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| Are The Riffs gonna make it out this time? Maybe Spike Fist Man will lead the way? |
On our most recent Year of The Knock Off episode, we discussed 1982's 1990: The Bronx Warriors, a film that we were lead to believe was a knock off of John Carpenter's Escape From New York. While we did enjoy the film a great deal, the Bronx Warriors had much more DNA from The Warriors in its makeup than Escape From New York. While that was a fun element to look into, because let's be honest, theme gangs are always awesome and always welcome, it didn't scratch that itch that I thought an Escape from New York knock off would.
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| Remember, no one will take your turf war seriously if you don't accessorize and practice, practice, practice! |
Once we finished watching 1990: The Bronx Warriors, we learned that it had a sequel (technically two sequels but the second one was more of a Mad Max knock off... that I want to watch with Steve, like right now), called Escape From The Bronx. So I decided in lieu of trying to locate a different Escape From New York wannabe, I would watch this sequel in hopes of seeing Trash and the gang escape the Bronx.
Here is the wikipedia page, and the imdb.com cast listing.
Spoilers: the previous film just kind of ended with Trash (Mark Gregory) driving his sweet skull laden motorcycle away from a gang stronghold that was being attacked and decimated by the private police force of The Manhattan Corporation. In tow, Trash has grapple gun hooked Hammer, an officer who lead the attacks (played by the awesome Vic Morrow). Trash was dragging Hammer through the No Man's Land that is the Bronx.
Escape From The Bronx picks up some time later. Another company, The General Construction Corporation is now rounding up all the remaining residents of the Bronx. They plan to raze the entirety of the Bronx to make way for a new city of the future (think of the Delta City plan put in place by OCP in Robocop and it is pretty much the same thing, except the model of the city is way lower budget). GCC is stating that they are resettling the residents in New Mexico.
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| Enchanting! Sign me up! |
The people that have survived in the Bronx don't want to leave. Why this is isn't made particularly clear other than it is their home and they shouldn't be made to leave it. They also do have good reason to believe that GCC is not being on the level about their promise of New Mexico. It doesn't help that the relocation squads that are patrolling the borough are wearing shiny silver suits and are packing flame throwers that they use at the drop of a hat.
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| Shown: the Bronx. Not shown: New Mexico probably not looking at all like this. |
Enter Trash, one of two returning characters from the original film. His gang, The Riders, were supposedly the rulers of the Bronx in the previous film and were the force to reckoned with. It isn't spoken, but evidently the final fight of the first film took the rest of the gang out and now Trash is just an spindly army of one. GCC knows him by name and have been trying to hunt him down. A helicopter spots him in the distance and opens fire on him. Trash, armed only with a revolver and a face that doesn't emote, returns fire.
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| Ken would never walk again. |
GCC takes this personally and orders that Trash's parents are located and killed. It's a very dick move.
Two things about the brief scene involving Trash's parents:
1.) His mom has a poster of him up in their apartment. Weird.
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| Does that mean the film of 1990: The Bronx Warriors exists in this world as well? *Mind Blown* |
2.) His dad knows how to swing a baseball bat.
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| Ken would never eat solid food again. |
This would lead Trash to head underground to find the remnants of the rest of the gangs that had been fighting for control of the Bronx but now are living in fear of the GCC.
The leader of the remains goes by the name of Dablone and is played by Antonio Sabato, Snr.
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| 'One day I will have a son that is bat shit crazy... but also really good looking. Not A List good looking, but definitely good looking enough to make you consider watching some direct to video nonsense, ok?' |
Dablone is not as charismatic a leader as Fred Williamson's Ogre was in 1990: The Bronx Warriors, but Sabato plays him with enough crazy energy that it feels like he is the only actor aware of what kind of movie he is actually in, so I appreciated it. Dablone is confident that the GCC wouldn't dare come down in the underground of the Bronx as he and his people know the tunnels and have traps set up. Trash is trying to convince him that they need to take the fight above ground and take their turf back.
While this exchange is going on, there's a certain gang training in the background.
