Assault on Precinct 13
Director: John Carpenter
Year:
1976
Rating: 7.5
With a budget
of $100,000 and a cast of unknown actors, director John Carpenter made his
Western. In Los Angeles. A huge fan of Howard Hawks, Carpenter had wanted
to make a Western, but the budget didn't allow that so he wrote a script
that substituted the circle of covered wagons with a police station and the
Native Americans with a multi-racial alliance of gangs. Who take the blood
oath to fight to the death. And in only his second film, Carpenter produced
a classic. One that has only gained in reputation over the years. He keeps
it simple. Basically, one location and a small group of men and women fighting
for their lives. Isolated and running out of ammunition. Like many of the
Westerns, the gang are given no individuality and are willing to die en masse
with one charge after another.
The film grabs you early with the police
slaughter of a gang and the synthesizer and electronic soundtrack (composed
by Carpenter). It then slows down and gets its pieces in place. Precinct
13 is being closed in hostile territory with only a skeleton staff on hand.
Lt. Bishop (Austin Stoker) is informed that for the night he has to head
the station. A night off, his commander tells him. Only two female secretaries
and another cop are on hand. At the same time, a police bus transporting
three prisoners are forced to stop at the station to get a doctor for one
of the prisoners. In a third piece, a man driving his young daughter gets
lost and has to stop. What happens to the daughter almost got the film an
X rating.
And the phones suddenly stop working and
the lights go off. Outside a large gang is circling the station looking for
easy access. Weak points. And the shooting begins. And so does the dying.
Carpenter says he wrote the script in a week, inserting Western motifs and
themes. Courage and sacrifice. Over the next ten years, Carpenter was to
make one classic film after another, Halloween, Escape from New York, The
Thing, Starman and Big Trouble in Chinatown. A remarkable streak. There was
a remake of this in 2005 with a much better known cast. If you read the bios
of these actors, all of them single out their appearance in this film as
noteworthy. In an age where action films have gotten bombastic and over the
top, this reminds us that all you really need are characters you care about
trying to survive the night.
