Podcast: Assault on Precinct 13
John Carpenter's first run at Escape From New York
99 Cent Rental Podcast
Episode 16: Assault on Precinct 13
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99 Cent Rental is a comedy podcast revisiting the low-budget action, comedy, and science fiction films that clogged video store shelves throughout the 1980s and early 90s.
Every other week, hosts Bryan and Dave White, hosts of the Bring Me The Axe! horror podcast, dive deep into the nearly forgotten world of ninjas, breakdancers, skateboarders, action hero knockoffs, and Cold War paranoia that embodied the excess and over-the-top attitude of the 1980s and celebrate them for everything they were and weren’t.
Bryan and Dave conclude their John Carpenter double feature with a look at his first proper feature, Assault on Precinct 13 a movie so egregiously ripped off by other action movies that it hardly matters that Carpenter ripped it off of other action movies. Seeking to make a proper western in the style of his favorite Howard Hawks movies but pressed by budget, Carpenter lifted moves from his then brand-new Escape From New York script with Nick Castle and turned in the independent action movie that would come to redefine the modern siege movie. Is it any good? Well, yeah. Of course it is. Could it be better? Absolutely. Precinct 13 is wobbly as hell, with fairly serious pacing problems but every shot, every scene, is a preview of the best that John Carpenter has to offer the world. Listen for our usual deep analysis and historical context relating to the absolutely rotten state of things as it relates to the Los Angeles Police Department.
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