Title: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Release Date: October 2, 1974
Director: Joseph Sargent
Production Company: Palomar Pictures | Palladium Productions
Summary/Review:
How the hell can you run a goddamn railroad without swearing?
Four men with machine guns hijack and New York City subway train and hold 18 passengers hostage. They are lead by Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw), a ruthless former mercenary soldier. Mr. Green (Martin Balsam) is a former subway motorman with a bad cold. The trigger-happy Mr. Grey (Héctor Elizondo) and the conscientious Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman) round out the gang. Transit police Lieutenant Zachary “Z” Garber (Walter Matthau) is forced to deal with Mr. Blue’s unreasonably short deadline for delivering the $1 million ransom, and try to figure out how the gang plans to escape the subway tunnel. For added New York-ness, the cast also includes Jerry Stiller as another police lieutenant and Tony Roberts as the deputy mayor.
The crew working with Garber to resolve the crisis are layered with every “Noo Yawk” stereotype imaginable with their conversations peppered with racist and sexist statements and plentiful profanity. I’m not sure if the filmmakers deliberately decided to make the acting over-the-top or if they really thought everyone in New York City is like Archie Bunker, but the end result is a movie that’s very funny as well as thrilling. It’s a cynical story with the mayor (Lee Wallace) depicted as worse than useless, while the passengers and other civilians generally seem clueless. Granted, before the internet and personal devices people did not have ready access to breaking news, but I still don’t think everyone would be so blase.
There are also some evident flaws in Mr. Blue’s plan, but ultimately the story, the action, and the dialogue are just to entertaining for that to matter. This is a movie in a heightened reality of New York at its grittiest, but in no manner is it realistic.
Rating: ***1/2
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