Assault on Precinct 13

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

Written by John Carpenter
Directed by John Carpenter
Starring Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West

Synopsis
this gang kills this little girl because she's in the wrong place (the ice cream truck) at the wrong time. the father kills one of the gang members and runs to a police station that's 90% shut down. the gang assaults precinct 13.
MOster
I enjoyed most of these 90 minutes, though given the extended setup I think the movie comes from an era when there was a minimum time for such things.  Once the pieces were in place, Carpenter did a great job of building the tension and keeping it at a good pace.  I also really appreciated how the story ended.  That part rang true to me.  However, the motivation for the "bad guys" wasn't very clear to us or to many of the "good guy" characters on the screen.  It seems an awfully long way to go to kill one witness.

This was filled with bad-assery.  Carpenter's music set the tone really well and the tough guys all came off as tough.  Some of the supporters were a little weak, but that's OK.  The photography and the camera placement worked well with the other directorial elements to generate a good atmosphere.

While the movie could feel more like an exercise than a film, per se, I still think it was worty of an hour and a half of my existence; we've seen a lot worse recently.  In closing I must mention that the woman who decided to put the actresses (of which she was one) into those sweaters did an excellent, 1975 job.


The Woman
i thought this was pretty lame. there was a lot of set up for not much pay off, and the next time i looked up, it was over. i had to ask moster if was really over. lame. the actual assault on precinct 13 should have been longer, and more violent or suspenseful. the gang should have tortured the people inside the station a little more. i should have seen brains or something. intestines? i can always appreciate intestines. i like over the top better than underwhelming. boring. lame.