Assault on Precinct 13 doesn’t really begin until about 20 minutes in, when a shocking act of violence rocks our expectations. From there, what has thus far been tense buildup undergoes a fierce shift into a claustrophobic struggle for survival. John Carpenter’s second film is probably his best, an intense and undeniably cool siege film.
Set in a part of Los Angeles, a motley group of policemen, civilians, and prisoners occupy a closing police station as a huge street gang attacks from the outside. While Carpenter’s irreverent sense of humor and hair-raising action scenes are great on their own, it’s the blood-forged alliance between policeman Bishop (Austin Stoker) and death row inmate Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston) that fans remember the most. The term “buddy movie” gets thrown around a lot, but the way in which these protagonists, two honorable men on opposite sides of the law, bond through extreme circumstances and mutual respect, really says something meaningful about male warrior camaraderie. And if that awesome score doesn’t stick in your head, you need to have your hearing checked.
5 out of 5
1 comments:
Could I take a moment here to complain about the surge of remakes that are constantly hitting the market these days? It's like hollywood has decided to admit that it doesn't have any new ideas and wants to just straight up reuse the old ones.
As you pointed out there is a rare gem remake that manages to surpass the original. King Kong and Dawn of the Dead are the recent notables which come to mind, but there are some things which are beyond remaking.
I was hanging out with my girlfriend's family the other day while she attended a baby shower, and her mother picked a random movie from HBO on demand. I heard some of the opening music and dialogue as I checked my email in the same room and was struck by how familiar it seemed, even though it was obviously a documentary from the early 80's. I was perplexed until I realized that it was "The Gods Must be Crazy" which opens in a style which makes one expect it to be a documentary about the Kalahari bushmen. Of course, anyone who knows anything about it will realize that this is far from being the truth, but from the first 10 minutes it is unclear how the movie will play out as anything other than a film about a very esoteric culture.
Upon reading this review I reflected upon what a sequel to this outrageously funny cult classic would look like. I'm pretty sure it would be a horrendous piece of crap. There is something about the pacing of the film that is difficult to quantify. How disparate plot lines play out to converge and break apart again in a manner that is just strange enough for the viewer to accept, especially given the eccentric title of the movie. There is a subtlety at work in the film which is beyond most directors. While the comedy is often a bizarre form of slapstick, it never once strays into the realm of the vulgar or tasteless.
I'm absolutely sure that all of these things would be lost if a remake was attempted, in a similar way that the warrior bonding was lost from "Assaullt on Precint 13" in it's 2005 incarnation.
When are producers going to wise up to the fact there are things that just can't be better than the original?
BTW-If you haven't seen "The Gods Must be Crazy" you should really give it a look, while it's special effects are cheesy and the acting lackluster there is something I can't put my finger on that makes it an absolutely fabulous movie which is well worth its 109 min. run time. It's a film by a South African director which was shot in South Africa with a bunch of no-name actors. It proves James' rule that while the American movie industry dominates most of the world, the occasional gem comes from elsewhere.
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