ASSAULT
ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)Director: John Carpenter
Image Entertainment
ASSAULT
ON PRECINCT 13 (1976)It is a real pleasure to see one of John Carpenter's greatest films come to DVD in this special widescreen edition with director's commentary. This was one of Carpenter's earliest films (the first being DARK STAR) and is action packed while holding your interest from beginning to end. Unlike many movies today, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 takes on its topic seriously, not resorting to wise cracking so-called film stars. "Barney Miller" this film is not.
The film begins as members of a local street gang called Street Thunder are ambushed and shot to death by the police in a Los Angeles ghetto. The gang soon after forms a blood pact to enact their revenge against the police force. A newly hired lieutenant (Ethan Bishop, played by Austin Stoker, who also appeared in many blaxploitation classics as well as in BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES) is sent on assignment to watch over Precinct 9 as it is being closed down before moving to a new location.
Three prisoners including Napoleon Wilson (played by Darwin Joston) are being transferred from the closing precinct to death row. One of the prisoners on the transportation bus becomes severely sick and so the guards make a stop at the Anderson precinct to call a doctor.
The next part of the film is the infamous ice-cream truck/child killing sequence. A little girl goes to buy an ice cream cone while her father uses a pay phone. After the girl buys her cone and leaves, Street Thunder shows up and attacks the driver of the ice cream truck. The tension builds quickly as the girl goes back to the truck after realizing that she received the wrong flavor ice cream. The viewer does not expect the girl to be killed since the driver of the truck is at first only knocked out. But then in the blink of an eye one of the gang members (Frank Doubleday, who also appeared in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) shoots her without even looking and then proceeds to also shoot the driver. When the girl's father sees what happened to his daughter, he takes a gun from the ice-cream truck (this is a really bad neighborhood; you wouldn't want to leave home without one) and takes up chase after the gang in his car.
After catching up with the gang, the father gets revenge on one gang member by shooting him but then is forced to flee to the Anderson precinct when the gang begins to chase him. Then the film really takes off…
The skeleton crew at the police precinct are confused when the father runs into the precinct and cannot catch his breath to tell them what happened. Soon the phone and power lines are cut, isolating the precinct from the rest of the city. When Bishop goes outside to check up on an officer trying to make a call to another station, he is shot at and the siege begins. From there on in it's a battle of survival as the skeleton crew teams up with their convicts to try and fend off Street Thunder. Will they survive the Assault on Precinct 13? You will be glued to this film to find out.
One of the most crucial factors to a good suspense film is to create a sense of isolation, thereby making it impossible for the characters to simply escape. Some films opt for an island location to isolate the characters. Notable examples include ISLAND OF TERROR, THE WICKER MAN, ZOMBIE, TOWER OF EVIL, etc. Other films opt to trap the characters in some sort of enclosure, a la NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. ASSUALT ON PRECINCT 13 perfectly adheres to this formula, creating an excellent sense of tension.
Another part of this film that is well done is the covering of a taboo subject: child killing. I'm not condoning this action but it is important to make the viewer realize how dangerous the gang really is and to show everyone that he is vulnerable.
John Carpenter's commentary is excellent. He talks about how he modeled the film after RIO BRAVO with John Wayne, one of his favorite westerns. He rightly points out that the character Napoleon Wilson from the film is a precursor to Snake Plisken in ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Both characters share the same attitude and even some of the same lines! "Got a smoke?" Another interesting fact is that many of the actors are used in other Carpenter films. The Synthesizer score by Carpenter pulsates a suspenseful beat. Although he says he feels that he didn't edit as quickly as he would have liked to, Carpenter did a pretty good job in this department. Careful viewers will also realize that the siege actually takes place at precinct 9, division 13 not precinct 13 (which was given that title by the distributor of the film).
Also included on the DVD is the film's trailer, which is always a welcome addition. "A human wave of street killers turn the night into a nightmare!" The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 Panavision aspect ratio and the quality of the disc is superb; crisp and clear. This is a great DVD to add to your collection. (Chris Gullo)