Right on track

THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE (1974)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Sometimes it is enough to have a simple set-up for a thriller. A hijacked subway train. Three armed men, followed by an ex-motorman. Hostage negotiations and one million dollars ransom discussed with a colorful NYC Transit Authority lieutenant with a spanking yellow tie. The hijackers and the hostages are all of different ethnicities (see that millennials, this was always the case pre-Twitter era especially in 1970's pictures set in New York). What you got here is Joseph Sargent's incredibly exciting, humorous and explosive "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three," a textbook example on how to engineer an efficient thriller with a splendid cast.

Walter Matthau takes the reins convincingly as the lieutenant who unknowingly assumes that Japanese men from the Tokyo transit authority don't speak English! Of course they do, the first step in seeing how stereotypes are seemingly set up and then avoided. Robert Shaw is persuasively efficient as the calculating British-accented leader of the armed robbers who gives the Mayor less than an hour to come with up a million dollars. Only the Mayor is sick with a bad cold and looks like a young Ed Koch, and the ex-motorman has a bad cold too (Yep, typical of an overcrowded New York City). Between the ransom demands, we see the fiery tension in the Command Center over a subway car that remains stagnant while Shaw makes his demands with few concessions. Time is of a factor and the movie's clockwork pacing identifies that beautifully.

Sargent directs with flair and a typically gritty style for that era, also keeping the humanity intact between the passengers that include screaming kids, an old man who can't fathom the purpose of stealing a subway car, a cocky young guy who served in Vietnam, an undercover cop, and a hooker who argues over her worth per hour. They could have been fodder with no characterization yet we care about them and hope they survive even if we don't intimately know them (the final half hour of the film with an accelerating runaway car will leave you on the edge of your seat. Think red lights!) The robbers with color-coded names have distinguishing personalities especially Shaw who has equal contempt for humanity and imprecise timing. Hector Elizondo is the odious robber with an itchy trigger finger who has contempt for Shaw's control. Martin Balsam, an exemplary actor of nuance, is the fired motorman who is not too sure about this tricky situation. Matthau has no contempt for anyone, simply a guy doing his job of saving New York City. We feel for the city and for the subway system. "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" is fantastic, sharply timed entertainment with occasional blasts of humor.