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Assault on precinct 13 (The original not the remake)

post #1 of 19
12/7/05 at 9:50am
Thread Starter 
I finally got around to seeing this after watching 'The Nest' which was a damn good action film.

I really like the way Carpenter composes his soundtracks, they're simple but effective. Here, he gives us a nice little theme, nothing that comes close to Halloween but it's still good nonetheless.

I also like the fact that he cast unknowns for the most part, it means we can identify with them easier. Napolean Wilson is a total badass and just utterly fucking cool. Bishop is the good guy and his role seems slightly weaker, I'm not sure if that's due to the performance of Austin Stoker or not.

There's some great scenes of tension in this film, Carpenter has brass balls for killing that little girl, in such a cold blooded fashion, she had pigtails for christsakes. The gang members move around like ghosts, it's done in such a creepy manner, I think the same technique is used in 'The Nest' and it works, it adds another level of uneasiness to the film. The way they clear the dead and make it look as if nothing happened, just creepy as hell.

I also got the feeling Carpenter was influenced by or influenced Romero on his dead series because that last scene where the gang members are attacking Bishop and Wilson, the gang members look like Zombies, just surging forward.

I thought it was a nifty little low budget movie.
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post #2 of 19
12/7/05 at 10:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragon Ma
I finally got around to seeing this after watching 'The Nest' which was a damn good action film.

I really like the way Carpenter composes his soundtracks, they're simple but effective. Here, he gives us a nice little theme, nothing that comes close to Halloween but it's still good nonetheless.

I also like the fact that he cast unknowns for the most part, it means we can identify with them easier. Napolean Wilson is a total badass and just utterly fucking cool. Bishop is the good guy and his role seems slightly weaker, I'm not sure if that's due to the performance of Austin Stoker or not.

There's some great scenes of tension in this film, Carpenter has brass balls for killing that little girl, in such a cold blooded fashion, she had pigtails for christsakes. The gang members move around like ghosts, it's done in such a creepy manner, I think the same technique is used in 'The Nest' and it works, it adds another level of uneasiness to the film. The way they clear the dead and make it look as if nothing happened, just creepy as hell.

I also got the feeling Carpenter was influenced by or influenced Romero on his dead series because that last scene where the gang members are attacking Bishop and Wilson, the gang members look like Zombies, just surging forward.

I thought it was a nifty little low budget movie.

Now you MUST watch the commentary. It was influenced by both Rio Bravo and NOTLD, annnd the theme song was influenced by Led Zep. Damn fine commentary.
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post #3 of 19
12/7/05 at 12:09pm
Got a smoke?
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post #4 of 19
12/7/05 at 1:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by samuraisix
Now you MUST watch the commentary. It was influenced by both Rio Bravo and NOTLD, annnd the theme song was influenced by Led Zep. Damn fine commentary.
Carpenter mentions several westerns on the commentary, but for some reason
he leaves out Once Upon a Time in the West.
Strange considering that there are a bunch of refernces to that film in Assault on Precint 13.
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post #5 of 19
12/7/05 at 6:17pm
Thread Starter 
I don't think my version has the commentary. I know Rio Bravo was the major influence on this film. I didn't realize theme was influenced by Led Zep, pretty cool, no wonder it's good.
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post #6 of 19
12/8/05 at 1:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragon Ma
I finally got around to seeing this after watching 'The Nest' which was a damn good action film.
Yes, another convert.
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post #7 of 19
12/8/05 at 2:11am
THE NEST was a visually interesting take on AP13 and even though this thread is meant for the original I'll stand behind my view that the '05 remake is damn good.

After THEY LIVE, AP13 is my favorite of Carpenter's films. All the principal actors do a great job and help relay the tension surrounding them. Even though he's sort of become adopted as a sci-fi/horror director only, I'd love to see Carpenter get back into films with something "real world" based where the threat isn't in the form of traditional creatures. Maybe a movie along the lines of HISTORY OF VIOLENCE.
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post #8 of 19
12/8/05 at 4:38am
I love this film. Also while Rio Bravo was a main influence so was The Nebraskan.

http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65104

http://chud.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66896

http://chud.com/forums/showthread.ph...286#post979286
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post #9 of 19
12/11/05 at 11:03pm
Thread Starter 
You guys notice the mexican gang member at the beginning looks a hell of alot like the villain from 'Escape from LA' it might be the cap.
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post #10 of 19
12/11/05 at 11:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragon Ma
You guys notice the mexican gang member at the beginning looks a hell of alot like the villain from 'Escape from LA' it might be the cap.

