One of the main reasons why I love 70's action movies and will always prefer them over their nowadays remakes is because even the 'good guys' back then were often deeply unsympathetic and obnoxious characters. Somehow this makes them much more realistic and plausible. "The Taking of Pelham 123" is a prototypic example to prove this statement. Lieutenant Zachary Garber and his partners aren't a muscular heroic types at all. They're whiny, aggressive and women-unfriendly chauvinist pigs that actually comes across as less sophisticated and intelligent as the villains they're trying to arrest. In this modest 70's action blockbuster, based on the novel by John Godey, a quartet of well- prepared and heavily armed men that address to each other with colors instead of names (I suppose Quentin Tarantino holds a copy in his private film collection as well) hijack a busy New York subway train and demand $1 million ransom from the city council. Lt Garber has one hour to deliver the money, if not the hijackers promise to kill off one hostage per minute of delay. The mayor agrees to pay up the sum, especially because everyone's convinced that the criminals won't ever be able to escape the underground subway network without being caught. Or will they? "The Taking of Pelham 123" is a vastly amusing and unpretentious action flick. The script doesn't waste any time on boring introductions, as the story almost immediately opens with the four hijackers boarding the train at different stations with obvious malignant intentions in their facial expressions. They're horribly disguised as middle-aged men with mustaches, hats and long overcoats. Their hostages are a typical assembly to represent the population of New York, including pimps and Hispanic pregnant girls. The subway control room is, as said, a chauvinist male world where grumpy men don't care about the potential loss of human lives and simply want to kill the terrorists as quick as possible. The first hour of "The Taking of Pelham 123" is fairly slow and talkative, which is understandable since it mostly concerns negotiations between the lieutenant and the leader of the thugs, but the third act is very exhilarating with an unstoppable train raging through NY and a deadly confrontation between police and hijackers. The cast is excellent with a couple of monumental names like Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw. Martin Balsam and Jerry Stiller deliver excellent supportive roles, but my personal favorite remains Hector Elizondo as the psychopathic and trigger-happy Mr. Grey.
Review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
