It has low-lifes living in the future, but there really isn't much high-tech and governments are still in control (not corporations). So do you consider Escape From New York to be cyberpunk?
Apparently the movie was an influence for William Gibson:
Escape from New York never made it big, but it’s been redone a billion times as a rock video. I saw that movie, by the way, when I was starting “Burning Chrome” and it had a real influence on Neuromancer.
But that doesn't immediately make it cyberpunk. After all, Gibson was also influenced by hard-boiled detective novels and that doesn't make those cyberpunk.
I could see the argument for this either way so I'm curious what your thoughts are.
It's streaming on Roku Channel and Freevee (Amazon Prime) if you haven't seen it before.
"A lawless subculture of an oppressive society", that's an interesting distinction. The movie does take place in a lawless subculture but that's because New York City is basically a prison. Does a prison count as a lawless subculture?
Also, are there indications that the society is oppressive? The government people are kinda jerks to Snake, but he's also a bit of an ass so it isn't unwarranted. I don't remember if any regular citizens appear to be oppressed in the movie (not counting inmates within New York City).
I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just poking at this definition to see if it applies. 🤔
Lol. “Are there indications that the society is oppressive?” Dude they turned Manhattan into a prison because they couldn’t build enough prisons to house their prisoners. I’d say that’s a pretty good indication of oppression. Don’t forget they did the same to LA. If you have to do shit like that, that’s pretty oppressive I’d say.
Not to mention there were several (iirc) prisoners there for both political and bullshit reasons. (It’s been a while, can’t think of any specific examples.)
And the world isn’t just New York. There was the “Escape from Cleveland” story that strongly hints at a very lawless land.
About the only flaw in the definition is the computer technology part, but I’d say that’s a limitation of the time the movie was made, but there were several other samples of high tech stuff going on. Perhaps not CPU focused, but close enough to fit the definition I feel.
Ok, fair point. You're right, if entire cities are being turned into prisons then we don't need to see average citizens to know they're being oppressed. I agree.