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| This just made Steve's day. |
The Dance Fighters (dance troupe game name 'The Iron Men') are back! Shit is about to get real, right? No. Sadly, they don't ever factor in the fights that happen later. None of the theme gang stuff from the first film really comes back in this one. I did see some members of the rolling skating gang, the Zombies, but they did nothing as well. It's unfortunate, because these two films had a chance to carve out its own distinct brand of weird and failed to do so.
There is a smaller subplot that is going on during this time involving a reporter, her photographer, and their attempts to get the president of GCC to admit that they are actually killing the remaining people in the Bronx and not at all relocating them to the magical land of New Mexico. The president (played by Ennio Girolami, I only mention his name as he played the president of the other evil company from the first film, so I honestly thought it was the same character... and for all intents and purposes it really is) is quick to dismiss her accusations, stating the he will only respond to respectable press, not a shouting woman. I am glad that this is a sci-fi film and that kind of thing never happens in real life.
She does present him with a piece of evidence that he thought was hidden from the press: the man running the DAS (Disinfestation Annihilation Squad), the silver suited flame thrower equipped guys, is an expelled prison warden named Floyd Wangler. He is as cruel and as bad as they come. He even has the Disinfestors attach bombs to residents in an attempt to blow others up when they are being rescued.... with varying degrees of success.
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| 'I JUST ATE A BUNCH OF POP ROCKS AND DRANK A 2 LITER OF DIET COKE...' |
Who do you get to play such a role? Vic Morrow was a good foil in the first film and had his own intensity. That would be hard to match. Instead, you get Henry Silva. You don't get smolder from Silva. You get a calm demeanor as he goes about doing the worst things to people. Nothing much gets to him. But when he smiles, you are probably already dead. He was great in the roll of Wangler. He didn't really get the chance to mix it up with the main characters and that is a shame. I enjoyed his time on screen and was always hoping there would be more of him.
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| 'But that's more of grin...!' |
The reporter and photographer witness first hand the violence of the DAS, with the photographer not quite making it (he, like a lot of people in this film, got slow motion flame throwered). The reporter ends up in the underground with Trash and Dablone and eventually convinces Dablone to take action.
Their plan? Kidnap the president of GCC and hold him until the company stops all action and hands the Bronx back to the gangs. I don't know if their logic is sound, but I appreciated their enthusiasm.
They need to get to mainland and the only way they can do that is if they locate an infamous bank robber named Strike (Giancarlo Prete). Strike's motivation for helping Trash and the reporter is that once the Bronx is back in control of the gangs, he can go back to be best there is at crime (?). I figured you could commit crimes and robberies regardless of who is in charge, but what do I know, I am not very good at crime at all. So Strike agrees to help them out, on one condition, that his young son, Junior (Alessandro Prete.. HIS ACTUAL SON) comes along with them as the kid is a demolitions expert. The kid actually does prove time and time again that he knows his stuff about rigging explosives and is probably the most competent character in the whole film. Junior likes to raise his hand into the air, splaying his fingers out, and saying 'boom' before any explosion goes off. It is a very cute and disturbing calling card.
So Trash, Strike, Junior, and the reporter head out to kidnap the GCC president. As the reporter's job is complete, she is quickly killed off. Thanks for filling in the backstory, but we only have so much money for words and we would rather use that on explosions.
They capture the president and take him underground to get him back to the Bronx. GCC, Wangler, and his Disinfestors are brought out in full force to head into the sewers to find Trash and the gang.
Please see how unaffected New York City seems to be by a van full of guys in silver suits and motorcycle helmets holding guns and flame throwers exiting immediately the back of the van and then directly heading underground.
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| I like the one Disinfestor has to run around the side of the van to hassle the one guy walking by. |
Soon, all hell breaks loose as Dablone finally gets his men to face the DAS on the streets. There are many moments of slow motion gun fire, fire from explosions, and fire from flame throwers. A lot of characters we saw in passing get killed off. Dablone gets offed to, and he doesn't get the badass send off that Fred Williamson had in the original. The president escapes from Trash and Strike and makes it topside to only find out that he has been double crossed by the vice president and Wangler. Wangler shoots the president and believes that everything is now under control.
The vice president, in a bright red Porsche, drives through the bloodshed without a care in the world. Strike, who appears to have the most powerful shotgun, takes aim at the car as it passes by.
