Classic Movie Review: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

Title: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Year: 1974
Director: Joseph Sargent
With: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Jerry Stiller, Julius Harris, Doris Roberts
Distributor: United Artists
Country of Origin: United States
English language
Rating: R
Duration: 104 min.

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Today's review is from a 1974 movie, one of my guilty pleasures. Four guys take a subway in New York City. So what? everybody does that! Is this a documentary?! Doesn't sound too promising as a movie premise. After all, that's what thousands of New Yorkers do every day, and no one makes a movie about Donna's trip from Queens to the Bronx to see her Aunt Petunia. Mr. Keanu Reeves was filmed once, giving up his seat to someone else, but hey, it was Keanu f**ing Reeves. So I better rephrase it: a commando group hijacks a subway train in New York City and asks for a million dollars to free the passengers.

The action takes place in New York in the mid-70s, when it was common to open the newspaper and find out that the terrorist group of the week had hijacked a passenger plane. Hijacking the convoy leaving Pelham at 1:2 3 is certainly unusual, although it doesn't allow for frequent flyer miles. On the other hand, the actions of these kidnappers are not motivated by any ideology: they are four scoundrels who just want to earn some money.

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All four wear identically cut jackets and hats, have mustaches and glasses, and call each other using code names: Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey, Mr. Brown. Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw) is the brains of the gang, a cold and calculating retired military man; Mr. Green (Martin Balsam) is the indispensable one, a former motorman who knows how to run a train; Mr. Gray (Hector Elizondo) is the imponderable, a former mobster who shoots before thinking and hates authority; Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman) is a quiet and efficient nobody.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the counter, Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau), the policeman in charge of security for the city's subway network, tries to entertain a group of VIP visitors: a handful of Japanese who appear to be thoroughly unaware of the English language and just smile and bow. Ah, there's Walter Matthau, so lots of laughter and smiles await us… Hey! Caz Dolowitz (Tom Pedi) just got shot, so maybe it's not a comedy after all.

To take into account: with the exception of the epilogue, the film takes place in real time, from the moment of taking it to the resolution of the conflict. There are no flashbacks or skipping events, although that is something we realized after having seen the film, since we also do not have a split screen or other tricks that years later we will see on TV in 24: this is a 1974 film and not a episode of the Jack Bauer series.

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Anyway, it is an exquisite film with a luxury cast, beginning with the main villain, Robert Shaw, although the luxury of this film is its protagonist, a great comedian who here takes on a serious role and solves it with solvency. It is not a Star Wars (1977) style blockbuster, there are no half-naked women or deadly karate fights but it is a more than decent movie with the right dose of suspense, action and humor, with a solid cast that includes Lee Wallace, Julius Harris and Jerry Stiller, another comedian in an unusual role.

So you see, this is a great beautiful movie. There's a 2009 remake directed by Tony Scott, which is downright grotesque; Not only does it suffer from an abominable script, but the director can't handle his genius and, as in the rest of his films, he makes you dizzy with his use of the camera. When there are two people talking, he keeps them sitting or standing and rotates the camera to hover around them, instead of making the actors move or just walk. And somehow he manages to waste Denzel Washington! Not to be confused: the title of the 1974 version has letters, that of the remake, numbers. The good one is from 1974 and I highly recommend it.