#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. 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. The star is Walter Matthau, and no offense to the Matthau family, but he is not exactly a matinee idol. As for the supporting cast, they are a bunch of tremendous New York character actors of all sizes, shapes, and colors. They’re funny and abrasive in the best kind of New York way, and they offer the movie a great deal of realism.

• 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. Contemporary Hollywood casting and scripting is often so conspicuous 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 real. 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’s not self-congratulatory about its diverse representation.

• 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.