I will fess up now and admit that I have not seen either John Carpenter's original production of Assault On Precinct 13, nor Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo, upon which both are based. Carpenter himself has, in a manner of speaking, remade his Assault On Precinct 13 with Ghosts Of Mars, so there is a small basis for comparison. Where Ghosts Of Mars demonstrated that Carpenter knows how to film a tense and powerful film, this update of Assault On Precinct 13 is far from tense. Truth be told, it is so straightforward that observant viewers will pick all of the so-called plot twists a mile off. Fortunately, it has a good stock of saving graces that keep it from being a write-off. Given that this is the first English language film for Jean-François Richet, it shows a fair bit of promise. It also shows once again that European directors are capable of making an interesting film where American, Australian, or even British directors will not.
The plot of both Assaults On Precinct 13, to a large extent Ghosts Of Mars, and I will assume Rio Bravo, are basically alike. It is in the details where these films showing two small forces that are polar opposites against a larger, better-organised opponent make their mark. In the case of Assault On Precinct 13 circa 2005, the film tries to distinguish itself by adding a lot of details where its predecessor reputedly kept things short, sharp, and to the point. The real question is whether it works. Sometimes it does, and does so well, but there are also a few times when it really does not. A good example of when the new Assault On Precinct 13 does not work is when Brian Dennehy, one of the few actors in this remake who is old enough to have been in the original (he was not - his asking price was probably too high at the time), conveniently announces he has found a way out of the precinct via the basement. This deus ex machina not only deflates the tension of the ending a lot, it retroactively deflates the tension of the rest of the film.
On the positive side, director Jean-François Richet is not shy about showing the consequences of violent actions. On two occasions in the film, characters are shot in the head. The resulting shots with the camera zooming away from faces that have a massive hole in the upper middle are enough to burn the film permanently on your retina or memory. The problem there is that they also leave one wishing the rest of the film could have excelled like those shots. Ethan Hawke struck me as the worst possible choice for a lead in this project, but he portrays the main hero with such an excellent arc that it is easy to forgive the myriad of turkeys he has before appeared in, at least for a hundred and nine minutes. Lawrence Fishburne is just barely young enough to have not been suitable for the original Assault, but the renegade prime target for the new besiegers is a role he slips into so comfortably, you will think he was born to play it. Gabriel Byrne is somewhat weak in his role as the evil leader, but this can be blamed on his appalling lack of screen time. When he is given the chance to speak, he is very good at holding one's attention.
I have tried to remain objective so far, but the choice of music in the end credits could not have been worse. To call one half of the end credit roll annoying is understating things. Thankfully, Graeme Revell does such an awesome job of countering this with a tight event-based score that it is almost enough to forgive him for involving himself with turkeys like Street Fighter. It is his music that makes the Mexican standoff scene a little over halfway through the film work. Another aspect that makes the film work is the cinematography. While there are rarely more than two heads in a frame, camera motion is used correctly for a change in order to increase the tension. The dolly focus shot a third of the way into the film puts one directly into Roenick's boots to a far greater extent than a thousand shaky-cam POV shots ever could. I do not think I will ever run out of ways to express how superior European directors are because of the general lack of shaky-cam in their work. The fact that no shot in the film is zoomed in too close to actually see how the focus of the shot is interacting with others also helps a lot. What we have here, therefore, is a competently-executed action film the likes of which we have not seen since the late 1980s.
This is not enough to make Assault On Precinct 13 circa 2005 a classic, but it is enough for me to give it a seven out of ten. If the director manages to keep the same artistic sensibility he displayed on this film for the rest of his career, there is no telling how far he could go.
The plot of both Assaults On Precinct 13, to a large extent Ghosts Of Mars, and I will assume Rio Bravo, are basically alike. It is in the details where these films showing two small forces that are polar opposites against a larger, better-organised opponent make their mark. In the case of Assault On Precinct 13 circa 2005, the film tries to distinguish itself by adding a lot of details where its predecessor reputedly kept things short, sharp, and to the point. The real question is whether it works. Sometimes it does, and does so well, but there are also a few times when it really does not. A good example of when the new Assault On Precinct 13 does not work is when Brian Dennehy, one of the few actors in this remake who is old enough to have been in the original (he was not - his asking price was probably too high at the time), conveniently announces he has found a way out of the precinct via the basement. This deus ex machina not only deflates the tension of the ending a lot, it retroactively deflates the tension of the rest of the film.
On the positive side, director Jean-François Richet is not shy about showing the consequences of violent actions. On two occasions in the film, characters are shot in the head. The resulting shots with the camera zooming away from faces that have a massive hole in the upper middle are enough to burn the film permanently on your retina or memory. The problem there is that they also leave one wishing the rest of the film could have excelled like those shots. Ethan Hawke struck me as the worst possible choice for a lead in this project, but he portrays the main hero with such an excellent arc that it is easy to forgive the myriad of turkeys he has before appeared in, at least for a hundred and nine minutes. Lawrence Fishburne is just barely young enough to have not been suitable for the original Assault, but the renegade prime target for the new besiegers is a role he slips into so comfortably, you will think he was born to play it. Gabriel Byrne is somewhat weak in his role as the evil leader, but this can be blamed on his appalling lack of screen time. When he is given the chance to speak, he is very good at holding one's attention.
I have tried to remain objective so far, but the choice of music in the end credits could not have been worse. To call one half of the end credit roll annoying is understating things. Thankfully, Graeme Revell does such an awesome job of countering this with a tight event-based score that it is almost enough to forgive him for involving himself with turkeys like Street Fighter. It is his music that makes the Mexican standoff scene a little over halfway through the film work. Another aspect that makes the film work is the cinematography. While there are rarely more than two heads in a frame, camera motion is used correctly for a change in order to increase the tension. The dolly focus shot a third of the way into the film puts one directly into Roenick's boots to a far greater extent than a thousand shaky-cam POV shots ever could. I do not think I will ever run out of ways to express how superior European directors are because of the general lack of shaky-cam in their work. The fact that no shot in the film is zoomed in too close to actually see how the focus of the shot is interacting with others also helps a lot. What we have here, therefore, is a competently-executed action film the likes of which we have not seen since the late 1980s.
This is not enough to make Assault On Precinct 13 circa 2005 a classic, but it is enough for me to give it a seven out of ten. If the director manages to keep the same artistic sensibility he displayed on this film for the rest of his career, there is no telling how far he could go.