DVD SCENE
Futuristic cult film recaptures its thrills

By Terry Lawson
Knight Ridder News Service

When John Carpenter's "Escape From New York" (MGM) was released in 1981, audiences had little problem believing New York could become so dilapidated and depraved by 1997 that the government would simply seal off Manhattan and throw away the key, turning it into a federal pen whose inmates were more than welcome to kill each other.

Carpenter's blatant variation on the spaghetti Western resulted in one of the great B movies of the era, one that built itself a good-sized cult and made a movie star out of former Disney child star Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken.

In his commentary, Russell makes no bones about the influence Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" had on his sneering Snake — and the film retains its charge 22 years later.

The government, represented by spaghetti star Lee Van Cleef, offers Snake a pardon if he can find and protect the president (the late Donald Pleasence), who has bailed out of a hijacked Air Force One over Manhattan, until a rescue can be mounted.

Snake has to call on all his shadowy resources to fulfill this assignment, including, most memorably, a gang lord played by Isaac Hayes, who drives around in a pimped-out Caddy.

Along with good commentaries, extras on the two-disc set include a retrospective with cast members Adrienne Barbeau, Hayes and Harry Dean Stanton, and an alternative opening sequence that runs 11 minutes. The soundtrack has also been remixed into 5.1 Surround to little overall effect. This is a film whose grunge becomes it.

An epic pony tale

Do not be surprised to see the relentlessly inspirational "Seabiscuit" (Universal) become yet another big-budget movie that performs better on DVD than it did in the theaters.

Director Gary Ross' adaptation of Laura Hillenbrand's best-seller — about the unlikely Depression-era hero, a racehorse that was all but washed up before being rehabilitated by a businessman (Jeff Bridges), a trainer (Chris Cooper) and a jockey (Tobey Maguire) — could have gone a little heavier on the races themselves, but it's an entertaining ride.