All In A Day's Work

Halloween is probably the most important movie in John Carpenter's career which was released two years later. Assault On Precinct 13 (as dedicated John Carpenter fans are fully aware the director's homage to the Howard Hawks' western classic Rio Bravo) is often overshadowed by that, which is a shame because it's a truly fantastic film. Carpenter is an incredible director. He writes, he produces, and he composes the music for the majority of his films. He has an incredible rapport with the actors he choses to work with. He has a solid vision and is able to describe it to his cast and crew with relative ease. So each of his films have that unmistakable John Carpenter "feel" for me that I've been a fan of since being a kid.

Unlike many of his contemporaries (Tobe Hooper and Wes Craven, for example), John Carpenter is one of the few directors of the seventies who has managed to keep a (relatively) consistent output. Assault On Precinct 13 is not a perfect film but it is a good indication of what was to come from the future director of Halloween, The Fog, Escape From New York and, of course, The Thing. With fine direction, acting and music, the idea of remaking any of his films seems even more offensive than usual. Take my advice, watch his instead.

Action that will leave you dizzy along with good production are the main attractions to this mixed bag of zombies, martial-arts, guns, and gore. You don't actually care about the characters who are so poorly written because you are just bewildered by some amazing fight choreography and graphic gore. People fly through the air, kicking and chopping at everything they can or blasting everything that moves to pieces leaving blood, guts, spit and ass all over the woods.

The only thing that stops the rating from being higher is the attempt to cram a plot in where it doesn't belong. Although some might get tired of this attempt and switch off after 60 minutes, it's still a fun mix of horror, humor and good old teeth breaking carnage

Shoot a cop
With a gun
The Big Apple is plenty of fun

Stab a priest
With a fork
And you'll spend your vacation in New York

Rob a bank
Take a truck
You can get here by stealing a buck

This is bliss
It's a lark
Buddy, everyone's coming to New York!

No more Yankees
Strike the word from your ears
Spin the roulette
There's no more opera at the Met

This is hell
This is fate
But now this is your world and it's great

So rejoice
Pop a cork
Buddy, everyone's coming to New York!

So much has been written about this now classic film that it's impossible to imagine any new insight, so I'll just share what I enjoy about it. Utilizing a single claustrophobic setting for most of running time, NOLTD has a documentary like quality that gives it a horrifying sense of realism comparable to Orson Welles' infamous WAR OF THE WORLDS broadcast. Regarded as the grandfather of the modern zombie film, NOLTD transformed the zombie from the human afflicted by a voodoo trance into the flesh eating undead.

It looks so perfect that it makes me wonder why black and white isn't used much for horror any more. When directors copy Night of the Living Dead they copy the zombies and the arguments, rather than things worth copying like cinematography and theme. Many horror movies exist solely to scare the audience. Night of the Living Dead differs because it uses horror to make interesting social commentary.

Another underrated film from Carpenter. There are a number of different types of horror films, with some of the more popular ones being tied to religion. Some of these really only work if the viewer is a believer, with the exception here and there, such as The Exorcist, that could've been a failure in the hands of any other director.

Prince of Darkness is Christian horror film for a different group of people. It's horror for scientists. With the creepy atmosphere building up over the long opening credit sequence and Carpenter's signature score of impending apocalyptic doom brooding over, this movie is slowly finding its' audience and will get the respect it deserves. This is a top-grade B-movie.

Elephant is not a film for everyone. It is slow moving, occasionally awkward, and unsettling. The structure of Elephant is one of the things that make this effort intriguing to watch. In a Rashomon like style, you follow each of the "characters" during the course of the day that will change their world. A gliding steadicam follows students in uninterrupted shots between class with a false sense of security as they carry on with day to day activities. The film is bare bones in its simplicity. There is no real plot, it is just an ordinary day at school, until it's not.

Van Sant makes no attempts to lay the blame of the impending tragedy onto anyone, or anything, in particular. He does point to certain factors that could have led to the horrifying conclusion leaving the viewer with their own opinions and could offer plenty to talk about with others.

Finally able to finish the gritty crime trilogy, Pusher III doesn't have the nice and tidy ending but rather the kind that leaves you knowing this lifestyle will continue as long as there's money to be made from drug-trafficking. Here, we have the story of Milo, the crime kingpin prominent in part one and featured briefly in the second film. Starting off with Milo in rehab, the third film involves a drug deal gone awkward that soon turns into a downward spiral of bad situations. All this takes place within that wonderful concept; the 24-hour storyline .

Another thing that's worthy of note is the film's attempt to present the story as a kind of cinema verite experience. There's an almost complete absence of a music score, except at absolutely pivotal moments of the film and even then is used sparingly along with hand held camera technique and natural lighting which give an "all too real" feeling that can make Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets seem like a nice place to raise children. The pace never lags, and the dynamics between the characters are all detailed. Zlatko Buric's performance as Milo is so natural, much like Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas, that it might be difficult to separate this role from other films I may see him in later. The third act in the film involving retribution may be difficult for some to sit through.