Movies - Assault on Precinct 13

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	Movies - Assault on Precinct 13

Assault on Precinct 13 is a 1976 action/thriller movie, directed by John Carpenter. It is an homage to the 1959 film Rio Bravo by Howard Hawks. It is considered by many to be one of the greatest exploitation films ever made.

Plot

Set in Los Angeles, the action takes place in a run down neighborhood known as the 'Anderson ghetto', a decaying area filled with street gangs and thugs. Precinct 9, Division 13 is an old police station about to close and running on a skeleton staff, including officer Chaney and the two police secretaries, Leigh and Julie. LA police officer Lieutenant Ethan Bishop is assigned to run the station for its last few hours of service.

Meanwhile, a man named Lawson is driving through the Anderson area with his young daughter, Kathy, when he stops to make a call at a public telephone booth. While Lawson is on the phone, members of the violent Street thunder gang shoot Kathy and an ice-cream vendor, killing the little girl instantly and fatally wounding the man. With his dying breath, the ice-cream vendor tells the father that there is a gun under the ice-cream truck's dashboard. Taking the gun, Lawson pursues the gang and kills the man who shot his daughter, but he is then chased by other street gang members. Seeking shelter, he runs into the almost deserted police station. In shock, Lawson cannot speak or reveal what is happening outside.

Around the same time, three prisoners are being transferred by bus from one penitentiary to another facility many hours away, when one prisoner becomes increasingly ill. Starker, the officer in charge of transporting the prisoners, decides to get medical assistance. He tells the bus driver to pull over at the nearest safe location, which happens to be Bishop's station. The prisoners, Napoleon Wilson (a convicted killer on his way to death row), Wells, and the sick Caudel are put into the holding cells while Starker attempts to call a doctor. The telephone lines (cut by the gang members) suddenly go dead, and Starker, frustrated by his inability to get help, prepares to put the prisoners back on the bus.

To avenge the death of the gangster killed by Lawson, the street gang, armed with heavy weapons such as the Colt M16 and silenced pistols, suddenly open fire on the precinct. In a matter of seconds, they kill Chaney, the bus driver, Caudel, and all of the officers involved with the transportation of the three prisoners. While the bullets are flying, Bishop rescues Wilson, who is chained to (and trapped under) Starker's corpse. He then puts Wilson and Wells back into the holding cells.

The gang members, having already cut the telephone lines, then cut the station's electricity. Three gang members come forward to break a blood-filled "cholo" on the precinct's front steps, formally signifying that a siege is underway. Heavily outnumbered, without other options, and once again under attack as the gang members reprise their gunfire, Bishop sends Leigh down to the holding cells to release Wells and Wilson, who then take up arms. A battle rages as gang members launch a suicidal attack on the station in a crazed attempt to kill all inside. Wilson, Bishop, Wells, and Leigh all capably defend the station, but Julie is gunned down during the ensuing chaos.

After the end of the gun battle, the gang members quickly remove all evidence of the skirmish and appear to momentarily retreat. Wilson, Bishop, Leigh, and Wells then decide that one person should try to sneak out of the station, hot-wire a car outside, and drive away to summon help. Since Leigh has a wounded arm, and Bishop doesn't know how to hot-wire a car, Wilson and Wells play a game of "potatoes" to decide who will go. Wells loses. Although Wells makes a valiant effort to accomplish his task, he is shot and killed by a gang member hiding in the back seat of the car.

As the gang members rally for a third time, Wilson, Leigh, and Bishop go down to the basement, taking the still-catatonic Lawson with them, and they stage a 'last stand'. This culminates in Bishop shooting a cetylene tank, which explodes violently and kills the gangsters inside the station. Police back-up arrives and secures the station, relieving the four survivors of the siege, Bishop, Leigh, Wilson, and Lawson.

Tagline: L.A.'s deadliest street gang just declared war on the cops.

The "ice cream scene"

The most infamous scene in the movie is the one in which a gang member deliberately shoots a little girl in the chest while the girl is standing near an ice-cream truck. The MPAA threatened to give the film an X-rating if the scene wasn't cut. Following the advice of his distributor, Carpenter gave the appearance of complying by cutting the scene from the copy he gave to the MPAA, but he distributed the film with the "ice cream scene" intact.

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