Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
A White Hot Night of Hate!
I need to focus my brain so I can get myself to do more charity streaming this year. I may end up delving into some solo acts, which given the “decided” genre for the year means a lot of things that aren’t consistent with said “solo acts.” One might even say that it could be like the good thing you are trying to do is putting you against the entire seeming world outside of your building - like if you were a cop whose office was under siege from seedy types. What’s this though - am I seeing double vision? Oh, no, they just remade it at some point and I have to choose one - tonight we launch Assault on Precinct 13.
I’ve opted for the older one - because why wouldn’t I pick the John Carpenter one? I mean really, I’ve done enough of these things we should know i love the stuff he does. In this case, we have some layers of story going on all orbiting a tale of violence on the streets. Some low-life’s are out looking to cause trouble with their illegal guns. A man and his daughter are trying to find their nanny’s house and take her to their safer neighborhood. A cop’s first day on the job is at a now decommissioned police station that’s in the progress of being relocated. A bus full of convicts need to find somewhere to stay thanks to a sick inmate. The bad seeds shoot the man’s daughter, which in turn leads to him chasing them down for revenge, which in turn leads the scum to go after him for revenge, which all leads to one giant cluster at precinct 13.
The movie gives some time to get a footing on the characters. It’s not necessarily some big exposition dump about their history or anything - only the main cop gets anything close to that- but rather just enough for you to get a feel for what each character is about. Be it the crazy “blood bound” blood-thirsty gangers, the caring but soon-to-be shocked father figure, or the cops out to do some good - it gives you what you need at a base level to get behind and want them to not just get slaughtered off in a horror movie fashion. The same characters are rather varied - we have the stone faced tough as nails typist lady (probably one of the best characters in the movie to be honest), all the way over to the bad luck inmate who would love nothing more than to run. For the most part, you might not find the most powerful characters in here - but they do the job.
The actors have a similar statement I can make about them. They all do good, and although none necessarily feel like they deliver a performance that will stick with me forever, it’s nice to see such a variety of reactions in such a small group of folks. Yes, maybe the lines can be cheesy as heck, maybe they lean heavy into some of the corny swagger of the time, but nobody here feels like they are doing a bad job. It’s not phoned in feeling, and not everything needs to be peak acting career on screen. For what it’s worth, the main ones do a pretty good job, and by the end you do feel some chemistry form between sets of them.
Couple of bad acts.
Effects wise things are abundant but also somewhat limited. It’s mostly a lot of bullet hits and things flying from that - and especially breaking glass. Besides that, we get some blood-related violence, but given how old we are in this flick it’s nothing incredibly detailed and explicit - even if a kid gets blown away and the scene itself holds with it a certain unbelievable weight, there’s nothing really about the scene that to a modern day viewer should really make someone worry about that kid being dead. It’s violent, especially for it’s day, with a large body count but for the modern audience I just think we’ve all seen enough to be a bit indifferent about it. That said, outside of the blood looking a bit watery, it all works quite fine - even if perhaps a cut or two on glass breaking can be noticed from the editing standpoint.
Music is where i normally launch my one sentence tirade about how I don’t remember it - but in this case it’s my secret weapon of John friggen Carpenter! I imagine he’s actually one of the main people I’d have to attribute my love of synth music too, as it’s always something I’m bopping my head to in his movies. It’s also quite well simple enough that it’s easily remembered. The escape from movies, this, Halloween (the original) - it all carries his music in it and it just sticks so well. That said, I get it’s not for everyone, so just because it’s my jam doesn’t mean everyone else will find it as fun and enthralling for their ears.
Now the big part for it would be social commentary and the likes. As we know, I don’t really tend to delve that much into it - particularly when it’s been ten years removed from when I was even alive. That said, folks will find a bunch to think about if they choose it, from such themes as morality, violence, crime, and being human to humans. You could also talk about the actual cluster-hump that government reorganizing projects could be - but that might be thinking a little too much thinking into it, know what i mean? Either way, for the folks that like to look past the screen plot and into things, there’s plenty you could digest in here.
Couple of folks trying to do good,
I enjoy this movie for what it is. This isn’t my first time watching it, and I’m open to the fact that it might not hold up in some spots as well as others. It’s the nature of things - regardless of how crazy the “practical effects” folks go over it’s ageless nature - that things won’t always end up holding up in a realistic sense. Some moments might hold up in a lot darker, unfortunate ways such as the gang’s gun violence. It’s part of what movies can be though - reflections not just for the time they are made, but for when someone comes back in at a later time and compares it to modern trappings. With that one big defense mode out of the way, perhaps we all can find a little bit of motivation towards being the heroes.