Okay, laundry here so I can be "productive," and a big bottle of water.
Let's do this.
The #efny music is classic Carpenter synth work. The voiceover intro just flat-out tells us what the world is in fifteen seconds. Lots of movies wouldn't have the guts to just put it out there like this.
Also screamingly built atop Reagan-era fears. Without Reagan, we wouldn't have this film.
The #efny story is also a great big chain of "things get worse." Snake gets a bomb planted in his head, the tracker is not just useless but wastes his time, everything he does just tightens the rope around his neck.
As a youngster, I remember the death match boxing ring having a much larger audience. Watching it today the filming tricks are obvious but it's still one angry crowd. #efny
I was really surprised watching this after my only other Carpenter exposure was They Live, because EFNY kinda leans into the whole "criminals are dangerous degenerates!" reactionary shit; like ... how did this come from the same mind as They Live?
@technomancy I always thought it was an over the top parody of conservative fears. (Like, Escape from LA clearly was -- I figured that twenty years earlier, EFNY came off as much sillier)
A lot of 80s movies have the problem that they were aimed at adults and starred over the top satires of toxic masculine behavior, but then became popular with (and targeted at) kids who didn't get the joke, whose interpretation dominated the cultural memory. (Like: Star Wars was supposed to be an allegory for the Vietnam war from the perspective of the Viet Cong -- did intelligent adult viewers at the time pick up on this? A lot of the time, the adults don't catch on to particular interpretations either, or don't "get the point" for 20 years -- we all basically accept that The Matrix is partly about the trans experience, but imagine trying to convince someone of that in 2005.)
like if the person being satirized can watch the film and not get angry at it, what have you really accomplished?
at least with starship troopers the director had the excuse that he was european, he could be forgiven for not understanding how deeply fucked up the US popular conception of the military is
Yeah, I get the impression that when Carpenter made Escape from New York he *thought* he was making Escape from LA but he was accidentally too subtle. Certainly a mistake!
@enkiv2 (guy who's only watched 2 john carpenter movies voice) basically the way I see it is that if you're carpenter there's only 2 stories you can tell about post-reagan america; either the protagonist resists and goes out in a blaze of glory or he is inescapably drawn into collaboration with a system he hates and is stripped of all meaningful agency, forced to be a pawn of the powerful in order to survive
don't forget the option where you ride a piece of your exploded starship like a surfboard as you burn up entering the atmosphere of an unknown planet, becoming a falling star as you die
@technomancy You also want to see Assault on Precinct 13, and even Halloween suggests cops are useless and ultimate violence from evil people just waits to hit anyone.
Sometimes people give me weird looks when I tell them that I can watch Escape from LA anytime, anywhere, and that it brings back nostalgic and romantic memories (I watched it several times over a two weeks period back in '97 for various weird reasons including, but not limited to, a long stay in a hotel with HBO, and it stayed with me).
Benno
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Benno • • •Shaula Evans
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Okay, laundry here so I can be "productive," and a big bottle of water.
Let's do this.
The #efny music is classic Carpenter synth work. The voiceover intro just flat-out tells us what the world is in fifteen seconds. Lots of movies wouldn't have the guts to just put it out there like this.
Also screamingly built atop Reagan-era fears. Without Reagan, we wouldn't have this film.
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •The police headquarters in the base of the Statue of Liberty?
Who says satire is dead? #efny
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •By the way, if you get #efny on disc and get the chance to see the deleted opening scene: don't.
It ruins the whole film.
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •The #efny hijacker speech?
Depending on how the next election goes, this speech might be fifty years early...
Also, the President is one cold selfish bastard.
A shot of the WTC, and the plane hitting a skyscraper, sure hits different today.
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •This movie barely holds together. It's a triumph of vision over... everything.
Yet Snake taking a cigarette, striking a match, and taking a puff makes it all up.
This movie also assumes we invade the USSR. Go Reagan!
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •oooh, the glider and the wireframe radar made of glow-in-the-dark tape. Astonishing scene. Totally amazing.
Growing up, I thought we had a choice of futures: #efny or Mad Max. And folks wondered why I didn't do my homework...
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •The stage show. It's New York, there's got to be a drag stage show.
"You're Snake Plissken. I heard you were dead."
#efny
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •"You're a cop."
"I'm an asshole."
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Now he's lost the radio.
Yes, kind of mechanical, but VERY good at "things get worse." #efny
But hey, here's cabbie Ernest Borgnine to give him a lift. "You don't walk around here at night, Snake!"
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Torches in the library?
That, more than anything, convinced Young Lucas that civilization had fallen.
