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The Taking of Pelham One Two Three
Nov. 15th, 2011 12:41 pmAs mentioned, I watched The Taking of Pelham One Two Three last night. Because it was on streaming and why not? (Note--I watched the 1974 one. The 2009 one is The Taking of Pelham 123, which looks stupid and isn't the title of the book.)
It's a very workmanlike heist film. There is almost no action at all--mostly talking over radios. The real delight of the film is that it's about New York in the seventies more than anything else. The passengers on the train are a cross section of the city, and there's a little subplot about the mayor despairing over his popularity. (And that the city is broke.)
But watching it--I don't even now how you'd update it to the present, let alone why. At the start of the movie, Walter Mathau is showing guests around the Transportation Police's headquarters, and encouraging them to take photos of the board that shows where all transportation police are currently stationed. I had a physical flinch to this. I can't even imagine that happening now. You're not allowed to take photos on subway cars. I can't imagine anyone being given free reign to take photos of any of the behind-the-scenes infrastructure.
That, I think, would be the real problem of setting it in the present. Then, the idea of hijacking a subway train is completely audacious and unheard of. The transportation police dealt with muggings and vagrants, the occasional murder, but that's it. Now, there have been terrorist attacks on subways. There are random bag searches (though I've only been searched once, and I think they were trying to make a quota). There are plans in place to deal with attacks on the subway. It is no longer believable that any part of this plot could happen.
Also, there's the no action thing. There's a car accident in the movie, but the car just goes pff and that's it. The tension of the moment is for what it does to the plot. The actual crash is entirely unremarkable. I watched the trailer for the new one last night, and it showed a car spinning in the air then flying off a bridge. That's completely ludicrous.
Also, in the original, the two main characters face off only at the very end and ( spoiler ) I can only imagine how they'd handle that in the remake.
I'm almost morbidly curious enough to watch the new one, just to see how badly they fuck it up.
Oh, and I've been listening to the soundtrack of the original, which is the most gloriously seventies thing ever ever ever.
It's a very workmanlike heist film. There is almost no action at all--mostly talking over radios. The real delight of the film is that it's about New York in the seventies more than anything else. The passengers on the train are a cross section of the city, and there's a little subplot about the mayor despairing over his popularity. (And that the city is broke.)
But watching it--I don't even now how you'd update it to the present, let alone why. At the start of the movie, Walter Mathau is showing guests around the Transportation Police's headquarters, and encouraging them to take photos of the board that shows where all transportation police are currently stationed. I had a physical flinch to this. I can't even imagine that happening now. You're not allowed to take photos on subway cars. I can't imagine anyone being given free reign to take photos of any of the behind-the-scenes infrastructure.
That, I think, would be the real problem of setting it in the present. Then, the idea of hijacking a subway train is completely audacious and unheard of. The transportation police dealt with muggings and vagrants, the occasional murder, but that's it. Now, there have been terrorist attacks on subways. There are random bag searches (though I've only been searched once, and I think they were trying to make a quota). There are plans in place to deal with attacks on the subway. It is no longer believable that any part of this plot could happen.
Also, there's the no action thing. There's a car accident in the movie, but the car just goes pff and that's it. The tension of the moment is for what it does to the plot. The actual crash is entirely unremarkable. I watched the trailer for the new one last night, and it showed a car spinning in the air then flying off a bridge. That's completely ludicrous.
Also, in the original, the two main characters face off only at the very end and ( spoiler ) I can only imagine how they'd handle that in the remake.
I'm almost morbidly curious enough to watch the new one, just to see how badly they fuck it up.
Oh, and I've been listening to the soundtrack of the original, which is the most gloriously seventies thing ever ever ever.