“Call Me Snake”

Have you ever noticed that when you watch film or TV, read a book or play PS3, that the straight up do gooders don’t hold a candle to their slightly more unscrupulous counterparts when it comes to the likeability stakes. Isn’t it interesting that while we all like to see the good guy win, we like him or her  have to peel away a few layers of clean cut white credibility before the credits roll. Isn’t it interesting that the good guy, appeals to us so much more, if he or she is not all together that good.

“Everyone loves a Bastard” – Arnold Rimmer

The above goes some way to explaining how we feel towards characters, that unlike the traditional hero, are fraught with the frailties that we too possess. The moral ambiguity, the selfish agenda, the desire to do what pleases us, rather than do the right thing. In this vein anti-heroes are very appealing because, they much like us, malinger in the shades of grey as opposed to straight up white knights, or dark dwelling villains.

When it comes to StarWars we would all rather be Han Solo or Boba Fett than have the lofty aspirations of Luke “goody two shoes” Skywalker. And Dirty Harry has more appeal with his Magnum 44 than an army of badge toting wannabes. Anti-heroes make you feel good about being bad, or at least watching them being bad, and wearing deserving scumbags on their foot like a badly fitted shoe

At their best, Anti-heroes are all of the aforementioned bum notes, and bastardly to boot. The sort of guys or gals who do the right thing by default, use questionable methods to get there, and are only too happy to deal you a slug for spilling their beer.

In real life, none of us could ever lay claim to such adulation for this squad of often terrible rogues, but on celluloid we love them like fat kids love cake.

Far from a modern concept such shady characters have been around in literature since the turn of the century and beyond, in everything from battered PI’s in Hammers pulp noirs to Bob Kanes Batman. But it’s in cinema that we find some of the finest examples of the genre. Clint Eastwoods “Man with no Name” is maybe one of the baddest men to ever strap on a set of irons, and Lee Marvins “Porter” in Point Blank pursues his vendetta with a relish that would make a Mafioso blush.

When it comes down to it though, perhaps one of the best, if not one of the most popular embodiments of all things awful but appealing, comes undoubtedly with an homage to such classics in mind. So I ask you to take for your consideration John Carpenters B-Movie masterpiece and unstoppable cult juggernaught; Escape from New York.

“Escape” centre’s around Ultimate Bad-Ass and anti-hero par excellence Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell), ex special forces hero, turned embittered renegade, making his living as an outlaw following a betrayal by his own bent government.

Now, corrupt governments and two faced politicos is no big news, but throw in a Post world war three America, a crumbling dystopian nightmare, where Manhattan island has been cordoned off by an impenetrable wall and used as a containment facility for the mass criminal population who run wild within, and you have the foundations of post apocalypse WOW!!

The de facto Duke of New York (Isaac Hayes)  has the American President (Donald Pleasence)trussed up as a bargaining chip, having been shot down in Air Force One over bad old Gotham. Carrying information that could make America the dominant superpower, big cheese Robert Hauk (Leone alumni; Lee Van Cleef) needs the Pres back in twenty four hours or the deal goes south, so offers Snake an unconditional pardon if he’ll go in and reclaim the goods.

To ensure Snakes on board, he’s injected with nano bombs in his throat so he doesn’t spend too much time thinking on it, and with that, the deadlines set for Snake to break into the maximum security pen that is NYC and bring out the Pres before his head goes BOOM!!

Carpenter makes no bones about the fact that he wrote “Escape” as a buckshot reaction to the then recent Water Gate Scandal, eschewing the dirtier virtues of the Commander and Chief, in a prescient comment that would long outlive Nixon’s term in the Whitehouse. And Russell has no problem admitting he was doing his best Clint Eastwood impression.

But the combination of Carpenters bleakly violent future, where gangs rule the roost in the former greatest city in the world, while the superpowers squabble in the aftermath of a catastrophic global conflict, teamed with an anti-authoritarian, one eyed survivalist, fuelled by desperation, hate and mad killing skills to pay the bills, is a pure antidote to the niceties of have a go heroes and paints a picture of government and the state that, while often only hinted at, is totally on the money.

The cast is small but effective, with Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau and Ernest Borgnine all working turns as crooks and crazies to help further along the plot, and Hayes is taciturn but to the point as the Duke. Van Cleef lends some serious old school cred, but really the show belongs to Russell’s Snake, who’s as a mean as a rattler and twice as deadly. He’s mercenary, industrious and a complete bastard, more a myth than a man, and a great ode to dusty vigilantes from another time, when men were grit, hands were fast and deals were sealed hot with lead.

While many would argue that “Escape” hasn’t aged well, is full of plot holes and is better off getting the remake treatment with Gerard Butler, I would argue, that in so far as great entertainment, a fantastic plot and a central protagonist harder than a Glaswegian forehead goes, it absolutely gets no better.

The added bonus of seeing Snake stick it to “the Man” hard enough to make him wince like a virgin on prom night is even more worth the money. So good in fact that Hideo Kojima based his central Character on Russell’s grizzled performance, right down to the inclusion of the eye patch and rank in his Metal Gear series, just one example of Snakes continual permeation in popular culture, and the fact that we love him like the legend he is.

So turn off the lights, slip in the disc, put on your best squint, and prepare yourself to feel very good about the nasty bad. Get ready for dystopian thrills, explosive spills and an establishment screwing denouement that gives “the bird” a whole new meaning, and enjoy the company of a Mister Plissken. Though maybe you should call him “Snake”

- The ’Bad Man’ McCann

Filed under: Analysis
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Tags: Anti-Hero, Escape From New York, John Carpenter, Kurt Russell, Snake Plissken