Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)

I'm not sure if it has to do with the digitization of cinema or the fact that TV's are all 16x9 now, but it feels like Cinemascope is gradually becoming a thing of the past. Though often reserved for literal epics, Cinemascope is an easy way to make even a tiny-budgeted exploitation film "look epic". The budget for Assault on Precinct 13 was a mere $150,000 but thanks to that magical 2.35:1 aspect ratio, things seem a whole heck of a lot bigger. Of course you still need to know how to use it. When the format was first introduced in the mid-1950's, most directors merely kept the camera stationary and filled it with tons of extras. Fritz Lang is famously credited as saying that it is only suited to photographing funeral processions and snakes. Fortunately for fans of down and dirty exploitation pictures, fresh out of film school John Carpenter knew what to do with that long skinny frame. The early scenes here really capture parts of Los Angeles that you rarely get to see on screen and give the impression of a much bigger world than the tiny prison we are confined to for the remainder of the run-time. Even though the quality substantially dropped off in the 90's, I will always have a soft-spot for that wonderful Carpenter eye.