Slideshow
THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE
Saturday, July 8
Directed by Joseph Sargent
(1974) “This city hasn’t got a million dollars!” kvetches a flu-plagued Koch-lookalike mayor to hovering spin doctor Tony Roberts when he gets that ransom ultimatum: cough up the dough in an hour or 17 passengers on the downtown 6 train get wasted. Wisecracks and bullets fly as quick-witted Transit Authority cop Walter Matthau negotiates with Robert Shaw’s all-business “Mr. Blue.” 35mm. Approx. 104 min.
Reviews
“One of this writer’s all-time favorite New York movies. The glimses of the city (and the subway system) that it gives us are choice — particularly in the film’s breathless climax.”
– Jason Bailey, Flavorwire
“Walter Matthau is gruff, shaggy and sardonic as a Transit Authority lieutenant; Robert Shaw is clipped and cruel, and the supporting performances are allowed to grow and take on personality. These aren’t machine-made genre characters, but individuals (and, more specifically, New Yorkers with gallows humor, paranoia, warmth and resiliency).”
– Roger Ebert
“Superior exercise in urban paranoia.”
– Dave Kehr