ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981): 45 Years On, Does Snake Plissken Still Hold Up?

Snake Plissken has 24 hours to save the President, and Malcolm and I have one question: does Escape From New York (1981) still hold up 45 years on? This is Get To The Chedda!, the retro action podcast where we drop a classic in the pit and give it the Chedda Rating.John Carpenter's low-budget dystopian thriller turned Kurt Russell from a Disney child star into a hard-edged action icon, gave us one of cinema's great antiheroes, and built a grimy vision of a walled-off Manhattan penal colony on a fraction of a studio budget. Alongside Russell, the cast is stacked: Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Donald Pleasence, Isaac Hayes and Harry Dean Stanton. But does the pacing, the practical effects and the Snake Plissken myth survive a modern rewatch, or has time caught up with it?We break down the making of the film, Carpenter's fight to get it made, the score, the effects, and whether the whole thing earns its cult reputation today. Then we give it the rating that matters.Chapters:0:00 Escape From New York (1981): Opening1:45 Carpenter's Roll and the $6 Million Avco Embassy Gamble2:30 The Actors Who Nearly Played Snake Plissken3:50 Matt's Plot Walkthrough: Manhattan as a Prison8:00 World Building and Carpenter's Lean Exposition10:20 The Score and the Explosives-in-the-Neck Clock12:10 The Glider Landing and the Cannibals Diner Scene14:05 The Punks Scene: Establishing the Anti-Hero15:25 Ernest Borgnine's Cab, Brain and Maggie17:15 The Broadway Car Sequence and Grand Central Throwing-Star Beat20:10 The Arena Fight with Slag and Ox Baker21:45 Donald Pleasence's President: The Wig and the POW Backstory25:00 The Bridge Finale: The Mines, the Cadillac and the Deaths30:15 The Cassette Tape Switch and "Call Me Plissken"36:35 Lee Van Cleef's Walk-and-Talk and On-Set Trivia38:45 Kurt Russell's Transformation from Disney to Action Icon41:55 Scores on the Doors: The Chedda Rating43:30 Next Time on Get To The Chedda!: Best of the BestScreen One is the definitive UK voice on 80s and 90s cinema. Without the noise. Subscribe and join the Video Store Society for more Essential Cinema every week.Please leave a rating it helps us grow!#EscapeFromNewYork #KurtRussell #JohnCarpenter #SnakePlissken #80sAction