Amazon.com Essentials:
Dog Day
Afternoon. Annie
Hall. Taxi
Driver. In the pantheon of classic New York films, these three
take pride of place. But there are, of course, others, some of which
have fallen through the cracks over the years, criminally overlooked and
unjustly relegated to commercial-riddled Saturday-afternoon TV
broadcasts. Joseph Sargent's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
is just such a picture. This taut 1974 thriller about four armed men who
highjack a New York City subway train and hold it and its passengers for
ransom may be hopelessly dated (it's loaded with ethnic stereotypes,
impossibly wide neckties, and bad hairdos--and there are no
explosions!), but that's part of the fun. A gruffly sardonic Walter Matthau
heads a fine cast that includes Jerry Stiller, Hector Elizondo, Martin
Balsam, and a perfectly villainous pre-Jaws Robert Shaw.
Think you'll find a better film that depicts a nearly broke city led by
an inept mayor forced to deal with armed terrorists? Fuhgeddaboutit!
--Steve Landau
