ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
There's a thesis out there somewhere correlating the inverse budget of a 1970s thriller and it's quality. Now I like Freidkin's infamous flop Sorcerer (4 men, 4 secrets, 1 killer, 1 truck in the middle of Colombia) much in the same way I dislike Heavens Gate, so you know, outliers and all that. But it does seem that the more money thrown at a project, the flabbier and more, dare I say, pretentious it gets. Which is how The Deer Hunter is a decent 90 minute film disguised by 3-4 hours of flab.
There's a thesis out there somewhere correlating the inverse budget of a 1970s thriller and it's quality. Now I like Freidkin's infamous flop Sorcerer (4 men, 4 secrets, 1 killer, 1 truck in the middle of Colombia) much in the same way I dislike Heavens Gate, so you know, outliers and all that. But it does seem that the more money thrown at a project, the flabbier and more, dare I say, pretentious it gets. Which is how The Deer Hunter is a decent 90 minute film disguised by 3-4 hours of flab.
This isn't solely a knock on Cimino, honest, but it brings us to his
antithesis here in John Carpenter. John Carpenter is a director who
flourishes under pressures and small budgets - The Fog, They Live and
even The Thing all had remarkably small budgets compared to their
contemporaries, and all are great. Assault on Precinct 13, Carpenter's
first "big" film, takes this to the extreme: no budget at all. In fact,
all the money used on the film was raised by Carpenter and his friends
asking their parents for dosh. Even the eerie incidental music is his
own work.
But where issues show, genius, if it exists, also reveals itself. And Assault on Precinct 13 is a brilliant film. The casting, from Austin Stoker's hero cop to Laurie Zimmer to Darwin Joston's Napoleon (who in a remarkable feat makes a multiple murderer sympathetic in context) works across the board. The latter two make a simmering chemistry work through saying little and stares, and it works. The setting works its claustrophobic qualities to the best, even with scenes set in broad daylight in LA. We have a gang laying siege to a police station in revenge for some gang members dying. Carpenter makes the gang multi-racial so that the usual sorts can't make a direct political statement. He also films it as though he was filming a zombie film. All the same tropes, beats and moments, but with human villains. If you believe that the evil men do is worse than any imagined monster, then this is the film for you, and it bloody works.
Elsewhere Martin West does a decent shot at PTSD (and the reasons for that are legit one of the more shocking moments in cinema history, even if JR's review spoiled it and this spoiler free review will make it obvious when you do watch...), and Tony Burton is the conflicted death row inmate with star quality - you can see his route to Rocky.
In short, this is fantastic, and I'm glad it existed, because between St Elmos Fire, A Good Day to Die Hard, and those James Cameron films, man have been stuck on a rubbish run of first time film viewing lately.
But where issues show, genius, if it exists, also reveals itself. And Assault on Precinct 13 is a brilliant film. The casting, from Austin Stoker's hero cop to Laurie Zimmer to Darwin Joston's Napoleon (who in a remarkable feat makes a multiple murderer sympathetic in context) works across the board. The latter two make a simmering chemistry work through saying little and stares, and it works. The setting works its claustrophobic qualities to the best, even with scenes set in broad daylight in LA. We have a gang laying siege to a police station in revenge for some gang members dying. Carpenter makes the gang multi-racial so that the usual sorts can't make a direct political statement. He also films it as though he was filming a zombie film. All the same tropes, beats and moments, but with human villains. If you believe that the evil men do is worse than any imagined monster, then this is the film for you, and it bloody works.
Elsewhere Martin West does a decent shot at PTSD (and the reasons for that are legit one of the more shocking moments in cinema history, even if JR's review spoiled it and this spoiler free review will make it obvious when you do watch...), and Tony Burton is the conflicted death row inmate with star quality - you can see his route to Rocky.
In short, this is fantastic, and I'm glad it existed, because between St Elmos Fire, A Good Day to Die Hard, and those James Cameron films, man have been stuck on a rubbish run of first time film viewing lately.
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