Assault on Precinct 13

A police station in the ghetto on its last night before closing down is turned into the Alamo when a gang lays siege to the place. The gang is out for blood and a lone cop (Austin Stoker) must defend the station with help from two prisoners (Darwin Joston, Tony Burton) and a secretary (Laurie Zimmer). John Carpenter's urban Rio Bravo is a low-budget classic. It's the first time we get what would become the typical Carpenter cheesy male anti-hero (Darwin Joston's Napoleon Wilson), with his smart-ass one-liners and "I don't give a ****" attitude. Joston's great fun, as is Tony Burton. Austin Stoker plays the traditional hero of the piece very well. The action is good and Carpenter does a solid job mounting tension throughout the film. The script, written by Carpenter, is good stuff with lots of great lines for everybody, especially Joston. It's really a fun action thriller and a sign of things to come for Carpenter. Oh and, despite the title, the precinct in the movie is 9 not 13.

This is possibly one of Carpenter's best films,with the exception of The thing.It is one of the great siege films of all time.The scene with Kim Richards(escape to witch mountain) is one of my favorites.This movie proves you don't have to have a multimillion dollar budget and big name stars to make a great movie.The performance by Laurie Zimmer was incredible.I can't believe she was never cast in another film(but thats Hollywood for you).If you like action and thrillers this film is definitely worth a look.Its not perfect, the plot has some holes, the premise is at times shaky, but all of the actors produce believable performances,especially Austin Stoker,Darwin Joston, and of course Zimmer.

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) is one of my childhood favorites. A crazy film about all of the L.A. street gangs forming a pact so they can terrorize the streets together. When one of their own is killed and the person responsible enters a skeleton crew manned Police precinct the gauntlet is tossed and they decide to wage war upon the building. I love this picture. This is John Carpenter at his best. He managed to follow up his brilliant picture "Dark Star" with an urban western. The character Napoleon Wilson was an early proto-type for future anti-hero Snake Plisken. Highly recommended. A