Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)
Wednesday, March 29th, 2006
Written & Directed by: John Carpenter
Cast: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West, Tony Burton, Charles Cyphers, Nancy Loomis, Peter Bruni
Runtime: 91 min
Rating: R
Trailer
John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 is a clear homage to Howard Hawks’ Rio Bravo but instead of Indians laying siege to a western fort, Carpenter updates the action to Los Angeles, where a violent street gang terrorizes a police station. However, Carpenter’s film owes a lot to the original Night of the Living Dead, more so in the stylized action than in the plot. The dangerous gang, made of up of all races, uniting together to destroy the station and the cops inside of it are eerily similar to the mindless zombies that occupied Romero’s classic. From the opening credits it’s apparent that you’re in for a wild ride. The synthesized music pulses on the soundtrack as the Carpenter’s cameras glides through the streets of Los Angeles. After a group of gang members, some of them no older than teenagers, are killed in a police raid, a call to arms goes out with gang members uniting and hell-bent on destroying the city, starting with a soon-to-be shutdown police station housing a small group of officers, staff, and prisoners. Although the setup has all the classic elements of a western, Assault on Precinct 13 works better as an urban horror film. But unlike Carpenter’s masterpiece, Halloween, where the horror elements were more conventional to the slasher genre film it helped popularize, Assault relies more heavily on mass terror and the overriding sense of dread at what lays ahead, and less to do with the individualistic death scenes were familiar with nowadays. The constant cutting between the gang members’ control of the surrounding parking lot and the claustrophobic urgency inside the police station reminds the viewer of the danger lurking just beyond the walls, with helps heighten the suspense and foreshadows the inevitable onslaught. It’s impossible to discuss the film without underscoring the allegorical nature of the plot and the racial issues simmering underneath the action. Although the action takes place in Los Angeles, a hub of metropolitan society, the siege takes place in a ghetto neighborhood long forgotten by the rest of society to such an extent that Bishop (Austin Stoker) continues to hope that someone will eventually hear the gunshots and call for help, even when it’s obvious that nothing will come, either because no one hears it (which is unlikely considering the amount of ammo discharged) or that no one cares. The film was quickly shot on little financing, and although certain scenes feel rushed and haphazardly put together, overall the film is brilliantly constructed and beautifully photographed in Carpenter’s patented 2.35:1 widescreen that always elevates seemingly mundane shots into iconic and grand statements, much like the classic westerns and horror films that continue to resonate today.
Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006
