Browse: Home / Film On The Disc: Escape From L.A.

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Attention Must Be Paid: Nancy Walker
  • Disney Byways: Star Tours
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of 1987, Month Unknown
  • The Solute Book Club: Son of Griff on CITY OF QUARTZ
  • The Friday Article Roundup: Point of View

Film On The Disc: Escape From L.A.

Posted By Tristan "Drunk Napoleon" Nankervis on December 29, 2017 in Short Articles | 84 Responses

Look, I’m not here to argue that Escape From L.A. is a good film, because it isn’t – it’s an ugly, unfunny, and worst of all boring hundred minutes. But whenever I plan out a Carpenter marathon, I always find myself ending with it, because I believe it acts as a perfect punchline to Carpenter’s career – I totally believe him when he says it was the last time he ever had fun on a film set, because nothing he did after that felt necessary, like he’d said everything he’d had to say. Needless to say, SPOILERS lay ahead.

So, Carpenter’s films are defined by his bleak worldview. His worlds are sparse and uncomfortable; his plots are apocalyptic even when they aren’t literally about the apocalypse; his villains are physically and emotionally incomprehensible outside their desire to kill you. None of his heroes are actively out to make the world a better place, they’re just trying to get by – the most heroic of them, Nada of They Live, is slowly pulled out of his general self-interested philosophy as his moral sensibility keeps getting tested and he discovers his ability to make a difference.

EFLA ends with Carpenter’s most iconic and most Carpenterian protagonist, Snake Plissken, a completely self-interested asshole who has to be forced into his stories, holding the control pad for an EMP satellite range that could destroy any technology its aimed at. The President (“President of what?”) observes he has two options: wipe out America’s enemies, or wipe out America. He chooses a third option: wipe out all technology, everywhere.

By the time he’d made EFLA, Carpenter had made seventeen films, and over and over we saw his heroes fighting the end of the world in some capacity, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, sometimes just barely keeping their heads above water. When I finish the movie after my Carpenter marathons, I feel a palpable sense of relief; as if Carpenter had been veering around the question “Would it be so bad to just let the world end?” and finally allowed himself to honestly answer “no”. The movie presaged a metaphorical death – Carpenter’s movies had consistently become mediocre-to-terrible by this point, and by all accounts he’d completely lost enthusiasm for filmmaking; in the past few years he’s transformed himself into a professional musician. Escape From L.A. might be a terrible movie, but its ending lets us know that it’s okay if we feel like we need to end the world and start over.

Posted in Short Articles | Tagged Escape From LA, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell

About the Author

tristan.jay.nankervis@gmail.com'

Tristan “Drunk Napoleon” Nankervis

Related Posts

The most badass carpenter since 33 AD.The Friday Article Roundup: News for Nerds→

They Live their best lifeCelebrating the Living: John Carpenter→

Pictures of a Revolution: 2005→

Film on the Internet: ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    31063 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    26566 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    19057 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    18394 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    9711 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • The Quicker Picker-Upper!

    Attention Must Be Paid: Nancy Walker

    July 2, 2022 / Gillianren
  • O captain my captain!

    Disney Byways: Star Tours

    July 1, 2022 / Gillianren
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of 1987, Month Unknown

    July 1, 2022 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott
  • (Beavis notices building selections) Heh heh, heheheheh....

    The Solute Book Club: Son of Griff on CITY OF QUARTZ

    July 1, 2022 / The Ploughman
  • Would you like to PET DOG?

    The Friday Article Roundup: Point of View

    July 1, 2022 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

  • Attention Must Be Paid: Nancy Walker - https://t.co/FjplzV7MVf, 30 mins ago
  • Disney Byways: Star Tours - https://t.co/Q7gRh89yaR, 22 hours ago
  • Flashback Comics Rack: Highlights of 1987, Month Unknown - https://t.co/VHQ3TNOgn8, Jul 1

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!