The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Great Film overall

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Okay, first the good things. Robert Shaw was good as the main hijacker. Walter Matthau was fairly good as the subway cop who was frustrated by everything (including, I'd guess, the plot). Photography was good. I liked the musical score. Now the bad things. SPOILERS AHEAD. The whole plot boils down to this: bad guys hijack a subway car filled with riders who become hostages, and demand one million dollars or they will murder the hostages. That's it. That's the plot. And it just does not work. I knew from the very beginning that the hostages would never be murdered. I knew from the start that the hijackers would not get away with it -- either they would wind up dead or arrested, or they'd lose the money. That was the entire basis of the "suspense." So for me, there was no suspense. This made the entire remainder of the movie an exercise in futility. I can hear the director and producers saying, "How many different complications can we stick in this movie to keep the audience worried? Let's have the hijackers demand a million dollars in an impossibly short period of time, so that it's obvious it won't be delivered and all the hostages will be killed. Let's have the mayor sick and weak and stupid and unable to make a simple decision, unable to decide to pay the ransom and save the lives of innocent hostages. Let's make the main hijacker (Robert Shaw) really really smart, but so stupid that he makes one impossible demand after another, despite the fact that what he supposedly wants is the million bucks. When the cops finally try to deliver the ransom, let's put every conceivable roadblock in their way, literally, to make it appear that they will never reach the subway on time. Meanwhile, let's inject a lot of absurd "comic relief," like maybe having some Japanese people visit and be treated in a racist manner. When the hijackers finally leave the subway car with their money, let's not end the movie there, let's have the subway car become a runaway car, so now the audience has to worry about whether they will all be killed when the car crashes. Let's not end it there, either -- let's have a shootout at the subway corral, and then the hero (Walter Matthau) can get the drop on the bad guy (Robert Shaw). No, wait, what if the bad guy refuses to give up, and instead electrocutes himself on the notorious third rail? Wow! No, wait, let's not end it yet -- what if one hijacker is still at large, the one who sneezes all the time, and Walter Matthau tracks him down and thinks he's innocent until he sneezes? Bottom line, I can't believe I'm in such a tiny minority here, I can't believe people were entertained by this stuff. One of the most irritating, unbelievable, and annoying "thrillers" I've ever seen.

Being a life long (straphanger) New York metro terminology for subway rider, I was drawn to this subway story of ransom,murder and the chain of events that lead up to the a subway ride for the ages.Four crooks plan to take a New York City subway train. Each wears a colored hat and bears the same name i.e. green hat, Mr. Green. One of the crooks is a New York City Motorman/Conductor Harold Longman AKA Mr. Green (Martin Balsam) who is the essential player in this ransom heist because of his knowledge of the Subway cars and system guidelines. Armed and motivated Mr. Green ousts the regular motorman well known actor James Broderick who would star on the hit TV show Family a few years later.The other colored hated rogues are played by popular TV Icon Earl Hindman(Mr. Brown)who found success on the hit TV show Home Improvement starring Tim Allen. You remember Earl who played the neighbor of reason Wilson only showing half his face behind a picket fence. That leads us to this strange connection of actors as our other partner swindler Mr. Grey is played by Hector Elizondo. Elizondo also co-stars with Tim Allen on the hit TV Show Last Man Standing. The star racketeer in all this is English Actor Robert Shaw Famous for his work in Jaws and Henry The VIII . AKA Mr.Blue the brains, the plotter, making the calls all the way as he demands one million dollars in cash within one hour or he'll shoot each passenger on a separate detached subway car each minute the authorities from the transit system are late. Enter Police Lt. Zack Garber (Walter Matthau) with his dead pan demeanor and wisecracking way of speaking to his co-workers. Matthau is a natural here. Not shouting or losing his cool but via a radio is the negotiator between ring leader Blue and the NYPD. The lives of the seventeen innocent passengers on that lone subway car are at stake. Nail biting action throughout with funny lines thrown in to relieve the tension. A race to the finish but this movie doesn't end with a bang. An anachronism of sorts as the Mayor is portrayed by Lee Wallace who bears a striking resemblance to former Mayor Ed Koch but during the film Abe Beame was mayor. Koch was elected four years later. Uncanny! Honorable mention to Jerry Stiller as Lt Rico Patrone. I particularly enjoyed the negotiating between Matthau and Shaw which was riveting as well as entertaining. Gesundheit!

