The premise of the action-drama Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) may remind astute viewers of Howard Hawks’ Western “jailhouse siege” films Rio Bravo and El Dorado, for they provided writer-director John Carpenter with the inspiration for this modern, urban version.  Carpenter also edited the film, using the non de plume John T. Chance, which was, of course, the Duke’s moniker in Rio Bravo.  Oh, and he wrote and performed the music score as well.

In racially-charged Los Angeles, a nearly deserted and about-to-close police station is silently assailed by people utterly bent upon its destruction, as well as the murder of anyone connected with it.  Inside are a few remaining cops, a couple of female dispatchers and a couple of prisoners in the midst of transfer to another jail.  As in the Hawks films, this disparate and distrustful group of people has to band together to survive the relentless onslaught of violence that threatens to engulf them.

Motivation for the siege certainly is evident, but isn’t really important.  Carpenter’s film is a visceral experience of being attacked by a malevolent foe (he would further explore this motif with a supernatural edge in Halloween, his next film), made all the more creepy by the unnerving silence of the attackers and the decidedly effective popping noises made by their silenced rifles and handguns.  The sound effects for this movie are ingenious, and beautifully rendered.

Just his second film, Assault on Precinct 13 (remade unnecessarily in 2005) demonstrates Carpenter’s visual and aural capabilities in excellent form.  Shot on a tiny budget in and around the city, it evokes the isolation of the Old West with surprising vivacity yet sustains contemporary sensibilities throughout.  Some faces in the cast may be familiar but none achieved star status, except perhaps for Kim Richards, the young girl whose yearning for ice cream was timed quite unfortunately.  Austin Stoker, Laurie Zimmer and especially Darwin Joston are quite good, finding ways to communicate other than words.

All in all, it’s a firecracker of a movie with more social relevance than one might expect.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  (9:4).