Assault on Precinct 13 (1975)

From the opening electronic soundtrack I knew that I was watching a John Carpenter movie. Though not as slick or enjoyable as many as his later efforts, this is a solid effort in the 'good and bad characters team up to defend themselves against vicious street gang' genre.

"Police ambush and kill several gang members in Los Angeles. Gang members make a pact of blood to strike back at police, and conduct a siege on the police station which is almost abandoned and due to be closed. Staff of the closing precinct and the criminals being held there while in transit must work together to fight off the attacking gang members." -IMBD

I found as I watched this movie that I was rewriting it in my head which is never a good sign. Instead of showing the attackers as some dangerous unknown force (which would have really built the tension) the filmmakers add several wasted scenes of the gang doing evil.

They are shown killing an ice cream truck driver and a little girl (Escape to Witch Mountain''s Kim Richards). The father of the little girl chases down the car full of punks and kills their leader. To escape the others in the car he runs to a nearby police station that is set to close the next day. This is the motivation for the gang to attack the station.

I thought all the set-up could have been handled much better. Since audience members would be inclined to be on the side of the people in the police station anyways, these scenes provide nothing but shock value and keep the real action from getting started.

The working title was 'The Anderson Alamo' and the movie plays like that famous event - the few fighting against the many. In fact it can also be compared to a zombie movie as the gang attacking the station have no lead characters and are portrayed as a faceless, marauding horde.

The words 'drive-in second feature' constantly went through my head as I was watching. The acting is only average and the situations are predictable. The actors are all unknowns so you can't rely on the most famous person to live to the end.

I liked the relationship between the police and the prisoner bound for death row. It's procedures vs street smarts. There is even sexual tension between the death row inmate and the last surviving female, a police woman. That seemed to be a strange element but I think it had more to do with the charisma of the convict (Darwin Joston) than anything Carpenter put into the script.

It's a simple story done well. The movie looks good for a low budget feature and you can see how Carpenter was developing his skills as a director who still had 'Halloween', 'Escape From New York' and 'The Thing' in front of him.

7/10