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Escape from la2/19/2023 ![]() How we come to something often defines how we receive it. If you’ve been itching to “Escape from L.A.,” wait a little longer before jumping on this 4K release.īy Douglas Davidson on Febru John Carpenter’s ‘Escape From L.A.Home › Recommendation › Home Release › If you’ve been itching to “Escape from L.A.,” wait a little longer before jumping on this 4K release. “I’m happy doing what I’m doing, I have a musical career going on, I’m very happy about that,” he says, “but sure, I’m open to directing again in the right circumstances, the right story.” He hasn’t given up on directing another film though. I didn’t begin the ’90s and say: ‘Oh, henceforth, it will be guitars!’ I didn’t do that.”Ĭarpenter, who hasn’t made a film in well over a decade, is content with his new found career writing music, recording albums and touring the world playing his iconic film themes. I can’t tell you why I chose in the ’90s. I wanted to have some drive, some emphasis. I don’t know if that was a decision I made or it just happened. “I’m always attracted to blues rock, that was my roots. How intentional was this? Carpenter can’t really say. The ’90s saw Carpenter develop a more rock-orientated sound and moved further away from the hugely influential ‘80s synth arrangements a generation of directors have tried to copy. “I thought about, I did, I did, and Kurt added a lot of that himself. Pushed further on the topic, however, ideas around liberty, freedom and the quintessential American spirit of individuality were on his mind, and his leading man’s. “There is material about deportations, but I don’t make movies with messages,” he reiterates. He concedes the themes are stronger than in the original. is a more satirical, more dystopian affair, and more of a western. Audiences, I’ve discovered, do not like uncertainty.”Īlthough Carpenter flat-out denies there is a political message at work – “no meanings, no messages” – Escape from L.A. But I don’t reflect that much on it… I look back and I’m very proud of those movies I made and think it’s some of my best work, but there is a problem of arriving at the wrong time and the audience is in a different mood. “You want every movie you make to do its best. CREDIT: Pressĭid the bad reviews and fan gripes get to him? “Nothing surprises me,” he says. is a dark film and it doesn’t make you feel good inside.” It was fun, it was happy,” he says, “ Escape from L.A. In hindsight, he thinks the release strategy was wrong, given the studio released it a little over a month after Roland Emmerich’s gargantuan blockbuster Independence Day. While Carpenter isn’t too fond of dwelling on the past, and admits “not many” people talk to him specifically about Escape from L.A., he believes the poor reception is down to when they made it. The film, which saw Snake once again kick ass and take names at the behest of corrupt overlords, was a commercial and critical flop upon release. ![]() “Also, Russell’s the easiest person to work with that I’ve ever been around.” – a much grander movie that felt out of step with the times it was made in? “In a sequel, what people want is the same, but different,” he says, his Kentucky drawl crackling down the phone line as a new Blu-ray release hits the shelves. So why then, 15 years later, did he bring Snake back for 1996’s Escape From L.A. ![]() Snake, Carpenter suggested, was about as much of a hero as his country deserved. With his pirate’s eyepatch, beaten-up leather jacket and open contempt of authority, the ex-soldier turned futuristic outlaw was the perfect pin-up for a new post-Vietnam and Watergate era. E scape from New York, John Carpenter’s 1981 sci-fi classic, introduced Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) to the big screen. ![]()
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