The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) - film review

Lieutenant Zachary Garber, a New York transit cop, is giving a guided tour of the New York subway control centre to a party of directors of the equivalent Tokyo rail system.  Bored with this ritual, Garber casually insults his guests, only to discover, too late, that they can understand English perfectly.  Unfortunately, this rift in American-Japanese relations will be the least of his problems.  Before the tour is over, Garber is notified that a subway train, designated Pelham 123, has been hijacked by four armed men all wearing the same disguise.  The hijackers have detached the front carriage of the train and have taken 17 passengers hostage.  Their leader, who calls himself Mr Blue, demands a ransom of one million dollars in used banknotes, to be delivered to him within one hour.  At each minute after the expiry of this deadline one of the hostages will be shot dead...

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three exemplifies the kind of slick, suspenseful -thriller that dominated cinema and TV screens in the 1970s and nourished an almost insatiable public appetite for exciting crime-based drama.  This is a particularly good example of its genre thanks to its compelling story, imaginative use of the confined setting and gripping performances from lead actors Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw.  Some inventive camerawork and sharp editing, complemented by David Shire’s punchy score, heighten the tension, which builds to an almost unbearable pitch as the film races towards its explosive climax.  Director Joseph Sargent does an excellent job of taking a fairly anodyne story and transforming it into a rich cinematic experience that is not only harrowing but also stylish and highly entertaining.

To offset the bleakness of the main storyline there are some amusing comic touches (including a smattering of caustic satire) which lighten the mood periodically.  For example, the town’s mayor is portrayed as an ineffectual wimp who is too busy being tormented by influenza and low poll ratings to have any real interest in the hijacking.  Having none of the explicit visceral nastiness that overtook the crime-thriller genre in the 1990s, The Taking of Pelham One Two now seems remarkably restrained.  Yet it still manages to be a tense, thoroughly absorbing film that conveys the terror of an armed hijack situation, but without the kind of cheap shock tactics that unfortunately have become de rigueur since.  You have only to compare it with its crude 2009 remake to see what a masterfully composed film this is – a true classic of its genre.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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