Joseph Sargent was a well respected director of mostly television, but he also helmed a number of feature films over the years. This may very well be his best. (I won't hold "Jaws: The Revenge" against him.) It's a masterfully directed, well plotted crime thriller, and one of the finest of that genre to come out of NYC in the 1970s. It doesn't boast wall to wall action, instead focusing on telling an actual story, but when the action scenes do take place, they're utterly gripping and nail biting. Best of all, the movie does have a good sense of humor, paying itself off in a couple of ways.Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, and Earl Hindman play a quartet of ruthless men who hijack an NYC subway train and hold almost 20 passengers hostage. Their demand? One million dollars in cash (back then, it would have been a lot of money), to be delivered in ONE HOUR. Otherwise, the passengers start getting executed. Intrepid Transit Authority lawman Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) is the calm, level headed Everyman hero who tries to appease the bad guys while ensuring the hostages come out of the situation unscathed.Sargent and his top notch filmmaking team (including such luminaries as cinematographer Owen Roizman and editor Jerry Greenberg) craft a well paced bit of entertainment, enhanced by a dynamic and forceful music score by David Shire. There are some fun quips among the dialogue, and the performances are all right on the money. There's no scenery chewing here - even loose cannon Mr. Grey (Elizondo) is fairly low key while causing an overt amount of trouble for his co-conspirators. Shaw is a smooth villain, while Matthau is as amiable as he's ever been. In addition, there's a steady parade of stars and familiar character actors filling out a great many roles: James Broderick, Dick O'Neill, Lee Wallace, Tom Pedi, Beatrice Winde, Jerry Stiller, Nathan George, Kenneth McMillan, Doris Roberts, Julius Harris, Alex Colon, Michael Gorrin, Christopher Murney, Sal Viscuso, Bill Cobbs, Joe Seneca, and Tony Roberts. Most impressive!"The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" is a truly great thriller, one that reels you in early on and scarcely takes a breath until its satisfying, blatantly humorous denouement.Remade for TV in 1998, and for theaters in 2009.10 out of 10.

"We are going to kill one passenger a minute until New York City pays us $1 Million.""The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" is a perfect example of a tension filled, wonderfully constructed, and extremely entertaining thriller. It's a testament to "Pelham" that it has been remade twice--once as a made-for-TV movie, and the other as a big-budget action picture. However, the decision to produce these remakes hasn't yielded satisfying results. Peter Stone earned an Oscar nomination in 1974 for his screenplay, which is adapted from John Godey's 1973 novel. You can count among its biggest admirers Quentin Tarantino, who borrowed the color-coded nicknames of the villains in the film for his band of thieves in "Reservoir Dogs."Four armed men hijack a New York City subway train and demand $1 million dollars which must be delivered in 1 hour for the release of the passengers held hostage. Lt. Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) of the New York City Transit Police must contend with City Hall, the demands of the hijackers, and the ticking clock in his efforts to save the passengers and bring the hijackers to justice. The initial hijacking plan doesn't seem to make any sense because their options are so limited. At one point Lt. Garber jokingly says: "They're gonna get away by asking every man, woman and child in New York City to close their eyes and count to a hundred." But there is a clever getaway plan coordinated by Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw), who plays a former mercenary soldier. His team members include two professional criminals and a fired motorman (Martin Balsam) with a grudge.The main strength of the film is the acting. Shaw, Balsam, and Elizondo each get to play to their own specific skill set. Shaw is cool, devious, and calculating. Balsam is a working class, somewhat decent, criminal. On the other side of things, Matthau is at his sardonic best as Garber. Little time is spent on the back story, subplots, or exploration of motives. It's about a subway train, the bad guys, the good guys, hostages, and money. That's it. comparing the original to the 2009 Tony Scott- directed remake, where substantial screen time is devoted to such concerns, the movie falls well short. Do yourself a favor: instead of watching the remake, seek out the original. It's an urban thriller with charisma and a vitality all of its own.