#110: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Release Date: October 2nd, 1974
Format: DVD
Written by: Peter Stone
Directed by: Joseph Sargent
4 Stars
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a live wire of a movie, and it’s a perfect, perfect genre movie. I can’t recommend it highly enough. That said, I always lament these types of movies because they are impossible to make in contemporary Hollywood.
Actors don’t look or sound like this anymore. I mean, this is a frenetic suspense/action movie and our hero cop in the film is played by Walter Matthau. No offense to the Matthau family, but he is not your classic Hollywood matinee idol. Today his part would be played by someone like Chris Pine. In fact, I don’t need to speak hypothetically. The film was remade by Tony Scott in 2009 and starred Denzel Washington. Point proven.
And it’s not just the lead actor that’s well-casted. Every single actor in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is great. They’re funny, caustic, rough-around-the-edges 1970s New Yorkers and their energy jumps off the screen. I wish Hollywood movies still widely used character actors in this way.
The on-location shooting in New York City is incredible. It’s worth the price of admission just to see the cars, fashion, and cityscape of early ‘70s New York.
The movie feels honest and authentically lived in. Today, casting and scripting are so self-aware of diversity and representation that authenticity can sometimes be sacrificed. Not so with Pelham. The movie is set in the NYC subway and the transit police department, dealing with working class New Yorkers, and it feels authentic. The movie is aware of race and class (there is even a joke about how cheap subway tolls are and how passengers should half expect to risk their lives by riding it), but it doesn’t have an agenda to sanctify anyone. This is a genre movie, through and through. It doesn’t need you leaving feeling warm and fuzzy about humanity.
What a script! This movie clips along at breakneck speed, with fun dialogue and a real threat of terror. Watching it, I was aware for the first time how indebted other great hostage movies are to Pelham (I’m looking at you Dog Day Afternoon, Die Hard, and Speed).
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a snapshot of New York City and of Hollywood genre storytelling in the 1970s in the best way possible. They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to.
