American Anti-Hero

The Western anti-hero is an icon of American literature. He—and it’s always a he—is a solitary man, rather gruff, with a mordant sense of humor. He knows how to use a gun. His moral sense is skewed, but in his heart, he’s willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good. He’s often the answer when the government just ain't up to snuff. Roland of Gilead, Rooster Cogburn, and the Man with No Name have brought the American anti-hero to life. Escape from New York’s Snake Plissken, played with growling panache by Kurt Russell, is a memorable variation on this theme.

Snake Plissken wears a black eye-patch and tight-fitting clothes. His long unwashed hair and grizzled face bespeak his nonchalance about the world. He does crime, and because of that, he’s being sent to New York, a city that now serves as America’s maximum security prison. But his country first needs him for a mission that only a man of his caliber can perform. He needs to save the President of the United States, who has ironically been trapped in the imprisoned city of his own making.

Escape from New York is arguably a bad movie. The plot is improbable. The sets are so dark that you strain to see the action. And the action scenes are paltry, involving a few punches and bursts of gunfire. Nevertheless, Escape from New York creates a world and characters that are deeply memorable. This is a New York permeated by darkness and crime. In this world, crazed prisoners crawl out of sewers at night and men perform bawdy musicals in dilapidated theaters. A loose hierarchy of criminals, crowned by a villainous Duke, triumphs over the city’s population.

Snake Plissken enters this world and fulfills his mission, albeit for his own selfish and cynical reasons. Ultimately, though, he does what is right because the President just ain’t a good man. That’s an American anti-hero.