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| Ken was still upside down on payments for that car. |
Wangler attempts to drive off, but Trash, who shot down a helicopter with a revolver, takes aim.
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| Remember, when shooting a gun you have to flex your shoulders and not your face. |
And that's your film. The president and vice president of GCC are dead, their main enforcer is dead, Dablone and many others are dead. There is no actual resolution to the problem of the people of the Bronx being relocated. I suppose Trash has a moral victory because he stood his ground, but at what cost? GCC is likely just going to continue forward with their plan, fueled now by the deaths of their leaders due to the gangs of the Bronx. I kind of think Trash made it worse. Oh, and the biggest thing of all...
NO ONE ESCAPED THE BRONX. NO ONE WAS TRYING TO ESCAPE THE BRONX. THEY ALL WANTED TO STAY IN THE BRONX. THE FILM SHOULD HAVE BEEN CALLED 'STAY IN THE BRONX.'
I feel like director Enzo G. Castellari pulled a Lucy with the football on me. 'Oh, you wanted an Escape from New York style film? How about 1990: The Bronx Warriors? Oh, did you fall for that? I am sorry, what about a film called Escape From The Bronx? Oh. Looks like you lying face up on the ground again, Charlie Brown Paul Steadman. Castellari wins again! Even though I do feel duped, I can appreciate both films for what they were even while I am still lying here on the ground in pain.
Escape From The Bronx really didn't try to knock off Escape From New York all that much more than 1990: The Bronx Warriors did. It did make for a sequel that was somewhat different than the first film and did try to deal with the ideas of escalation and the fallout from the events of the first one. I just wish that those involved saw that they had some really interesting ingredients already in the mix (i.e the insanity of the theme gangs and their costuming, and letting little children be too damn good at modern warfare) and leaned into that and made their own weird post apocalyptic world.
Stylistically, this film does not vary much from the previous one. The use of some really worn down and abandoned city blocks made this world feel desperate and grim. Though somewhat comical, the model effects work and the explosions all still look really cool. I still believe, that much like the first film, that flame throwers were still too close to the actors and I have my doubts that there were no injuries on the set during those scenes.
Castellari's directing is as workmanlike and solid as it was in the other film. There are a number of great tracking shots that let the scene move forward with just enough detail in the background to show that he put some thought into how he wanted to present this world to the audience. My experience with Castellari is very limited but I am starting to get the idea that the story and plot aren't always the most important part of film making to him. Just like the weird out of place drummer in the previous film that just happened to be there the day they shot that scene, I think if he sees something that works for a particular scene, he will use it, whether it informs the rest of the film or not.
One thing that Escape From The Bronx has that might just be better than 1990: The Bronx Warriors? The intro theme by Francesco De Masi is kick ass. As I gushed over and over again during my look at Italian westerns, the Italian composers do some of the best and strangest work. This theme will be in my soundtrack rotation from here on out.
Escape From The Bronx was fun enough ride. I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much if I had not watched 1990: The Bronx Warriors and knew what I was in for. I just wish someone would have tried to escape other than the president of GCC.
On a scale of 1-10, how close did it adhere to the film it wanted to knock off?
As we did give 1990: The Bronx Warriors a 5 in how close it stayed with some of the ideas in Escape From New York, I have to give this one a 4. It strayed away from what little it had in common with Escape Form New York. There were gangs, a section of New York was considered off limits due to crime. That's about it. It did present GCC as more of authoritarian force much akin to the United States Police Force in Escape From New York, so there is that.
On the Ator Scale, was it better or worse than Ator?
Production wise it is better than Ator, and it is certainly watchable, but I enjoyed Ator more.
Would you recommend this film to anyone else?
Yes, because I always try to get everyone I know to watch these off the beaten path films. Do I think most of the people I know would give this a chance? Probably not while sober.
Bonus:
If you want to watch the move for 'free,' it is on Youtube. A little fuzzy but it is certainly watchable. It is also currently available to watch on Amazon Prime.
Bonus Bonus:
If you don't want to go it alone watching this film, you don't need too! Mystery Science Theater 3000 covered this film under the title Escape 2000.