I think that in at least escape from L.A. they were going for the Che Guevara look.
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post #11 of 19
12/22/05 at 4:54am
Me and my friend have a little song that goes with the theme music, which is basically singing "low budget" in a deep voice, timed to the music. I'm guessing that the Zep influence is the Immigrant Song.

I can annoy my friend to no end just by reciting the theme music, thus getting it stuck in his head. 'Duh duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh, duh duh duh duh duh, low budget!

Oh yeah, I love this movie. Freaked me out when I was a boy and lil' Kim Richards gets blown away. Don't see that everyday. And the freaky deaky blonde guy from the beginning of Escape from New York is in this, playing one of the gang members. If I recall, it's the one with the M 16 that Kim Richard's dad shoots. Did anyone even mention Fort Apache, which is interchangeable with Rio Bravo really?
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post #12 of 19
12/22/05 at 9:32am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Balmudo
Me and my friend have a little song that goes with the theme music, which is basically singing "low budget" in a deep voice, timed to the music. I'm guessing that the Zep influence is the Immigrant Song.

It is indeed--he mentions it on the Special Edition Commentary.
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post #13 of 19
5/21/06 at 7:54pm
definatly better than that turd of a remake
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post #14 of 19
5/21/06 at 8:54pm
Love it. I agree with Moltisanti that Carpenter should lay off the horror/sci-fi stuff and just do a balls to the wall crime/action thriller again; it couldn't possibly turn out any worse than "Cigarette Burns".
AP13 is just a really cool film with all of the confidence and swagger of its anti-hero and there has of course been some spillage into popular culture, most notably in "From Dusk Till Dawn", which borrows quite liberally (and openly) from "AP13" and another favorite of mine, "Vamp" (I still prefer both of these films to the uneven "FDTD").

Confidence and swagger; that's exactly what's been missing from Carpenter's work in the past decade or so. It cannot be ignored that the exit of Dean Cundey as his principal cinematographer left a huge stylistic vacuum in Carpenter's subsequent work, but I still hold out hope that Father Time hasn't completely tagged the filmmaker who has more or less dictated my personal tastes since I was a wee peanut.
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post #15 of 19
5/22/06 at 7:52am
I'd be interested to just see Carpenter do more of a straight western.
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post #16 of 19
5/23/06 at 2:41am
I saw this a few months ago and I really liked it. Definitely better than the remake.
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post #17 of 19
7/4/11 at 5:39am

Nice low-budget pot boiler, and fascinating to see early Carpenter.

 

All the elements are here: isolation, desolation, siege, cheesy dialogue, throbbing soundtrack, and the feeling of a western transplanted to the modern day.

 

Officer Bishop is a quietly likable, refreshingly African-American character not defined by his race but his actions. Napoleon is also a fascinating character: he's an unrepentent murderer, but the circumstances of his crimes are never explained and he's only shown to be dangerous when pushed or for relatively noble purposes.

 

I love that the cholos gang has very little dialogue, appear to be supernaturally influenced (they're like the personification of crime), and multiply from four guys cruising in a car to an army without explanation.

 

Fun movie that meanders for about 45 minutes, but once it gets going it's tense and awesome. Surprisingly violent, much moreso than Halloween.

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post #18 of 19
7/4/11 at 11:46am

The greatness of Carpenter here is atmosphere the film is dripping with it.

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post #19 of 19
8/29/11 at 2:33am

Atmosphere was/is always one of Carpenter's strongest elements among his work.  I'm glad this classic finally made it to BR recently.

 

FUN FACTOID:  Carpenter was originally going to adapt Stephen King's Firestarter for Universal as his follow-up to The Thing.  When the latter tanked, he lost the project and ended up doing Christine instead.  Had John actually been able to make Firestarter, we'd have had Darwin Joston in the role of assassin 'John Rainbird' (played by George C. Scott in the film we got).  It's a shame, because I'd always wished Darwin had become a regular in JC's stable.  As it stands, we're just left with his excellent work in this and his small role in The Fog.  Still, Christine is a pretty damn good movie itself and I like Mark Lester's Firestarter.

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