After watching The Raid: Redemption last night, I decided to go retro and dig into my minuscule video collection. I am a movie enthusiast, but I personally own less than 10 DVDs. My feeling has always been that to over watch a movie is to desensitize yourself to what made it special in the first place. I've watched Jaws so many times, that despite it's brilliance, I now only see flaws, where I used to see magic. A perfect example of a great movie gone bad is the first two Godfather movies. I now only see the faulty over-acting in some scenes and it overshadows some others. I mean honestly, is their a worse actor in history than Carlo? Even Brando's caricature of immigrant Italians is almost laughable. Still brilliant, but it makes me realize, how much better the story telling is in the Coen brother's Miller's Crossing was. This isn't about big budget films or epics. This is about a film made for $100,000 and which catapulted a director into a place which allowed him to make the most famous horror film ever made, Halloween. The film is John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13.
A self proclaimed modern day remake/tribute to Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo and George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Carpenter tells of an attack on a police station about to close on the very night a lot of odd things just happen to be in place. A replacement lieutenant, a bunch of prisoners being transported who make a pit stop and a man who is there for unknown reasons. All this as a gang is looking to exact revenge on the police who killed their compadres.
The film is simple and feels real. It has all the feel of many of the early 1970's exploitation films, but it's a little different, in that where many of those struck a chord with one type of viewer or delved into one stereotype, Carpenter made his an homage to great films of the past. I told you of the films and directors he was paying homage to, but it doesn't stop there. The characters, all played by absolute non name actors, each represent so many of our past great players. There is Bishop, the black lieutenant, who himself might have been set up to fail without the gang attacking the station. He represents so many young black performers who played roles in which they fought adversity and discrimination and did everything to succeed. There is Wilson, who is set to be put to death, but becomes the inadvertent hero. His cocky manner and dialogue reminds me greatly of the sly delivery of Robert Mitchum. Wilson, tells of how a preacher once told him there was something not right about him, something bad. Mitchum, in Night of the Hunter, plays a character named preacher, who is as dark and sinister, while being charming, much like Wilson. There is Leigh, the strong yet attractive woman, who is so jaded by men, good and bad, she seems almost to have lost feeling. Carpenter has said he thinks Laurie Zimmer was perfect in portraying a composite of all of Hawk's women, which was what he desired. Zimmer hated the performance. Then there is the gang, which much like Romero's Dead films, have no identity, racial or ethnic boundaries. They are are simply on a mission to destroy everyone within the police station.
The movie is not only good, but it is great, in that the tension never loosens. It grabs you almost as soon as you hear the first notes in the John Carpenter composed theme. A theme, I learned which served as the baseline for U2's "New Year's Day" and Afrika Bambaataa's "Bambaataa's Theme." Acting purists might find fault with the somewhat wooden characters and choppy dialogue, but movie historians will take note that even in some of Hollywood's most revered tales, such as Casablanca, the dialogue, while memorable is pretty silly. Anyone who has seen Rio Bravo will easily see the similarities, as the formula has been used several times before and several times after. In my opinion, never as well.
A self proclaimed modern day remake/tribute to Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo and George Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Carpenter tells of an attack on a police station about to close on the very night a lot of odd things just happen to be in place. A replacement lieutenant, a bunch of prisoners being transported who make a pit stop and a man who is there for unknown reasons. All this as a gang is looking to exact revenge on the police who killed their compadres.
The film is simple and feels real. It has all the feel of many of the early 1970's exploitation films, but it's a little different, in that where many of those struck a chord with one type of viewer or delved into one stereotype, Carpenter made his an homage to great films of the past. I told you of the films and directors he was paying homage to, but it doesn't stop there. The characters, all played by absolute non name actors, each represent so many of our past great players. There is Bishop, the black lieutenant, who himself might have been set up to fail without the gang attacking the station. He represents so many young black performers who played roles in which they fought adversity and discrimination and did everything to succeed. There is Wilson, who is set to be put to death, but becomes the inadvertent hero. His cocky manner and dialogue reminds me greatly of the sly delivery of Robert Mitchum. Wilson, tells of how a preacher once told him there was something not right about him, something bad. Mitchum, in Night of the Hunter, plays a character named preacher, who is as dark and sinister, while being charming, much like Wilson. There is Leigh, the strong yet attractive woman, who is so jaded by men, good and bad, she seems almost to have lost feeling. Carpenter has said he thinks Laurie Zimmer was perfect in portraying a composite of all of Hawk's women, which was what he desired. Zimmer hated the performance. Then there is the gang, which much like Romero's Dead films, have no identity, racial or ethnic boundaries. They are are simply on a mission to destroy everyone within the police station.
The movie is not only good, but it is great, in that the tension never loosens. It grabs you almost as soon as you hear the first notes in the John Carpenter composed theme. A theme, I learned which served as the baseline for U2's "New Year's Day" and Afrika Bambaataa's "Bambaataa's Theme." Acting purists might find fault with the somewhat wooden characters and choppy dialogue, but movie historians will take note that even in some of Hollywood's most revered tales, such as Casablanca, the dialogue, while memorable is pretty silly. Anyone who has seen Rio Bravo will easily see the similarities, as the formula has been used several times before and several times after. In my opinion, never as well.
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