Story of movie Assault On Precinct 13 1976 Film : Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 American independent action thriller film written, directed, scored and edited by John Carpenter. It stars Austin Stoker as a police officer who defends a defunct precinct against an attack by a relentless criminal gang, along with Darwin Joston as a convicted murderer who helps him. Laurie Zimmer, Tony Burton, Martin West and Nancy Kyes co-star as other defenders of the precinct.
| Assault on Precinct 13 | |
|---|---|
US film poster | |
| Directed by | John Carpenter |
| Produced by | J. S. Kaplan |
| Written by | John Carpenter |
| Starring | Austin Stoker Darwin Joston Laurie Zimmer |
| Music by | John Carpenter |
| Cinematography | Douglas Knapp |
| Edited by | John T. Chance |
Production company | The CKK Corporation |
| Distributed by | Turtle Releasing Organization |
Release date |
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Running time | 91 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $100,000 |
| Box office | $11,748 (1979 US re-release) |
Carpenter was approached by producer J. Stein Kaplan to make a low-budget exploitation film for under $100,000, on the condition that the filmmaker would have total creative control. Carpenter's script, originally titled The Anderson Alamo, was inspired by the Howard Hawks Western film Rio Bravo and the George A. Romero horror film Night of the Living Dead. Despite controversy with the MPAA over a scene involving the violent killing of a young girl, the film received an R rating and opened in the United States on November 5, 1976.
Assault was initially met with mixed reviews and unimpressive box-office returns in the United States. However, when the film premiered in the 1977 London Film Festival, it received an ecstatic review by festival director Ken Wlaschin that led to critical acclaim first in Britain and then throughout Europe. It has garnered a considerable cult following and reappraisal from critics, with many evaluating the film as one of the best action films of its era and of Carpenter's career. A remake was released in 2005, directed by Jean-François Richet and starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne.
Screenplay
In South Central Los Angeles, a local gang known as Street Thunder have stolen a cache of assault rifles and pistols. At 3 a.m. on a Saturday in Anderson, a crime-infested ghetto, a team of heavily armed LAPD officers ambush and kill six members of the gang. Later, the gang's four warlords swear a blood oath of revenge against the police and the citizens of Los Angeles.
During the day, three sequences of events occur parallel to one another: First, Lieutenant Ethan Bishop, a newly promoted CHP officer, is assigned to take charge of the decommissioned Anderson police precinct during the last few hours before it is permanently closed. The station is manned by a skeleton staff composed of Sergeant Chaney and the station's two secretaries, Leigh and Julie. Across town, two of the Street Thunder warlords, along with two other gang members, drive around the neighborhood looking for people to kill. One of the warlords shoots and kills a little girl, Kathy, and the driver of an ice-cream truck. Kathy's father, Lawson, pursues and kills the warlord and the other gang members chase him into the Anderson precinct. In shock, Lawson is unable to communicate to Bishop or Chaney what has happened to him.
Just before this, a prison bus commanded by Starker stops at the station to find medical help for one of three prisoners being transported to the state prison. The prisoners are Napoleon Wilson, Wells, and Caudell, who is sick. As the prisoners are put into cells, the telephone lines go dead, and when Starker prepares to put the prisoners back on the bus, the gang opens fire on the precinct, using weapons fitted with silencers. In seconds, they kill Chaney, the bus driver, Caudell, Starker, and the two officers accompanying Starker. Bishop unchains Wilson from Starker's body and puts Wilson and Wells back into the cells. When the gang members cut the station's electricity and begin a second wave of shooting, Bishop sends Leigh to release Wells and Wilson, and they help Bishop and Leigh repel an attempted invasion, though Julie is killed in the firefight.
Meanwhile, the gang members remove all evidence of the skirmish in order to avoid attracting outside attention. Bishop hopes that someone has heard the police weapons firing, but the neighborhood is too sparsely populated for nearby residents to pinpoint the location of the noise. Wells is chosen to sneak out of the precinct through the sewer line and hot-wire a car, but is killed by a gang member hiding in the backseat. However, two police officers responding to reports of gunfire find the dead body of a telephone repairman hanging from a pole near the police station, and call for backup.
As the gang rallies for an all-out final assault, Wilson, Leigh, and Bishop retreat to the basement, taking the still-catatonic Lawson with them. Protected by a large durable sign, the gang then storms the building and rushes the survivors. Bishop shoots a tank full of acetylene gas, which explodes and kills all the gang members in the basement. The remaining gang members retreat as more police support arrives to secure the station. Venturing down into the basement, the police officers find dozens of dead and badly burned gang members strewn about the hallway; the only survivors are Bishop, Leigh, Wilson, and Lawson. Lawson is wheeled out on a stretcher, but Leigh refuses medical help for the gunshot wound in her arm and walks off. An officer tries to cuff Wilson, but Bishop angrily stops him and asks Wilson to walk out of the station with him.
