THE PLOT THUS FAR
In New York, armed men hijack a subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. Even if it’s paid, how could they get away?
WHAT WE THOUGHT
Robert Shaw’s calm, reserved euro bad guy makes far more of an impression than John Travolta’s chaotic, angry villain, genuinely striking you as a man with a plan who’s thought things through and no less psychotic than Travolta’s Ryder. Likewise, Walter Matthau seems well cast as the good guy, doing his usual gruff, quietly sarcastic thing to great effect in one of his crankier roles. The air of a ‘real time’ thriller is in the air, making it seem a bit ahead of it’s time, not to mention getting to see where Quentin Tarantino got his inspiration for giving villains clever ‘colour codenames’ in his classic Reservoir Dogs.
The crminal team is made up of four men, Robert Shaw, Earl Hindman, Hector Elizondo, and Martin Balsam who mount a carefully planned assault on a subway train out of Pelham Bay station in the Bronx in mid-Manhattan and hold it and the passengers for ransom for a million dollars. The outsider to New York is Robert Shaw in one of his best roles, a former British army officer and mercenary. During the course of the robbery they kill a station supervisor played by roly poly Tom Pedi, one very quintessential New Yorker and their coldblooded villainy is established.
In fact the whole cast is a microcosm of the ethnic strains of New York City which makes the film so enjoyable, especially to one who lived there, the first 49 years of his life. Even the mayor is portrayed as a weak, fumbling nonentity and back then our mayor was one Abraham D. Beame who was just that, probably one of the worst mayors the city ever had. Tony Roberts has a very good role as the tough as nails Deputy Mayor concerned about both his boss’s political career and resolving the crisis.
The Blu-Ray comes with a trailer as its sole special feature. The DTS-HD 2.0 master audio track is very appropriate given the nature of the film. The transfer also blows away the ratty old MGM DVD that I’ve been keeping on hand for the last ten years. Hell, I think the DVD came out right at the start of the DVD generation and nobody bothered to do anything with it until this HD release. Still, it’s nice to see MGM sticking to releasing these older titles. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
