The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Subway Thriller | 104 Minutes | 1974 | United States
(4/4)
Director: Joseph Sargent | Producers: Gabriel Katzka, Edgar J. Scherick | Screenplay: Peter Stone | Based on: The Taking of Pelham One Two Three by John Godey | Starring: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Héctor Elizondo, Dick O’Neill, Jerry Stiller | Music: David Shire | Cinematography: Owen Roizman | Editors: Gerald B. Greenberg, Robert Q. Lovett
From a modern perspective, the original and best film version of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three almost seems to lack a final act: when the shakeout comes and the criminals attempt to make their getaway, there is no major chase sequence, limited gunfighting, and the villains for the most part – faced with the ambling steeliness of Walter Matthau’s Lieutenant Zachary Garber – prove their own undoing. There is nothing frantic or overblown here. Instead the crux of the film is an extended hostage sequence inside a New York City downtown train, whose enveloping tension is combined with the coolheaded attempts of a Transit Authority police lieutenant to bide time and negotiate.
True not all members of the New York City Transit Authority remain coolheaded: one supervisor, already inconvenienced by the introduction of women to the workforce, ends up shot dead after he angrily goes to investigate, while the train master takes the whole incident as a personal affront and grumbles about the office, remarking ‘I’m not lifting a finger to help the killers of Caz Dolowicz!’. There is a more casual misogyny to the speculations about the gender of a police officer known to be in plain clothes on board the hijacked train. In The Taking of Pelham One Two Three it’s not about giving us a full insight into these characters or showing us something about their personal development, what they feel or what they’ve learned, but instead about showing us characters already fully-formed responding realistically to a particularly arduous day of work.
Based on the novel of the same name by John Godey, the closely adapted The Taking of Pelham One Two Three was so popular and so realistic that for years afterward the Transit Authority refrained from scheduling a train from Pelham Bay Park Station at 1:23. The film’s producers were forced to take out $20 million in insurance policies in case of copycats. Perhaps the only aspect of the film that does not ebb and flow with the tension and comedy of reality comes by way of the interaction between the NYCTA, the NYPD, and the mayor’s office: though the mayor himself is a sickly buffoon, the branches otherwise appear competent and they cooperate with each other to fairly seamless effect.
In The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Robert Shaw is impeccable as Mr Blue, who leads the four colour-coded hijackers, wearing fake moustaches and trench coats which conceal automatic weapons. His clipped English accent gives him an air of authority and gentility, offset by the wariness of Martin Balsam as Mr Green, and undermined by Héctor Elizondo’s brash and impetuous Mr Grey. Whether giving a guided tour of the offices to Japanese visitors or engaging in fraught negotiations over the radio, Walter Matthau is a model of realism as Lieutenant Zachary Garber, a realism which appears so offhand and effortless that no doubt it is hard-won. He is ably assisted by Jerry Stiller, who keeps everything on an even keel as Lieutenant Rico Patrone.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three also features a walloping score, conducted by David Shire, with skittering percussion, a bassline that plunges and throbs, and horns blaring in all directions over the top. If you want an easily watchable, utterly satisfying, all the while engrossing character-based thriller, there are none better than this.
[separator type=”thin”]
