Best filmic buds Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have stuck it out on screen several times, and often the results have been a joy to watch. The pair reunited for a gritty Netflix crime drama called “The Rip” that casts them as two Miami cops who come into possession of a huge stash of dirty money. With the clock ticking over what to do with the find, lines are drawn and loyalty is tested as friends become foes, all while pinned down in a house in an eerily empty neighborhood, where attackers are trying to get in.
While the film might not have reached the heights of their previous collaborations, it manages to evoke a vibe similar to other thrillers set over a single night, and, more specifically, to a John Carpenter classic. It carries an atmosphere built around a quiet evening that’s a little too quiet, with characters questioning each other’s motives amid attacks from faceless gunmen just out of sight. Die-hard film fans would undoubtedly want to queue up the 1976 classic, “Assault on Precinct 13,” once they’re done with “The Rip,” so as to be reminded how movies like this are really done.
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Assault on Precinct 13 is not just a great thriller — it’s a remake done right
Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker) talking to Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston) in Assault on Precinct 13 – CKK/YouTube
Some time before John Carpenter had introduced the world to characters like Kurt Russell’s Snake Plissken from “Escape from New York” — a film James Cameron worked on well before “The Terminator” — the master filmmaker held audiences up in the titular spot that saw the lawful and the lawless forced to team up. “Assault on Precinct 13” sees Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker) and the skeleton crew of a police station holding its ground against a heavily-armed gang named Street Thunder, who plan to take out everyone in the building, including convicted murderer, Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston).
For what was, at the time, a modernized take on the 1959 western “Rio Bravo,” “Assault on Precinct 13” remains a pulse-pounding thriller, brilliantly acted by its small ensemble. It’s also a clear display of Carpenter’s exceptional ability to heighten the dread of tension in a confined space that he’d replicate in sci-fi body horror movie, “The Thing,” in 1982 (the best year ever for movies). Carpenter’s skill with silence and faceless terrors closing in would fuel his career for years to come, making him a staple for many fans who wanted their pulse raised. More importantly, though, “Assault on Precinct 13” also made it clear to audiences that Carpenter wasn’t afraid to push boundaries, even if, looking back, he did learn to regret one of his most unnerving creative decisions.
John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13’s most distressing scene
Kim Richards as Kathy in Assault on Precinct 13 – CKK/YouTube
“The Rip” may have taken notes from “Assault on Precinct 13,” but there’s one part of Carpenter’s classic that other movies may not replicate, involving the death of a child. Early on in the film, one of Steel Thunder’s gang heartlessly guns down a young girl (Kim Richards) at an ice cream truck. It’s a harrowing event that sets the tone for the movie and the villains determined to kill those trying to survive it. In hindsight, though, Carpenter regretted including the death and, given a second chance, would’ve omitted it from the film entirely.
Speaking to Review Graveyard, Carpenter was asked how he managed to avoid an X rating from the MPAA at the time. It turns out that he showed the certifier a version of the film with the scene cut before putting it back in when it was released. “Those were the old days where they didn’t check so much, so that’s what we did,” he explained. Nevertheless, he still wasn’t happy with the end result. “I don’t know how clever it was. We had a scene where a little girl gets killed with a gun, and it was pretty horrible at the time — explicit. I don’t think I’d do it again, but I was young and stupid.” Perhaps, but this young talent would thrive in the years to come, and we have to thank “Assault on Precinct 13” for helping him along.
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