The Taking of Pelham One Two Three [Blu-ray] [1974]

Don't waste time with the Tony Scott shakycam remake of PELHAM 123 which was a massive disappointment - stick with the 1974 original, which is WAY better and I will say seems a lot more realistic for the most part and also gets one thing right that other train disaster movies/thrillers don't - the Deadman's Feature. Watch closely, they find a way around it!! Anyway, the story concerns hijackers who hold the mayor of New York to ransom for a few million dollars(!) by taking a subway car loaded with passengers who give this movie some amusing moments at times with the various reactions to their situation, surprisingly and take on their own character in their own way. Walther Matthau is on top form as Lieutenant Garber, the NY transit cop who has to negotiate with the hijackers and stop passengers getting killed while all around him subway employees and local cops make things difficult. Robert Shaw is the hijacker gang leader who is also suitably chilling. Watch out as well for Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo(THE PRINCESS DIARIES, CHICAGO HOPE) in supporting roles helping out Shaw. I can't help thinking as well that their codenames, based on colors, might have inspired Tarantino with RESERVOIR DOGS character names!

There are plenty of exciting and suspenseful moments as well - the NYPD's attempt to get the money across town to the hijackers while Lt Garber tries to prevent the killing of a hostage, and the ending and final nail-biting climax isn't quite what you'd expect. What's also interesting is that this movie was shot on NY subway property and at the start you get a bit of insight into how things work in a scene featuring a trainee driver and a group of visiting Tokyo subway bosses . . . which does have an amusing punchline when Garber makes a slightly bigoted comment! So this will also appeal to subway/train enthusiasts as well in many ways.

Overall, I can't recommend this enough!!

The 70's were a fertile period for thrillers..."French Connection", "Dirty Harry", "Charley Varrick", etc. In my opinion "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" is the best of the lot. It thrills like no other movie of the period, everything gels, the script, the direction the music (oh the music, hats off to David Shire for scoring the the best ever twelve tone funk score), the editing, the locale, the cast. And what a locale...this must be the best New York-based film ever; I suspect New Yorkers look at this and go..yeah that's us alright. The characters and the script are a joy...the film is densely populated but even the most minor of characters are graced with eminently quotable lines, and the casting..Walter Matthau rounds off his run of "straight" roles in the early 70's with a fabulous turn here, all sarcastic wit and scathing come-backs..Robert Shaw turns in highly believable perfomance as a mercenary turned hijacker in what must be the prototype of the Brit-as-bad-guy cycle that everyone thinks started with Die Hard...and Jerry Stiller (Ben's Dad) has a good time as Patrone the world-weary and sarcastic transit cop. But the list is endless, the mayor, his aide, the chief of police, the hostages, everyone is outstanding. The script, by Peter Stone is a masterclass in entertaining exposition. It is also frequently laugh-out-loud funny...the humour deriving not from the wish to turn the film into a comedy, but rather the fact that Stone has given these guys a rich sense of humour that naturally develops as the frenetic events unfold. In fact, the juxtaposition of the humour and hard-edged thrills is what makes this film work over and over again...you laugh at a genuinely funny line and then are thrust into (for instance) a frantic, heart-pounding, cross-city race against time and you're in a such great mood because of the wit of the scipt just beforehand, that the action is heightend and your involverment is likewise increased; and that good-vibe/hard action momentum just snowballs all through the movie. In all, this is an essential purchase for anyone who enjoys pared down, superbly scripted thrills. A five-star classic.

This is not a review of the movie, which is great. The one star is for the blu ray disc. I bought a copy of this from a store and not amazon, but felt I should leave a review here as a warning to others. This disc would not even play in 2 out of three blu ray players I have tried it in. The one player that I got the disc to eventually play in the movie kept skipping and was totally unwatchable. Looking at the other reviews here with similar issues, I would say that there is a bad batch of these discs, although looking at one of the reviews there may actually be some decent copies out there. My advice: avoid, or get the import version.