ESCAPE FROM L.A. (1996)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *sociological*

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

I didn't remember much from any earlier screening of ESCAPE TO L.A., the sequel to 1981's influential ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Prior to my recent re-watch of L.A., I might have agreed with the dominant critical opinion of the sequel; an opinion shared by the 1996 audiences, since L.A. bombed big-time in 1996.

However, though I don't consider either NEW YORK or L.A. to be classic adventure-films, this time round I liked L.A. a bit better. I didn't mind the fact that the sequel recapitulates many of the earlier film's popular sequences. This is standard practice with many big-budget Hollywood films, and there have been times that the sequel actually shows greater mythic resonance than the original, as I would argue with regard to both ALIENS and TERMINATOR 2.

ESCAPE TO L.A. is not anywhere as good as these two sequels. However, unlike many 1996 critics I liked the fact that L.A. is more kinetic than the rather slow-moving NEW YORK. The screenshot above captures the film's most delirious moment, when hero Snake Plissken surfs a tsumani-wave that just happens to run alongside a highway, so that Plissken can take over the car being driven by the astonished driver, a professional weasel named "Map to the Stars" Eddie (nicely played by Steve Buscemi, and a decided improvement over Ernest Borgnine. Plissken's guide in the New York flck). I also appreciated a dynamic scene in which Plissken hang-glides over the encampment of his enemy Cuervo Jones and blows the hell out of it.

The plot is largely unchanged: again a precious military device has fallen into the hands of lowlife insurgents, and the equally lowlife military poisons Plissken with a slow-killing disease so that he'll use his special skills to recover the device. Writer-director John Carpenter jacks up the social satire of the original, for now the military-industrial hegemony has cloaked itself in religious righteousness. The uncontrolled territory of Los Angeles has become a haven for anyone who resists the government-- though, contra STAR WARS, this doesn't mean that all rebels who "fight the power" are angels. In fact, Carpenter is quite clear that L.A. is full of a lot of creeps. Plissken encounters, in addition to the power-hungry Cuervo Jones, vicious gang-bangers,and a demented plastic surgeon (Bruce Campbell) who kidnaps people for their body-parts, in order to keep his disintegrating customers happy (a none too subtle jab at the subculture of Hollywood "plastic people"). Still, at least the L.A. creeps aren't hypocrites about what they do.

The conclusion virtually duplicates the ending of the 1981 film, with one exception. Like some viewers, I was a little off-put by the brutal nihilism of the first film, wherein it's implied that Plissken sets off a nuclear war just to take down the corrupt government. There's no reference to this event in L.A.-- perhaps cooler heads prevailed at the last minute?-- but the sequel allows for a little more ethical wiggle-room. This time, Snake brings about a nullification of advanced technology all across the globe. Although this will cause chaos, it does allow for a equalizing effect that conceivably could put an end to the military-industrial complex. It reminded me of a similar equalizing conclusion in Alfred Bester's THE STARS MY DESTINATION, written during the "nuclear panic" era in America, and also devoted to the ideal of ending the nuclear hegemony.