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Welcome to My Year of Movies. My name is Duncan and I'm a movie nut. Between researching for my PhD in film history, teaching film studies classes at uni and my own recreational viewing, I watch a stack of movies. I've set up this blog to share a few thoughts and impressions as I watch my way through the year. I hope you find it interesting and maybe even a bit entertaining. Enjoy.

29 August 2010

109) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)


Director:
Joseph Sargent

Starring: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, Jerry Stiller


Last year I went and saw Tony Scott's The Taking of Pelham 123. I quite enjoyed it, not thinking it to be as bad as a lot of critics did. But then, at the time I was only vaguely aware of the original. Sargent's film has been mentioned a few times in various articles, books and lectures I've come across since then so I've grown more and more keen to see it, and possibly explaining why so many were disappointed by Scott's remake.

Four gunmen, led by a man known only by his colour codename 'Blue' (Shaw) take a New York subway train, Pelham 123, and its passengers hostage. They demand $1,000,000 be delivered to the train in one hour, with one hostage being killed for every minute late the delivery is. Lt. Zachery Garber (Matthau) of the New York City Transit Police is serving as the primary negotiator with the terrorists. While dealing with City Hall and the NYPD in order to try and save the hostages lives, Garber can not help but ask himself the question how can four terrorists in a train carriage in an underground tunnel surrounded by police possibly escape?

What makes this film amazing is that it actually works. Hijacking a train carriage in an underground tunnel seems like such a ridiculous plan that you'd assume it would fall flat on it's face. But Shaw plays Blue with such composure that we accept his plan as being well thought through. Sargent manages to build a great deal of tension through the negotiations between Garber and Blue, while at the same time having a nice smattering of sarcastic comments acknowledging the absurdity of the situation.

The city of New York has a great tradition of cinematic depictions, particularly in the films of Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three stands alongside the films of those three directors as one of the great New York films. Not only is the plot built around the iconic New York subway, which we are constantly being reminded is the worlds largest underground train network, the characters who drive the film are very much New Yorkers. Matthau has that sardonic sense of humour that is associated with New Yorkers. Plus consider the hostages on the train itself. Their listing in the credits shows a cross-section of the New York population. You have the The Maid, The Delivery Boy, The WASP, The Hippie, The Hooker, The Pimp, The Old Man, The Spanish Woman, The Alcoholic, The Salesman and The Homosexual. Without gratuitous shots of the Empire State Building or the Statue of Liberty, Sargent manages to create a really strong connection between his film and the city.

One thing Kate and I couldn't help but notice is the amazing amount of sexism and racism in the film. There are numerous little asides and one-liners which have no real bearing on the narrative at all. There are a couple of characters who constantly complain about women being allowed into their workplace ("If I've got to watch my language just because they let a few broads in, I'm going to quit. How the hell can you run a goddam railroad without swearing?") and then you have Garber belittling the Japanese delegates who he is taking on a tour of the facility, but the joke then turns out to be on him when it is revealed they actually speak English. Garber is also responsible for one of my favourite lines: "The guy who's talking has got a heavy English accent. He could be a fruitcake." None of it is particularly offensive, it is just amusing in how unnecessary it is.

For Tarantino fans this is where he got the idea for Reservoir Dogs of using colours as pseudonyms for the robbers. So that is one down of the thousands and thousands of homages and references in Tarantino's films.

Interesting to note the differences between this and the remake. There are obvious changes and updates that have to be made. One million dollars has to become ten million dollars, because, as Austin Powers pointed out, one million dollars isn't much of a demand these days. But there are a few changes which have obviously been made in homage to the original. Denzel's character is named Walter Garber rather than Zachery Garber, in honour of Walter Matthau. Denzel's character has apparently been demoted as punishment for some alleged corrupt dealings with Japanese businessman. Sargent's film starts with Garber giving some Japanese delegates a tour of the facility. One change I didn't understand was the decision not to use the colour code names for the terrorists, as it was such an iconic part of the original film.

As is nearly always the case, the original is indeed better than the remake, although I still don't think the remake was awful. It is not hard to build tension in a hostage film, but Sargent manages to make The Taking of Pelham One Two Three something more than just another formulaic hostage film by establishing interesting characters. The back and forth between Matthau's sardonic Garber and Shaw's icy Blue is compelling viewing. It's got a killer theme tune too.

1 comment:

  1. In the week since watching this film, I can't escape it. Firstly it keeps getting mentioned in a podcast I've been listening too. Secondly at Wednesday's lecture for Screens, Images, Ideas I came across the course convenor and a student having a conversation about it and then on Friday I sit down in front of the TV to have some lunch and it's the midday movie. It's everywhere.

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