Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

[Trevor]

I bought this a few days ago and it still holds up, even the lesson that you should never complain about the flavor of ice cream you didn't ask for  . All of it is still great, especially the criminally underrated actor Darwin Joston ("Save them for the first two a$$holes who come through that vent!") and the wonderfully eerie score.

It also took me back almost a decade when I told Dad about this film which was showing late but I urged him to watch it. He called me the next morning and our conversation went something like this:

DAD: "That was good, worth staying up late for."
ME: "Glad you enjoyed it."
DAD: "Just one thing: I'm sure I've seen that somewhere before."
ME: "Oops..... "
DAD: "I'm sure John Wayne was in it and it was a Western."
ME: "Ummmm....."
DAD: "Trevor: is it a remake?"
ME: "Umm, yes: a remake of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, Dad."
DAD: "I [expletive deleted] knew it!"  

[Andrew]

I watched it last about four to five years back and agree that it holds up really well.  The characters are more one-dimensional than those in "Rio Bravo", as are the moral choices they have to make.  The gang members who attack the station are more like the army ants in "The Naked Jungle" than human villains.  They just keep coming, no matter what.  It's that relentless hounding of the defenders of the police station, and the defenders' doing everything they can not to be overrun and not to fall apart under pressure, that really makes the film work

[ulthar]

I love this movie.

[The Burgomaster]

The first time I saw this was on cable (HBO or Showtime or one of those channels) back in the early 1980s.  I taped it and watched it many times.  Now I have it on DVD.  One of Carpenter's best movies.

[fulci420]

LOVE the soundtrack for this movie.
This is a cool disco remix I found of it that owns.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZTt3RqkPxA&feature=related

Great atmosphere and once you see what happens near the ice cream truck, you know that all bets are off. Discounting the tv movies, Carpenters run from this film to 82's The Thing is one of the best of any director i can think of.

Assault-Halloween-The Fog-Escape-The Thing
Ridiculous and the reason why Carpenter will always be considered a master director regardless of what would come later. 

[Trevor]

The characters seem almost real to me here and I would like to think that Bishop was promoted far up the ladder and that Wilson had his death row sentence commuted to life in prison.

[alandhopewell]

     A picture I'd love to own; I keep finding copies of the remake.
I was reminded of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, in a good way....a very claustrobic experience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq7gbWhy_9E

[jimpickens]

I bought this movie eight years ago ten times better than that crappy remake.