My Favourite Movies: Assault on Precinct 13

I watched this movie again this weekend and realised just how much I love it. Am I crazy, I hear you ask? Do I honestly love that dull police ‘thriller’ from some 5 years ago starring Ethan Hawke and Lawrence Fisburne? No, I don’t. I found the less than impressive remake, well, less than impressive.

I am (of course) enthusing over the 1976 John Carpenter original which has since become a well deserved cult classic. The storyline is, on the face of it simple – actually so sparse as to be almost non-existent. After a group of young radicals are gunned down by the police in violence torn LA the survivors of the group vow revenge. So, this being LA, they drive around the city looking for someone to kill. Eventually they succeed but are followed by the father of a murdered young girl who shoots one of them dead. Subsequently chased by other gang members he stumbles into a police station on the verge of shutting down – the eponymous Precinct 13 (keen eyed observers will note that the inscription over the door clearly says Precinct 14). Inside are a selection of admin staff wrapping things up and a few policemen. Moments later a prison bus turns up with one very sick and several very dangerous prisoners. As they arrive all hell breaks loose as the gang pour fire into the building from all directions. The questions are: Can the criminals and police co-operate in the defence of the building and are any of them getting out alive?

This film is wonderfully atmospheric, helped along by a haunting soundtrack also written by John Carpenter. The street gang members responsible for most of the violence are deeply nihilistic motivated by a single desire – revenge against a system and a world that has clearly abandoned them. Hardly saying a word throughout the entire movie they let their actions speak for them. The police Lieutenant is a newly promoted black man who is very conscious of the racism he faces on a daily basis within his own department. Probably my favourite character is the killer on his way to death row – Napoleon Wilson played superbly by Darwin Joston. Despite the fact that he has killed several men for reasons never revealed he is a man of honour which is revealed throughout the hour long siege. Winning the trust of the Lieutenant and the love of the female lead (played by the stunning Laurie Zimmer) he is the lynchpin of the whole movie and emerges as one of the three heroes of the piece. We are left at the end of the film not knowing how his actions inside the Precinct house affected his upcoming execution. This, and many of the other unanswered questions, are one of the things I love about this film. It leaves you wanted to know more and leaves you unable to do so – just like real life. Of course being an early Carpenter movie stocked with unknown actors (many of whom remained largely unknown) it is a bit clunky in places. Some of the dialogue is less than smooth but this is more than made up for by the intensity of the film itself. This is a well deserved classic that really never needed ‘re-imaging’. The original has dated very well indeed. See it and be amazed.