- Austin Stoker as Lt. Ethan Bishop
- Darwin Joston as Napoleon Wilson
- Laurie Zimmer as Leigh
- Martin West as Lawson
- Tony Burton as Wells
- Charles Cyphers as Officer Starker
- Nancy Loomis as Julie
- Henry Brandon as Sgt. Chaney
- Kim Richards as Kathy
- Peter Bruni as Ice Cream Man
- John J. Fox as Warden
- Peter Frankland as Caudell
- Frank Doubleday as White Warlord
- Gilbert De la Pena as Chicano Warlord
- Al Nakauchi as Oriental Warlord
- James Johnson as Black Warlord
- Marc Ross as Patrolman Tramer
- Alan Koss as Patrolman Baxter
Following the release of Dark Star, Assault and a second script entitled Eyes were supposed to be two ultra-low-budget films written and directed by John Carpenter, with financing by J. Stein Kaplan and Joseph Kaufman. After reviewing the first draft of Assault and following the sale of the script Eyes to Barbra Streisand and Jon Peters, later renamed Eyes of Laura Mars, Kaplan and Kaufman concentrated on just Assault. "J. Stein Kaplan was a friend of mine from USC," said Carpenter. "He knew Joseph Kaufman from his days in Philadelphia … Basically their fathers were funding Assault on Precinct 13". The two families of the producers formed The CKK Corporation to finance the film.:1
Screenplay
Carpenter had hoped to make a Howard Hawks-style Western like El Dorado or Rio Lobo, but when the $100,000 budget prohibited it, Carpenter refashioned the basic scenario of Rio Bravo into a modern setting.:2 Carpenter employed the pseudonym "John T. Chance" for his original version of script, entitled The Anderson Alamo, but he used his own name for the writing credit on the completed film.:3 The script was written in eight days. Carpenter joked, "The script came together fast, some would say too fast."
Carpenter's script makes many allusions to film history and inspirations for this film. There are many references to the films of Howard Hawks. For example, the character of Leigh, played by Laurie Zimmer, was a reference to Rio Bravo writer Leigh Brackett. The running gag of having Napoleon Wilson constantly ask "Got a smoke?" was inspired by the cigarette gags used in many of Hawks's Westerns. There are also subtle references to directors Sergio Leone and Alfred Hitchcock. The day and time titles were used to make the film feel more like a documentary.:5&10
Pre-production
Assault underwent several months of pre-production.:44 Carpenter assembled a main cast that consisted mostly of experienced but relatively obscure actors. The two leads were Austin Stoker, who had appeared previously in Battle for the Planet of the Apes and Sheba, Baby, and Darwin Joston, who had worked primarily in television and was also Carpenter's next-door neighbor. After an open casting call, Carpenter added Charles Cyphers and Nancy Loomis to the cast.
Behind the scenes, Carpenter worked with cinematographer Douglas Knapp (a fellow USC student), art director Tommy Lee Wallace, sound mixer Bill Varney and property master Craig Stearns. "I hardly knew what the job required," said Wallace, "but he believed in me, and, of course my price was right. It was typical of John during those lean days. He made the very best of whatever talent and facilities he had around him." Carpenter drew storyboards for key sequences, including the "ice cream truck" sequence, the death of the white warlord, Napoleon Wilson struggling to get the keys of the guard after the siege starts, and the failed escape by prisoner Wells.:13
Principal photography
Assault started in November 1975 and was shot in only 20 days, including Thanksgiving, on a budget of $100,000.:43 The film was shot on 35mm Panavision in a 2.35:1 anamorphic aspect ratio on Metrocolor film stock, Carpenter's first experience with Panavision cameras and lenses. Carpenter has referred to this film as the most fun he has ever had directing.
Two weeks of shooting indoors were followed by two weeks on-location.:70 The interiors of the police station were shot on the now-defunct Producers Studios set while the exterior shots and jail cells were from the old Venice police station.:87 The bus traveling to Sonora was shot on a closed section of the Los Angeles freeway system, with cast and crew having lunch on the freeway.:77–86 Carpenter has said that the trick with shooting a low-budget film is to shoot as little footage as possible and extend the scenes for as long as one can.
The first scene, in which several gang members of Street Thunder are gunned down by cops, was shot at USC. The gang members were USC students who, Carpenter added, had a lot of fun finding ways of dying while spilling blood over themselves.
"The first night I saw dailies," replied art director Wallace, "projected on a bedsheet in the producer's ratty apartment… My jaw dropped and I sat up so straight I cast a shadow with my head. This looked like a zillion dollars. This looked like a real movie."
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