My top ten dystopian/post-apocalyptic movies in four parts. Part 1 - New York
So many great movies take place in New York. I’ve never been there, but if popular fiction is to be believed there are gangs on motorcycles with improvised weapons everywhere. I think there may even be a movie specifically about the “Gangs of New York”.
John Carpenter’s Escape from New York is precisely the distorted VHS version of the city i imagine. Escape isn’t exactly an obscure movie so I won’t go into much detail of the plot.
This is my list so let me tell you why this deserves to be in my top ten.
The main guy’s name is snake. I first saw this when I was a kid and snake was a badass name. I think one of the characters on the facts of life had a boyfriend named snake. snake was the name of THE tv bad boy in the 80s. Every show had a guy named snake being greasy as fuck. If I was ever in my adult life introduced to someone who introduced themselves by saying, “call me snake”, I would take a big smash of pop just so I could do a spit take to draw as much attention as possible to how greasy that is.
After doing some research (wikipedia), I discovered that the computer graphics in this thing were done using miniature models and fluorescent tape. Turns out it’s not just the gang members improvising weapons. Nahmean? The landing on the Twin Towers (RIP) looked dope as fuck in this. It was the look of the future. Add to the futurist look the sound of that prophet 5 or prophet 10 or whatever the hell synth Carpenter played on this score and BLAMO, you got yrself some bleak ass future shit right there. Which leads us to my next point…
Sweet Jesus purported son of Mary and possibly also Joseph, this score blows my mind. Do the world a favour and listen to the fuck out of this. The sounds are great. The parts are elegant and evocative. For something that sounds so ominous and mechanical it’s not even kind of sterile. This gives me the feels. AND it fits the mood of the movie so well. As silly as this movie gets, it would be much sillier if the score didn’t suit it so well. Be careful about that sound track though. Most releases have a bunch of dialogue bits thrown in that really throw off the vibe. my recommend is to make your own playlist and take them shits out.
Next up we have 1990 The Bronx Warriors AKA I Guerrieri del Bronx
This italian masterpiece was directed by Enzo G. Castellari and at least partially from what I can tell shot in New York.
The first time I crossed paths with it I was on tour with my old band Sleepless Nights. We were playing someplace in Ottawa that was a huge room and had pizza. It was playing on the TVs above the bar and after watching it for what must have been at least 30 minutes while the house music played I realized I had no Idea what this was. Then I asked the person behind the bar. Then the person behind the bar told me. Then I learned what it was. I must have written it down because honestly my remember ain’t so good.
Anyway, at some point in the future back in Halifax I got it together to look this up and discovered that it’s part of trilogy. You don’t need to see the others to understand it thought. There are gangs. There are motorcycles. People fight over a girl, thought they may be fighting for her. It’s not to totally clear to me and I don’t really care. I watch stuff like this to zone out and see something weird, not to gain insight into the human condition.
So here are some of the reasons this is on my list,
This has more motorcycles than Escape but not as many as the movies that will be on the next instalment. Growing up I loved motorcycles. Ratgar, That mask one that was also a helicopter, the master system and arcade versions of SEGA’s HangOn, that was some cool shit. There aren’t any kool Evel Kenievel-esq stunts or anything but crazy gangs just look tougher on a motorcycle. When the riders come in one dude takes out the rival gang members with huge switchblades attached to the front fork of his bike. whoa.
These guys are fighty. The action is way over the top with tons of deaths and fights. The actual interactions almost look like stage acting half the time but there’s enough hold over 70s style pseudo kung fu to make the kick punches look more TV super hero than high school production of whatever the hell play has fights in. I’m sure there are some and i don’t care to look them up. Yes, I have the internet but I intend to use it for good and not to look up plays. I am not part of the solution. Thats assuming that the problem has something to do with plays. Is that a thing? oh also some dude down by the river jamming on his drum kit with an impaled dead body on the shore while the bikers parle with a rival gang. None of this needs to make sense.
Always with the music. The score to this is great. it’s like a cross between psychomania and vanishing point. this came out in the 80s but the music sound super mid seventies. lots of guitar lead melody and some italian funk.
Come check this space out next week for Part 2 - Desert Movies
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