Review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) by Martin D — 20 Jun 2009
"Oh, commander, I thought you were -- ah, you were shorter, or -- ah, I don't know what I thought!".
See this one in widescreen - not because of the car chases or the explosions or the closeups of Ahnuld saying some snappy line made for the trailer on YouTube.
Because there aren't any.
But the widescreen shows the interplay between the characters as they move in very tight spaces. The movie spends only a few minutes outside those spaces, and the horizontal format fits the horizontal world these characters navigate underground and in the command room. It's beautiful, gritty camera work that lets the actors bounce off each other like real people under stress. There are a few one-liners, but most of the humor is situational and serves the story of gritty 1970s NYC. This is the kind of movie Spike Lee has tried to make several times over.
Some reviewers here have suggested this movie's setup is fakey; of course there is an improbable framework, that's why it's a movie. But compare it to the Hollywood bombast and cardboard structure we get today. In the original Pelham you don't need to see Walter Matthau's wife worrying about him at home. You don't see the crooks getting together for coffee beforehand and debating the plan. You don't get 4 endings between the main protagonist and the main bad guy.
You get Matthau and Shaw and Balsam and Elizondo and O'Neill. I'll take them over Transformers 2 every day of the week.
This review of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) was written by Martin D on 20 Jun 2009.
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three has generally received very positive reviews.
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