It's hard to convince anybody today that they could make a thriller/hijack movie with a bunch of middle age actors all men, with a lot of dialog, no cute women wearing tank tops and most of it being seen in either a dull looking subway carriage or else a grim looking New York city subway dispatchers office, ----- they would say that your out of your mind! Well they did way back in 1974, of course it would have to be that far back! All in all absorbing viewing with a great bunch of 70's character actors.
Four men dressed very much in a similar fashion, i.e. horn rim glasses, trilbies, khaki gabardine raincoats and a fake mustache decide to hold hostage a carriage full of bewildered passengers who resemble New York finest type of freak show. A pimp, a foul mouthed hooker, a drunk, a bag lady, a wino well I could go on, you know what I mean! They were led by Mr. Blue played by Robert Shaw a cool no nonsense and ruthless former British army type/mercenary who when his lucrative work dried up decided to use his skills to rob or extort one-million dollars to keep up with the lifestyle he had become accustomed to. He was backed up by a mafia reject, the crazed and unpredictable Mr. Gray who couldn't wait to show who was boss and was keen to rack up a body count, or as he put it "get on the scoreboard"! He didn't like to take orders and it took a lot to keep him in line. There was Mr. Brown and lastly Mr Blue who was a former transit employee who held a grudge against the authority and wasn't satisfied with his pension.
Lieutenant Garber was the head of the transit security played by Walter Matthau who found himself the unfortunate go between or negotiator during the hostage stage. His New York dialect and humor was a great contrast to the methodical leader of the gang with the English accent who took himself very seriously and was prepared to kill anybody at any time in cold blood. Admittedly this type of negotiation would be ridiculous today, he wasn't even in anyway qualified to negotiate with the hijackers. Also, Garber not only had deal with Mr. Green but also found himself up against one of the head dispatchers who couldn't care less about the predicament of the hijacked passengers but was more concerned about getting his trains running on time. This approach would not cut it today 30 years on, hostage taking requires a more professional approach. However, he does his best and on a couple of occasions his quick thinking is able to save the lives of some the hostages.
Anyway the crooks only wanted money, there was no political reason, but were highly motivated, very well organized and determined. This was understood very quickly when one of the subway station managers Caz Dolowicz or known as "fat Caz" took exception to these upstarts and decided berate the hijackers and board the train. Just to prove that the hijackers meant business they gave him a 'lead breakfast' and he was ripped apart by the hail of bullets discharged from an automatic weapon which made him look like a swiss cheese!
It's great viewing, quite entertaining and has a very typical but jazzy 1970's music score that accompanies the movie. I would highly recommend this film, 70's movies don't get more interesting or as watch able as this.
Four men dressed very much in a similar fashion, i.e. horn rim glasses, trilbies, khaki gabardine raincoats and a fake mustache decide to hold hostage a carriage full of bewildered passengers who resemble New York finest type of freak show. A pimp, a foul mouthed hooker, a drunk, a bag lady, a wino well I could go on, you know what I mean! They were led by Mr. Blue played by Robert Shaw a cool no nonsense and ruthless former British army type/mercenary who when his lucrative work dried up decided to use his skills to rob or extort one-million dollars to keep up with the lifestyle he had become accustomed to. He was backed up by a mafia reject, the crazed and unpredictable Mr. Gray who couldn't wait to show who was boss and was keen to rack up a body count, or as he put it "get on the scoreboard"! He didn't like to take orders and it took a lot to keep him in line. There was Mr. Brown and lastly Mr Blue who was a former transit employee who held a grudge against the authority and wasn't satisfied with his pension.
Lieutenant Garber was the head of the transit security played by Walter Matthau who found himself the unfortunate go between or negotiator during the hostage stage. His New York dialect and humor was a great contrast to the methodical leader of the gang with the English accent who took himself very seriously and was prepared to kill anybody at any time in cold blood. Admittedly this type of negotiation would be ridiculous today, he wasn't even in anyway qualified to negotiate with the hijackers. Also, Garber not only had deal with Mr. Green but also found himself up against one of the head dispatchers who couldn't care less about the predicament of the hijacked passengers but was more concerned about getting his trains running on time. This approach would not cut it today 30 years on, hostage taking requires a more professional approach. However, he does his best and on a couple of occasions his quick thinking is able to save the lives of some the hostages.
Anyway the crooks only wanted money, there was no political reason, but were highly motivated, very well organized and determined. This was understood very quickly when one of the subway station managers Caz Dolowicz or known as "fat Caz" took exception to these upstarts and decided berate the hijackers and board the train. Just to prove that the hijackers meant business they gave him a 'lead breakfast' and he was ripped apart by the hail of bullets discharged from an automatic weapon which made him look like a swiss cheese!
It's great viewing, quite entertaining and has a very typical but jazzy 1970's music score that accompanies the movie. I would highly recommend this film, 70's movies don't get more interesting or as watch able as this.