The Taking of Pelham: Once, Twice, Three Times a Movie

Everyone seems to love a good crackerjack heist/ransom thriller, especially a film called The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. So much so that this same movie has been made three different times. A very simple setup involving a hijacked train, a handful of hostages, a negotiator in way over his head, and a group of name color coded criminals. (Where do you think QT got the idea for Reservoir Dogs?) Film fanatics remember the original hard boiled 1974 version, and the new 2009 version has been getting plenty of publicity. Little do people know that there is a lesser known third version of this same film with the same title. It was released as a made for TV movie back in 1998, and starred Edward James Olmos as the negotiating officer, and Vincent D'Onofrio as the mastermind thief. Unfortunately I never did get the opportunity to see this version, so I will not be able to review it. I have however seen the two more well known versions and can say that in the span of 35 years the more things change the more they stay the same.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974): It all begins like any other dirty morning in the big apple. People are loading onto the subway when a group of men enter one at a time at various different stops. They are all dressed in similar manner wearing long coats, hats, glasses, and matching fake moustaches. Each man is also carrying a bag or a box containing an automatic weapon, very reminiscent of Dog Day Afternoon and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Once the leader Mr. Blue (an always steely cool Robert Shaw) has taken control of the head of the train, he and his crew split the cabs into sections, and begin to make their demands. One million dollars in one hour or a hostage dies for every following minute the money is not delivered.

It just so happens that this morning Lt. Garber (the reliably grouchy Walter Matthau) is giving a tour of the criminal division of the transit department, when all hell begins to break loose. Matthau acts as the voice of reason trying to talk to the kidnappers, negotiate with them, and pick up clues on their character. At first all of the commotion and confusion feels boiled down to negligence on the train conductor's part. Everyone at the control base is baffled as to why the train continues to stop and separate, and it is making them increasingly mad. Then the demands come and the heat is turned up even higher.

That is one thing I noticed about this version right off the bat. It is a very angry film full of very angry characters. The mayor is upset when he finds out he has to pay a ransom he can't afford. The cops are upset the mayor is paying the ransom as opposed to giving a strike order. The hostages are upset they may die over a lousy million bucks. But nothing compares to the transit workers who spend the whole movie angry their train traffic flow has been disrupted by a bunch of bums. They also have no problem back talking to both the cops and the criminals. A random bit of their dialogue goes like this: "Screw the goddamn passengers! What the hell did they expect for their lousy 35 cents - to live forever?" You may be surprised to learn that the people who manage to keep their cool throughout most of the film are the criminals, even if there is a wild card.

This is a pure example of 70's cinema. The fashion, the style, the attitude. Everything just seems to be a little tougher. This film is fill of racist and sexist remarks suggesting that many people were not too happy with the changing cultural climate. I love the pairing of Shaw and Matthau. Such polar opposites having to negotiate to get what they want. It's a shame their isn't more of a showdown resolution when they finally meet. Nevertheless this is a very good crime caper. It may be simple in plot, but is still pretty hot under the collar.

The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009): The updated version of this film is aside form a few quibbles, and a drastically altered for the worse ending is a pretty kinetic and faithful remake. I wasn't expecting the first two thirds to keep to the same basic story, and have it work fairly effectively. The cast now consists of Denzel Washington as the dispatcher, and John Travolta as the mastermind of the heist. Travolta plays his character fast and loose instead of cool and collected, and this was a change I rather enjoyed. He can't compare to Shaw so he plays the Ryder character with fits of extreme anger and ecstasy. He seems like he's having a great time in this role. Denzel keeps his cool this time around is a bit more clean cut physically, but more morally corrupt than Matthau. These two have pretty good chemistry. Part of the pleasure of this film is watching these two banter back and forth and match each other move for move and word for word.

It is also highly respected for refusing to take things down a notch and turn into a play it safe summer film. Obscenities fly wild and not all of the hostages will walk out of the situation, some will need to be carried out. This being a Tony Scott film it has moments of sped up blur shots that are distracting but taken down a notch, not nearly as many as in Domino. I must note that the dispatcher central gave me a bit of deja vu. Quite possibly because it looked exactly like left over set pieces from a previous Scott/Denzel film: Deja vu.

I really disliked the obvious plot ploy of giving one of the hostages a way of reaching help on the outside. This time it's a guy with a laptop who has picked a swell time to decide whether he is ready to commit to is girlfriend or not (awful). I also mentioned how disappointed I was that in the original film there was not a big enough showdown between the two leads. This version changes that and after seeing it I was happier with the original. (minor SPOILER ALERT) It comes down to the two leads on a bridge, and both have a gun. If you've seen Collateral or any other action film ever, you already know the outcome.

Both films turn out to be worth checking out one more so than the other, but as far as heist films and their remakes go it could have been way worse. Pelham old and new are a couple of trains that are worth catching. Pelham (1974): B+ Pelham (2009): B-