50 Greatest Action Movies Of All Time

22. Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)

In only his second directorial effort, John Carpenter established himself as a master of claustrophobic genre cinema with Assault on Precinct 13, a modern Western that proudly took its influences from Rio Bravo and Night of the Living Dead and resulted in a low-budget action classic.

Despite a budget of just $100,000, the movie is only enhanced by these limitations; the story, script, locations and action scenes are as stripped-down and efficient as they need to be, with Carpenter confidently handling the combination of action, thriller, horror and exploitation movie to create one of the decade's best genre flicks.