We continue our 10 Days
Of Mayhem countdown to the U.K release of The Raid with our second
film, A film that is as genre defining as The Raid is said to be, a
film set at a time when race was still an issue in certain parts of
the U.S and gangs controlled the poorer areas of L.A. John
Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 is the film and it did indeed
influence a change in how certain films are made.
What Carpenter did was
break down all the race barriers of gang culture to represent a Gang
made up of blacks, whites and hispanics, something that had never
been seen before and something we wouldn't see again until Walter
Hill's The Warriors 3 years later. But it's this integration of
creeds that makes the gang even more sinister because they don't care
about what you look like all they want to do cause much mayhem,
death and destruction. One particular scene which is also one of the
biggest taboo's in cinema is a scene in which a little girl becomes
the victim of a random, cold blooded killing, so this gang have no
problems when it comes to who they kill and this gives the film a chilling atmosphere. The film follows Lt. Ethan Bishop LAPD on his
first night out. He's ordered to go and babysit the 13th
Precinct on it's final night as it's about to close its doors. The
father of the little girl chases the four gang members and ends up
killing one, he escapes and heads into the police station. Around the
same time a prison transfer bus finds it needs to stop at the nearest
police station as one of the prisoners is sick. Also on board the bus
are two other criminals, a man called Wells and a man called Napoleon
Wilson, a feared possible Gangster. When the assault on the precinct
starts, it's up to the Bishop to put a way the rule book and turn
Wells and Wilson free if they have any chance of survival.
The film is a brilliant
mix of John Wayne's Rio Bravo and George A. Romero's Night Of The
Living Dead. It takes the same premise of Rio Bravo by using the
siege but injects the terror and relentlessness of NOTLD as hordes of
emotionless, characterless gang members attack the station. This is
what gives the film it's horrific sense of dread. But this is an
action film not a horror movie and as soon as the Prison bus arrives
it's doesn't let up with the gunfire. For a film made on a budget of
less than $150,000, Carpenter shows how you don't need studio backing
to make an effective action thriller. Originally Carpenter wanted to
make a western and wrote a screenplay for John Wayne hoping to get
him out of retirement but due to financial reasons, Carpenter opted
to rework Rio Bravo and set it in modern L.A. He created a modern
western with this film and it's western influences are evident
through out the film with references to many John Wayne films and
even using a pseudonym for the Credit of editor, John T.Chance which
is the name of the character Wayne played in Rio Bravo.
Assault On Precinct 13
is classic effective low budget action movie film making, it's
influential in it's depiction of a multi racial gang, it's violent in
a way that would only ever been seen in a blaxploitaion film as most
studio's would try and avoid the kind of violence on display in this
film and is one of John Carpenter's best films. It's made even more
atmospheric due the fantastic electro synth score which was done by
carpenter himself and this in turn amps up the tension. If you
haven't seen this film, do your self a favour and track it down
ASAP. You won't be disappointed.
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