SNAKE PLISSKEN
SHOULD NOT DIE WITH
KURT RUSSELL
---[ By ]---
Mohammad A. Khan
|
SNAKE PLISSKEN SHOULD NOT DIE WITH KURT RUSSELL ---[ By ]--- Mohammad A. Khan |
Any visitor to The "Carpenticized" Side of the Web worth their salt should know that I have a huge affinity for ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, to a lesser degree ESCAPE FROM L.A., and their hero, Snake Plissken.
I took one glance at the EFNY poster as a kid and immediately fell in love with it, not even having seen the film until I was almost twenty. It was like seeing something for the first time, yet, feeling that it had always been a part of me. There was no way that a poster that showed so much imagination could possibly end up being a crappy film, could it? The poster didn’t let me down, and when I saw the film it completely blew me away. It was a major event in my life when I finally got to see it, and I can say with no hesistation that NO film has been able to garner the love I feel the way ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK has.
A large amount of the apeal of the ESCAPE films is attributed to the hero of the series, Snake Plissken, and rightly so. When news of a sequel came out fanboys didn’t so much rejoice in seeing another ESCAPE film (since nothing could top the original) as being able to once again gaze on the visage of one of the finest drawn heroes in the annals of science fiction. Snake Plissken, a loner in a very dangerous future (thank god this guy was given balls of steel). The character is wonderful and an absolute one of a kind so far as I am concerned. I’ve never seen anyone like him since his introduction in 1981.
With the release of ESCAPE FROM L.A. in 1996 I had high hopes. I’d never seen ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK in the theater and was going to be damned if I was going to let ESCAPE FROM L.A. slip through my grasp. I saw it, and was completely let down, imagine how heart-broken I was! I didn’t see any of the magic that had captured my imagination in EFLA that I’d glimpsed in EFNY.
Since that time however, I have managed to accept certain things about this inferior sequel. I have eased up on my trigger finger and am not so quick to condemn it as I was before. I try to understand it more every time I see it on my VCR and think in which direction John Carpenter was approaching the film. Maybe I’m hunting for reasons that aren’t even there, but I am desperately trying to maintain some kind of restraint. It is actually a cause for celebration if you think about it, who would’ve dreamed that we’d ever see a sequel to ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK in the first place? That it came true was beyond belief and all the hoopla up to the film’s eventual release (ie..articles, interviews, etc.) was (as opposed to the actual film) priceless.
The film needs/needed work. Even now, I’ll admit that. And for Kurt Russell and John Carpenter to sit there and say how much better a film ESCAPE FROM L.A. is than ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK is absolute heresy! The only one to escape from (pardon the pun) the blunder of ESCAPE FROM L.A. relatively unscathed, is Snake Plissken.
Filmdom is not apt to see a hero like Snake Plissken ever again and that’s exactly why I am lobbying for the idea that the character be allowed to live on in some shape or form. Whether it be comic books, a cartoon, movies or a television series Snake cannot die with Kurt Russell; his is a life worth looking into more than just twice. My personal preference would be to see Snake in all of these mediums, but I recognize that is pushing it.
So lets just stick to the movies shall we?
Give us more.
Give ME more goddammit!
The fan base is out there, albeit not to the level of a STAR WARS or STAR TREK audience though. The internet revolution has helped bring fans of the films together, but Snake’s fans are still realatively non-existent when compared to other more mainstream films. Everyday that passes by is another reason not to watch the mindless dreck on television or at the movies and if there’s one thing that could pull me into a theater and fork over my hard earned cash like some mindless STAR WARS drone, it would be another ESCAPE film. My eyes would kinda be glazed over, kinda like Homer Simpson, the tinest dribble of wet drool running down my chin.
The problem is however, that I am more interested in seeing the life and times of the pre-EFLA Snake Plissken, I want someone to hearken back to Plissken’s heyday, as seen in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK.
But Kurt can’t do that can he? He’s got too many wrinkles these days wouldn’t you say? I mean, I really sank into my chair at the view you have of Snake in EFLA right after Taslima is killed and Snake is scanning the area for her killers. He looked so damn OLD, that I said enough is enough.
So what do you suggest? Nothing eh? Well, here’s my plan…
I actually came across someone who I thought would do fabulously as a replacement Plissken. Someone who I first saw in a good scifi flick, playing a badass with a raspy Plissken-like voice and big bushy/wild hair, just like Plissken. And if you’re industrious, you’ll find my DEJA NEWS post to the John Carpenter forum all about him.
