|  |  About the film :
Late 1976 : at the London Film Festival, the screening of a small budget feature, shot in only a few weeks, becomes an immediate cult hit.
The film “Assault on precinct 13”, is directed by a young filmmaker named John Carpenter.
A former USC student, Carpenter, then only 28, had already won an Academy Award in 1970 for his short film, ‘The Resurrection of Bronco Billy’.
A few years later, in 1974, Carpenter had directed the sci-fi comedy ‘Dark Star’, a forerunner of Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’.
Carpenter’s talent and technical skills attracted the attention of independent investors and gave him the opportunity to direct a film of his choice, albeit on a shoestring budget.
Carpenter, a film buff since childhood, had always wanted to make a western. Due to budget restrictions and a very short shooting schedule, Carpenter chose to transpose Howard Hawks’ classic western ‘Rio Bravo’ (1959) to contemporary Los-Angeles. ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ is inspired by another classic, George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ (1968).
A deserted police precinct in south Los-Angeles becomes the target of a street gang : the policemen and their two prisoners have to unite in order to resist the relentless attacks of the gang members.
The film opened in 1976 and became a critical hit, thanks to rave reviews in Europe : Carpenter’s unusual mastering of time and space, together with a unique visual approach to the genre, makes “Assault on Precinct 13” a distinctive experience.The positive critical response allowed Carpenter to embark on his next project, the box-office hit ‘Halloween’ (1978).
27 years after its initial release, ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ is now regarded
as one of Carpenter’s greatest achievements : it has the strong claustrophobic atmosphere that is to become one of the directors’ hallmarks in his later works such as ‘The Thing’ or ‘Prince of Darkness’.
Few films can compare with ‘Assault on Precinct 13’, which has left its mark on the entire action genre, from ‘Die Hard’ to ‘Matrix’. The film also benefits from first rate performances by Austin Stoker (Bishop), Darwin Johnston (Wilson) or Laurie Zimmer (Leigh).
About the score :
Much of ‘Assault on Precinct 13’’s inimitable atmosphere derives from its use of sound and music, blended together to create a sense of awe and threat throughout the entire movie. The weapons used by the gang are deadly but silent : the soundtrack reinforces the invisible menace represented by the gang.
John Carpenter’s score for ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ was considered a major breakthrough at the time of the film’s release. Its haunting, pulsating theme (Main Title), creates an immediate atmosphere of fear, which will lead to the tragic events that take place in Precinct 13. Carpenter’s minimalist music
is a perfect counterpoint to the sense of isolation felt throughout the film, created by the director’s ‘mise en scène’.
The main theme, based on a few repeating bars, is played on synthesizer, an instrument seldom used in 70’s action films which usually relied on funk oriented scores, with big brass sounds, wah-wah guitars and lush orchestrations.
Instead, John Carpenter plays on as few variations as possible, sometimes accelerating the initial beat (Second Wave, Street Thunder) to dramatize the ceaseless attacks of the gang.
The synthethizer also evokes the faceless menace lurking outside the police
precinct. The score escalates to a point where it embraces the never-ending flood of invaders that want to take over the precinct (Windows !). The music seems to come from another dimension, embodying the evil that has taken over the world as Bishop and his companions try desperately to hold back the attack. Although most of Carpenter’s score for ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ relies on a blasting use of beats and eerie electronic sounds (Targets, Lawson’s revenge), the music also allows space for a more delicate theme, that acts as subtle relief within the tense atmosphere of the film.
This theme, almost blues and jazz oriented, is built using the first bars heard on track 4 (Precinct9-Division 13), and then fully develops in track 12, (Julie) when Bishop and Leigh realize that Julie has died during one of the first shoot-outs. In its simplicity, Julie’s theme, one of the most moving ever written by Carpenter, underlines a shattered hope, as if the last traces of humanity were destroyed with the death of the young and innocent girl.
Today, ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ is a reference in atmospheric film scores.
Its sound will always be linked to this unique film, one of his director’s best.
The score has been quoted and sampled by many artists on the worldwide electronic scene.
It is considered an avant-garde piece, reinventing the rules of classic film scoring as well as the use of so-called “electronic” sounds. The first bars of ‘Assault’ have been an influence on most of the hip-hop and techno sound of the 90’s.
At last, this beautiful piece of work is available. Its long awaited release will,
we hope, relieve the frustration of those who, for years, have been longing to hear the score in its full length. Now finally we can throw away all those crappy recordings we made from the various VHS tapes and Laserdiscs of Assault.
Text by Nicolas Saada
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