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| Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer,
Martin West |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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|
Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Napoleon
Wilson (Darwin Joston): Can't argue with a confident man.
A
small group of police, civilians and criminals are besieged in an abandoned
Los Angeles police station.
 Director
John Carpenter's first major film following his theatrically released
graduation project Dark Star is a true B-movie classic, an imaginative
reimagining of Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo set in a 1976 LA ghetto,
but built on the same old-fashioned conventions of suspense, action
and rapid wisecracking dialogues that made Hawks such a tremendous director.
It precedes Carpenter's breakthrough film Halloween by two years,
but already affirms his style as a compulsive visualist with a terrific
knack for building suspense interspersed with sudden bursts of violent
action, and his trademark self-composed synth score contributes hugely
to the film's buildup and atmosphere. The film's low-budget production
values are evident throughout, but the fairly amateurish cast still
maintains enough charm to keep the film afloat, and Carpenter's eye
for composition and brilliant editing easily pull the film through as
a whole. |
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The
Region 1 release has a non-anamorphic transfer drawn from a mediocre
source print, but has the correct widescreen framing and a decent commentary
track from director John Carpenter. The Region 2 release (available
in The Netherlands and Belgium from A-Film Home Entertainment) carries
a spotless anamorphic transfer, but an aspect ratio cropped down to
1.78:1. The Region 2 release served as a basis for this review.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at an aspect ratio of approx.
1.78:1. The film was shot in Carpenter's usual 'scope ratio of 2.35:1,
and the cropping in this transfer sadly detracts from the film, as characters
continually walk out of frame or stand half-in and half-out of view.
What makes this even more infuriating is the incredible quality of the
transfer as far as color and detail is concerned, providing a vivid
image that looks more solid and clear than any other presentation of
this film I've ever seen.
The original mono sound mix is adequately presented in two-channel Dolby
Digital, clearly marked by the dynamic limitation of the original recordings
but still intelligible.
No
extras are included on this release.A
single static menu screen offers access to the disc's limited features.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed: June
24, 2002
Click
here for IMDB info on Assault
on Precinct 13.
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