The man I speak of is none other than…..
Oh…
Dammit!
I forgot his name! No wait, it’s Roy Dupuis! Got it!
This is Roy Dupuis. 
Cool huh? When I saw him in the underrated flick SCREAMERS I was convinced he was American as apple pie, but he's actually French! He completely fooled me with his mastery of the American accent in this film.
These days he's most noted for playing the in-charge to the lead character on the hyper-driven LA FEMME NIKITA on the USA Network. I don't watch the show, so I can't honestly say I can rate his acting on it, and I've not been particularly keen on tuning in on the French films he's been doing for Canadian Television lately.
Anyhoo, he was an utter badass in SCREAMERS and I soon latched onto him as my favorite candidate to replace Kurt as Snake Plissken (or even Mad Max in the film series vacated by Mel Gibson). Now don't get me wrong, if this wish of mine were to come true and Dupuis became the new Plissken, I would unflinchingly hold onto Kurt's initial portrayal as the standard by which future performances would be judged. All I am sayin' is that to me Dupuis seems the most ideal candidate to be able to pull off such a massive performance. It's only now that I can finally understand why the most folks figure Sean Connery as the ONLY James Bond (now that we've actually gone about and re-cast Snake Plissken for future generations).
Now you may be asking yourself, why is this page not in in JC-ACTOR-WISHLIST. Well, this deals with Snake Plissken people, you just gotsta understand that it's a little bit special. We're covering much more ground than usual here.
Anyway, back to Dupuis, one great qualification he's got to play Plissken is that he's got a BIG-ASS CHIN (just like Kurt)! He's also got the long stringy hair (in SCREAMERS it was all blown back like psycho cop Martin Riggs from LETHAL WEAPON but hey the talent was there). He also is able to manipulate his voice pretty well, at least used it to great effect in SCREAMERS. They were raspy and grating, perfect Snake material dude. Alas, on LA FEMME NIKITA he doesn't really use that voice anymore. He's also a brunette and has similar facial like qualities to Kurt during his time as Plissken. Check out this doctored image of Roy as Snake alongside the real deal (Kurt). Thanks to Stefan Bommelin (Assault on Webpage 13) for the Roy image.
And lets get something straight, it's not like I just picked this guy outta thin air to take over the reins from Kurt. Hell, it was just an afterthought in the back of my mind that MAYBE Snake could be re-introduced to audiences via some new blood, but then I thought, how the HELL are you going to be able to find someone who can come close to filling Kurt's shoes? And soon enough, SCREAMERS came along and days after watching it, it suddenly hit me that the fella in it (Dupuis) would be the perfect answer. Here are 3 pictures of Roy which I feel best represent his candidacy as the next actor to portray Snake Plissken, can you tell I'm DEAD serious about this?
Am I alone in my decision to want Snake to live on, long after I'm dead? I don't think so. Snake was introduced in a time and in a world that echoes frighteningly of ours, but with a decidedly downbeat twist. Snake's future world is very scary, but has all the elements that capture humanity's culture, technology, and history.
So why him? Why go after a Snake when you could try and catch a Hauk, or Brain, or Duke?
Probably because he is the most interesting of all of John Carpenter's characters and yet, with 2 films behind him, the character manages to remain as much a mystery as he ever was. No matter how deep you go, there's always something more to uncover in this fantastically drawn character. You read his comic, THE ADVENTURES OF SNAKE PLISSKEN (although I haven't) and I doubt you'll find out everything you ever wanted to know about him. And to be honest, that's the way it should be. Snake's appeal lies in the fact that he remains an enigma. Kurt captured that essence very well, what with his unfeeling/dissatisfied smirks/glances in the face of danger/authority. Probably, the biggest bomb that one could hit a fan over the head with is depicting Snake before he ever entered the military. To see what the man was like as a boy, before he saw what he saw. To watch his demeanor and views on the world change as he encounters what Kurt called in the press kit video, "politicking, backstabbing, and betrayals" among other things. To be there, at the very moment when Snake realizes that the only thing that counts is staying alive for the next 60 seconds.
I know that Snake has been screwing the establishment in film, but there's so much more to a life like his and Plissken's life shouldn't die with Kurt Russell.
---[ carpenticized@hotmail.com ]---
All content
and design of this website are
©1997-2000 The "Carpenticized" Side of the Web or the
respective ©holder