Double Feature: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK & ESCAPE FROM L.A. September 17, 2010

Double Feature: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, 1981, Studio Canal, 99 min. Dir. John Carpenter. Kurt Russell delivers one of films most legendary performances as ornery, one-eyed Snake Plissken, a sentenced-to-die anti-hero sent into maximum-security prison in a Manhattan of the future to rescue U.S. President Donald Pleasence from villain Isaac Hayes. A highly entertaining tall tale with influences ranging from comic books to apocalyptic science fiction to spaghetti westerns! With Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau.

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ESCAPE FROM L.A.,1996, Paramount, 101 min. Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) returns in a savagely funny satire of political extremism in late 20th-century America. After an earthquake devastates Los Angeles, the city separates from the rest of the country and becomes an island for violent outcasts. Yet in John Carpenter’s vision, the warring gangs are hardly more dangerous than a culturally conservative president (played to perfection by a wry Cliff Robertson) who exploits his constituents’ fear and ignorance to rise to power. Discussion between films with director John Carpenter.

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