Writer(s): Carpenter
Starring: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, and Martin West
I discovered John Carpenter’s
Assault on Precinct 13 a couple of
decades ago—if I remember correctly, it was at a video shop in California
I watched it shortly
thereafter, and was enthralled with the story from beginning to end. It was this feeling of nostalgia that lead me
to pop this movie in again one cold, winter night, just to see if the current
experience of watching it lived up to my former memories.
The plot is supposedly
(loosely) based on the classic John Wayne western Rio Bravo . As with many films harboring the “classic”
tag, I have not seen it; but the one film that this has always reminded me of
is Night of the Living Dead, George
A. Romero’s landmark zombie film. That
might sound crazy to you now, but the basic outline of both films are very
similar: A group of survivors barricade themselves in a nearly-abandoned police
station, instead of a house, and must fend off hordes of angry gang members,
instead of bloodthirsty zombies. Even
Austin Stoker’s performance, as newly-crowned Lieutenant Ethan Bishop, is
strongly reminiscent of Tony Todd’s in the seminal horror film.
Anyway, it’s Bishop’s first
day out on the force, and the Captain has a special order for him—head to
Precinct 9, Division 13 (odd title choice given these facts), an outdated
police station that is in the process of slowly being relocated elsewhere in
the city. His job is merely to answer
the phones and notify callers of the station’s impending move, until the
morning, when the precinct’s electricity and phone lines will be turned
off. If only it were that easy.
Things are complicated from
parallel actions that occurred as Bishop was on his way to the police station:
A police ambush leaves several young gang members dead, an action that leads surviving
members to take a blood oath to avenge their murders; in another, said gang
members kill a little girl, whose father swears revenge, but must retreat to
the police station after running out of ammo; in yet another bit of weird luck,
a police transport vehicle, carrying a notorious Death Row inmate, along with a
handful of other prisoners, must make an emergency stop when one of them gets
seriously ill.
And so as night falls, and
all of these random characters are getting settled in (along with Julie (Nancy
Loomis) and Leigh (Laurie Zimmer), the station’s two secretaries), a seemingly
endless group of armed thugs attack the police station, presumably to kill the
father of the murdered girl, who killed one of their own. Or maybe just to kill cops in general, to
avenge the slaughtered gang members. Whatever the reason, all you need to know is that people are out for vengeance against someone in that building, and will kill whoever gets in their way.
Clearly, this is an ambitious
film, though its small budget occasionally sabotages the proceedings, mainly in
the form of the uneven acting. A popular
case-in-point is Laurie Zimmer, whose filmography begins here and ended a mere
three films later. Though widely panned
by internet critics, I actually thought her performance was pretty good—until
she gets shot in the arm, merely winces, and then acts the rest of the film
like she only received a papercut, as opposed to a chunk of hot metal traveling at a high rate of speed. Really,
though, I guess at least part of that falls on writer/director (and score writer, and editor)
John Carpenter, who could have forced her to emote a bit more; maybe he was going for a "tough as nails" kind of woman, which would be admirable of him, but no matter who you are, taking a bullet to the arm is going to have you screaming like a baby.
Speaking of Carpenter, the editing
and score are fairly lackluster, with some scenes going on far too long
(including one in which thugs randomly fire into the police station for what
feels like two minutes of actual screen time), and the music consisting of the
same three cues over and over again.
It’s not that the music itself is bad (though it’s synth-heavy and
dated), it’s just repetitive, without much variety at all.
Continuity is also a major
factor, with all sorts of obvious errors scattered throughout. There are some lazily shot sequences
that seem to forget the perspective of characters—for instance, a man’s
daughter is shot several yards away from him, in broad daylight, out in the
open, but even though he’s facing in her direction, he doesn’t see it happen. A montage of dozens of gang members trying to
gain access to the building by crawling through windows, only to be gunned down
by the officers and prisoners trying to hold their ground, also goes on way too
long, with little variations. And
wouldn’t the gang members learn to take a different way in, or to at least fire
off a few rounds first before just trying to leap in? I’d imagine the thirty dead bodies piling up
in front of every window would be a clue that their techniques aren’t working,
but the thugs seem to be unable, or unwilling, to change their gameplan, with
results that border on self-parody.
Yet there’s still a genuine
sense of dread and uneasiness that permeates almost every scene, especially
when the prisoners are released--and given guns--in an effort to help the “good
guys” hold the fort. Then ammo starts
running low, and the phones go out early, leaving them completely helpless to
contact anyone else for help. Really,
the way all the events unfold somehow never feels tacky or forced, even as
the coincidences keep piling up, while the film’s pacing is nearly
perfect. Whereas Carpenter’s direction
is a little lackluster (though again, in his defense, a lot of it no doubt has
to do with his lack of a budget), he certainly makes up for it with his
writing, and clear vision.
If you’re looking for an
intense actioner, and don’t mind obvious evidence of a low budget, then this
one is worth checking out.
RECAP: It has flaws aplenty,
ranging from uneven acting, to a repetitive score, and occasionally sloppy
editing, but Assault on Precinct 13
is salvaged by some solid writing, and a genuinely intense atmosphere. There is also a completely shocking scene
that involves a little girl and an ice cream cone that will drop your jaw to
the floor if you’re not expecting it (and that nearly lead to an “X”
certification by the MPAA). The action
scenes are mostly one-note, often clumsily-staged, and can get monotonous, but
there’s still enough action and atmosphere to carry this one across the finish
line. Forget the overrated Halloween; this is early Carpenter’s swan song.
RATING: 7/10
TRAILER
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