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Bookmark this pageAssault on Precinct 13 (1976)
Director: John Carpenter
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Just as Dark Star undercut the solemnity of space movies like 2001 with hilarious astronaut situation comedy, Carpenter's second feature borrows the conventions of protagonists in jeopardy from Night of the Living Dead to produce one of the most effective exploitation movies of the decade. The gimmick is cops and cons besieged in an abandoned LA police station by a group of kamikaze urban guerillas. Carpenter scrupulously avoids any overt socio-political pretensions, playing it instead for laughs and suspense in perfectly balanced proportions. The result is a thriller inspired by a buff's admiration for Ford and Hawks (particularly Rio Bravo), with action sequences comparable to anything in Siegel or Fuller. It's sheer delight from beginning to end.Author: RM
User reviews of this film
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- Bob Myhan said...
- Posted on Apr 05 2012 03:43 This was one of the worst movies I have ever tried to watch. I gave up after half an hour. If I had seen it at the theater I would have walked out. Halloween has it beat hands down!
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- Ghidera said...
- Posted on Mar 20 2012 15:28 Carpenter's best work (although Dark Star, Halloween and The Thing deserve a nod), with Darwin Joston in a compelling portrayal as Napoleon Wilson. Real street gangs employed by Carpenter who practically did everything in this film, even going as far to credit himself as John T Chance in a nod to his hero Howard Hawks. One of the finest films of the 1970's, of that there is no doubt!
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- mike barrett said...
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Posted on Jun 08 2008 02:39
the film, as defined by the leading men , was brilliantly acted , on a par with dog day afternoon, made some years earlier, the closeness of the set, and the tightness of the the two leads Stker and Joston, made it compelling viewing, also the steamy potrarayal of the lady copy, with an innuendo a minute , was compelling, as was her bouncing of joston in almost a bogart mcall send up.
compared to violence in movies of today, it is almost disneyesque , but none the less effective. - Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: John Carpenter
Producer: JS Kaplan
Cast: Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West, Tony Burton, Charles Cyphers, Nancy Loomis full cast
Genre(s): Action/Adventure
Duration: 91 mins
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