The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Director: Tony Scott
While seldom ranked among American cinema’s greatest classics, Joseph Sargent’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) is among many viewers’ semi-guilty pleasures – familiarity breeding content via seemingly endless late-night showings. Based on the bestselling 1973 novel by “John Godey” (ex-Hollywood publicist Morton Freedgood), it chronicles, in compulsively watchable and amiably unpretentious fashion, an audacious criminal escapade whereby a gang take a subway train hostage: the 1.23pm from Pelham Bay Park Station in the Bronx (hence the oft-misunderstood title).
Led by taciturn limey “Mr Blue” (Robert Shaw) – the outfit’s colour-coded names were stolen by Quentin Tarantino for Reservoir Dogs – the crooks announce they’ll start killing the passengers, one per minute, if they don’t get a $1 million ransom within the hour. It’s down to hangdog subway-controller Victor Garber (Walter Matthau) to deal with the situation from his underground control room while, up above, the city grinds to a chaotic halt.
When it was announced in the Hollywood trade-press that this re-do was to be “helmed” by Tony Scott – the ex-pat Teessider notorious for his bombastic and hyperactive slam-bang approach, admirers of Sargent’s grittily low-key, deadpan-amusing original braced themselves for disaster. However, while this new Pelham is in no danger of eclipsing Sargent’s, it could certainly have been a heck of a lot worse.
Scott and scriptwriter Brian Helgeland show reasonable fidelity and respect towards the original, down to in-joke details such as changing the hero’s name from Victor to Walter in honour of the late Matthau. This Garber, as incarnated by Denzel Washington, is a inevitably more of an action-man than the original – although actually not that much, as Washington’s alarmingly increased bulk (shades of Russell Crowe in Body of Lies) means that a final-act sprint through the Manhattan streets strains our credulity, as well as his shirt buttons.
As his scheming, train-jacking nemesis – renamed “ Ryder” – John Travolta pitches his performance as the polar opposite of Shaw’s. A motormouth, wisecracking chancer, he’s the latest in a line of enjoyably hammy Travolta baddies.
While they are seldom seen together – half the movie seems to consist of them chatting or yelling via intercoms – the twin leads’ presence and skill go a long way to keeping this unwieldy enterprise on the tracks. There’s deft support from James Gandolfini as New York’s mayor – as before, a prime and reliable source of comic relief – although the able likes of John Turturro and Luis Guzman are stuck with more thankless supporting roles.
Scott has never been known as an actor’s director – his priorities lie elsewhere and he handles proceedings with his customary high-testosterone, flashily kinetic professionalism. If you can stand the shuddery, show-offy camerawork, the crashing soundtrack muzak and the awkwardly-integrated nods to
21st century technology, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 provides acceptable popcorn fodder for an undemanding night out at the pictures. And you might just get back in time to catch the late movie on the box.
Neil Young
