry and sleazy witch-hunting epic Mark of the Devil – the focus for this installment will be the remainder of Arrow Video’first wave of U.S. releases, an eclectic grouping of the black-and-white Japanese crime thriller Massacre Gun, that same country’s half Samurai gang/half ghost revenge yarn Blind Woman’s Curse, and the Lee Van Cleef spaghetti western Day of Anger. Released by MVD Entertainment Group, each marks out a very distinct corner, both aesthetically and narratively – the kind of exotic buffet courageous cineastes hunger for and revel in discovering.