Plus, oil pumps in the stacks!
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •The Duke of New York? #efny
A styling ride. And I'd follow Isaac Hayes into Hell.
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •As a youngster, I remember the death match boxing ring having a much larger audience. Watching it today the filming tricks are obvious but it's still one angry crowd. #efny
Would still follow Isaac Hayes into Hell.
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Activate the tracer, run to the WTC, and run up the stairs? With a shot-up leg? Yeah, that's gonna work out just great.
Plus some casual 80s racism, of course. Just for show. #efny
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •A chase scene across a mined Brooklyn Bridge?
This bridge has a lot of litter for something exposed to the elements.
Conveniently at night, so they don't have to use a real bridge. It's two lanes hanging in a black void. #efny
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •I have LOTS of thoughts about Maggie staying behind to avenge Brain. I'll summarize them as "dick move."
80s movies, dude. 80s movies. #efny
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •That moment when the winch stops halfway through pulling Snake up the wall?
That was stunning, back in the day.
The President has snapped. He will never have a sane core again... and they're putting him back in charge. #efny
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •And this ending!
"A lot of people died, getting you out. I wondered how you felt about that."
"I want to thank them. This nation appreciates their sacrifice."
And then: pure body language declaring "You know, Mister President, if you weren't such an absolute ass I would have given you the damn tape." #efny
Michael Lucas
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Remember kids: when in doubt, tear up the tape. #efny
That's it! Goodnight, folks.
slash
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Erik L. Arneson
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Erik L. Arneson • • •@pymander
I mean, DO try it in real life. Let us know how that works out for you.
oxy but high contrast
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •This is science.
Michael Lucas
in reply to oxy but high contrast • • •@oxyhyxo
I will hang with Jack Burton any day.
Snake was Russell's first chance to play this kind of role, and he'd been saving up a lifetime of rage for it.
Scarab
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Scarab • • •@Configures
They tried to redeem Snake, and say he wasn't so bad.
We WANT him to be bad!
Damien Miller
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •tech? no! man, see...
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to tech? no! man, see... • • •It's Reagan-era satire. There was a substantial part of the population that *believed* this was coming.
#efny is a product of its time, and perhaps it should stay in its time.
๐ญ๐๐ ENKI ][e
in reply to tech? no! man, see... • • •@technomancy
I always thought it was an over the top parody of conservative fears. (Like, Escape from LA clearly was -- I figured that twenty years earlier, EFNY came off as much sillier)
A lot of 80s movies have the problem that they were aimed at adults and starred over the top satires of toxic masculine behavior, but then became popular with (and targeted at) kids who didn't get the joke, whose interpretation dominated the cultural memory. (Like: Star Wars was supposed to be an allegory for the Vietnam war from the perspective of the Viet Cong -- did intelligent adult viewers at the time pick up on this? A lot of the time, the adults don't catch on to particular interpretations either, or don't "get the point" for 20 years -- we all basically accept that The Matrix is partly about the trans experience, but imagine trying to convince someone of that in 2005.)
Damien Miller
in reply to ๐ญ๐๐ ENKI ][e • • •Michael Lucas reshared this.
๐ญ๐๐ ENKI ][e
in reply to Damien Miller • • •Third one was supposed to be Escape from Mars
tech? no! man, see...
in reply to ๐ญ๐๐ ENKI ][e • • •@enkiv2 it just seems so utterly ineffectual
like if the person being satirized can watch the film and not get angry at it, what have you really accomplished?
at least with starship troopers the director had the excuse that he was european, he could be forgiven for not understanding how deeply fucked up the US popular conception of the military is
๐ญ๐๐ ENKI ][e
in reply to tech? no! man, see... • • •tech? no! man, see...
in reply to ๐ญ๐๐ ENKI ][e • • •druid an fuinneog!!
in reply to tech? no! man, see... • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to druid an fuinneog!! • • •@bjc @enkiv2 @technomancy
Dark Star was pre-Reagan. Surfing into a planet was Carteresque.
Digital Mark ฮป โ๏ธ ๐น ๐
in reply to tech? no! man, see... • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to Digital Mark ฮป โ๏ธ ๐น ๐ • • •@mdhughes @technomancy
Oh, yes!
Satire is one of the shortest lived art forms, second only to romance.
The cat who walks thru walls
in reply to Michael Lucas • • •Michael Lucas
in reply to The cat who walks thru walls • • •silverwizard
in reply to Michael Lucas • •Michael Lucas
Unknown parent • • •@pamela
Neither, really. But I thought my boy scouts experience would give me an edge in mad max.