Assault on Precinct 13

Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne in Assault on Precinct 13

Jean Francois Richet's Assault on Precinct 13, from 2005, is a well constructed thriller that rises above its mechanistic structure to create a polyphonic portrait of American urban decay during the war on drugs. The film is a loose remake of John Carpenter's 1976 film, itself a reworking of the besieged jail in Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo. This time around the imprisoned baddie, Laurence Fishburne, must be defended from a cabal of rogue police, led by Gabriel Byrne, with whom he has fallen out after various nefarious dealings. Ethan Hawke has to rally his undermanned precinct crew, enlisting his prisoners against an armed to the teeth SWAT team.

The implied critique of the militarization of local police is never vocalized (though an outpost of American justice and, thus, American justice itself is being blown to bits by the police), Richet has no interest in getting all Stanley Kramer on us. Rather, he prefers to build characterization by showing a racially and class diverse group banding together for the greater good. The jumpy energy of Hawke, Ja Rule, and John Leguizamo is contrasted with the chilly and near motionless calm of Byrne and Fishburne, here more Morpheus than Cowboy Curtis.

Richet gets good work from the distaff side, too. Drea de Matteo and Maria Bello transcend formulaic parts, though the latter does not have much chemistry with Hawke. The editor, Bill Pankow, best known for his work with Brian De Palma, is to be particularly lauded for his expert cross-cutting that keeps the narrative afloat while jumping between disparate, yet all well defined, set-ups. This Assault on Precinct 13 propels us along on the usual action thrill ride, but pauses to let us see characters struggling to survive, showing us a glimmer of humanity amidst chaos and carnage; this is the principle refrain of Richet's career.

I don't want to oversell this film, but its critical reception points out a schism in popular American film criticism that has existed since the 60s. The remnants of auteurist criticism, like J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum, have responded to the termite art feel of Richet's film while the followers of Pauline Kael, such as David Edelstein, have rejected the film as a "heartless exercise". This is an oversimplification, ex-Paulette Joe Morgenstern liked this Assault and I enjoy reading Edelstein and Morgenstern very much no matter what their views.

Still, genre prejudices exist today. Yesteryear it was mindlessly popular genre films like musicals and westerns that drew critical scorn. Now those genres are curiosities that will pique a critic's interest because they are rare. Craftsman like genres such as action films or romantic comedies are now critically ghettoized. They are treated as commercial products catering to mass taste rather art. Craftsman like Richet need to be celebrated, now as then, for their attempts to elevate mass taste. (2/5/17)