Assault on Precinct 13 Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)January 18th, 2005
ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13
Reviewed by Harvey S. Karten
Rogue Pictures
Grade: A-
Directed by: Jean-Francois Richet
Written by: James DeMonaco, earlier film by John Carpenter Cast: Ethan Hawke, Laurence Fishburne, Gabriel Byrne, Jeffrey Ja Rule Atkins, Aisha Hinds, John Leguizamo, Maria Bello, Brian Dennehy
Screened at: Universal, NYC, 1/6/05
The current production of "Assault on Precinct 13" (hereinafter known as AP13) may not be the masterwork that John
Carpenter evoked in the 1976 version on which this is based. But AP13 ranks arguably among the most tension-producing
cop movies since, well, since the John Carpenter version of the same story. As directed by Jean-Francois Richet–who, according to the production notes avoided pesky micro-directing thanks to his halting ability with the English language–AP 13 is lacking some of the wit of the original, such as Laurie Zimmer's handing Austin Stoker a friendly cop of coffee, asking whether he likes it black: "For over thirty years," he says. Nor is Stoker's character, Bishop, a cop being shown around Precinct 13 this time around. This time, the man named Bishop is a fierce racketeer and cop killer who could stop a clock with a single look and laughs only once during Richet's film–which has been reworked by scripter James DeMonaco but is based on plot elements quite similar to those in the ‘76 AP13.
There's an element here of Sidney Lumet's 1973 cop tale "Serpico"–based on true-life accounts of a New York City undercover cop whose nonconformism and high sense of morality leads him to testify against rotten apples in the police force, leading to their retaliation. Recall as well Sydney Pollack's "Three Days of the Condor," in which a reader for U.S. intelligence learns more than he should and finds himself
a hunted man.
AP13 pits gangsters against the police only at the start. The dynamic opening scene finds Jake Roenick (Ethan Hawke) negotiating a set-up drug sale with two Russian mafioso. For most of the remainder of the taut tale, cops and gangsters join forces inside a besieged, run-down jailhouse–kind of like Americans and Soviets joining forces against a common
German enemy in 1941–against a sizable group of corrupt police officers. The police outside include SWAT-team members weighed down by automatic weapons with laser-beam targeting, night-vision goggles, even a helicopter called into action to bomb the condemned jailhouse with its inhabitants into oblivion.
The principal segment of the story opens eight months after police sergeant Jake Roenick is wounded and put on limited duty behind the desk of a decaying police precinct in Detroit. He is feeling sorry for himself, popping pain-killer pills, drinking, and is being checked out by a psychiatrist, Alex Sabian (Maria Bello). Outside, a diverse group of criminals is loaded onto a prison bus on a dark and stormy night, the deep snow stops the vehicle cold and forces the police to put the prisoners temporarily into the jailhouse. Among the gangsters is the fierce cop-killer and crime lord Marion Bishop (Laurence Fishburne), a would-be intellectual and Marxist junkie, Beck (John Leguizamo); a hustler named Smiley (Jeffrey Ja Rule Atkins); and a gang member, Anna (Aisha Hinds). When the precinct house falls under siege as though it were a medieval castle overrun by knights, the prison caretakers realize that all the attackers want is for Bishop to be handed over to them, as Bishop is prepared to give testimony in court that could send the outside forces away for a long time.
The opening scene shows a side of Ethan Hawke quite different from his role as Jesse in Richard Linklater's "Before Sunset," where he is courting the beautiful Celine. What sexual chemistry exists here is between Hawke's character and the shrink, the ambiguous innuendos thrown back and forth making us wonder whether Alex wants to punch Jesse out or whether she has a crush on him. While Gabriel Byrne turns in his usual quiet, above–it-all performance, this time as the leader of a squad storming the precinct, Laurence Fishburne in the show- stopper, a guy you don't want to mess with and, in fact, would like to have on your side. There's little wonder that Sergeant Roenick does form an alliance of convenience with the fierce racketeer and killer, and in fact the most interesting aspect of the story has us watching gangster and cop join forces against a common enemy. What will happen in the unlikely event that the crooks and police in the precinct prevail against the far more heavily armed patrol outside?
It has been said that the cinema must avoid claustrophobic settings: that watching the activities of men and women in a single building is the province of theater, and not of movies. AP13 subverts this premise. In fact what gives the film a good deal of its tension is that AP13 literally evokes one of the principal axioms of good theater: the placing of people in a small area, none able to escape the wiles of the others, locked inevitably in conflict or outright combat. That AP13 is theatrical, then, gives this riveting film a good deal of its considerable magnetism.
Rated R. 110 minutes. © 2005 by Harvey Karten
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