Assault on Precinct 13 (5 Stars)

This was John Carpenter's second film, made in 1976, two years after "Dark Star". In my opinion this is his greatest masterpiece, even better than "Halloween", which he made in 1978. Some people claim this is a remake of "Rio Bravo". This isn't the case, even though the film obviously borrows ideas from "Rio Bravo". There's a thin line between plagiarism and homage.

The story takes place in Anderson, supposedly a bad area of Los Angeles. Maybe some of my readers who live in L.A. can comment on it. A man's daughter is shot by a gang member while she is buying ice cream. He chases and shoots the gang member, then flees to a police station when the gang pursues him. Unfortunately the police station has just closed and is only manned by a skeleton crew babysitting the station until it is emptied the next day. At the same time a bus taking prisoners to death row makes a temporary stop at the station to get medical attention for one of the prisoners. The gang ambushes the police station, which cannot call for reinforcements because the phones have been cut off. The police lieutenant has to defend the station with the support of the criminals, and a bond of friendship develops.

As my readers probably know, this film was remade in 2005. Unfortunately, the remake was a shambles that completely lost the magic of the original. John Carpenter made the film in 16 hours. It's amazing that the film that resulted had such a high quality. And it's just as amazing that the remake, which was filmed over a period of weeks, is so poor.