'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3' takes back the city

6/10/09
movies
By Emily Ngo

'The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3' takes back the city

Photo credit: Urbanite

By Rolando Pujol

In a scene from 1974’s "Taking of Pelham 1 2 3," Walter Matthau's lovably gruff Zach Garber shushes a loud, excitable dispatcher because he's on the radio negotiating to save the lives of the hostages on the No. 6 train.

The dispatcher fires back: "Screw the goddamned passengers. What the hell did they expect for their lousy 35 cents? To live forever?"

The classic exchange doesn't surface in the remake of the movie out tomorrow, but does capture what helped make the original such a cult classic: The gallows humor and grit that New Yorkers display when faced with adversity, and the honest portrayal of a graffiti-covered, crime-ravaged city.

Pelham, along with such period pieces as "French Connection," "drank deeply of the city," explains James Sanders, an architect and author of "Celluloid Skyline."

"What made it remembered so fondly and so strongly is that it took this kind of slightly absurd premise of a pirating of a subway train — how could that be — and rendered it in the context of such finally and carefully rendered realism," Sanders said.

(Courtesy of MGM)

Remaking a classic

Attention to detail is certainly reflected in Tony Scott's remake, which will invite endless comparisons to the original. NYC Transit offered wide access to the system — tunnels, stations, there’s even a recreation of the futuristic Rail Control Center. Still, there's the danger of a creative third rail of sorts: remaking a classic praised for getting the city of its time right.

Many observers familiar with the original reserved judgment on the new film, as they hadn't seen it. But its outsized role in city cinema lore — and accurate rendition of its out-of-control times — sets a high bar for the remake.

"I was really surprised [at the remake] because it seems to be a part of New York that in the mid or late 90s went out of existence," said Clifton Hood, a history professor and author of "722 miles: The Building of the Subways and How They Transformed New York."

The new hands, of course, strove to make a movie about today. “It’s a great story, yet unknown to new generations of filmgoers. The world and New York in particular, has changed a lot since 1974,” said Scott in a statement.

They see it more as a retelling than a remake. For one, the producers saw a way to develop the relationship between Garber and Ryder, the head hijacker played by John Travolta, into something deeper than in previous films.

Devotees of the original will notice key changes — right down to the ending. In the new film, New Yorkers assume the hijacking is terrorism; in 1974, it was simply one more sign of Gotham dysfunction.

Transit veteran John Urbanski has not yet seen the film, but does not expect it to match the original in terms of realism.

“The original reflected New York basically as it was back in the '70s. I feel as though I may have worked with some of the characters, as they were played in the original.”

Power of '70s nostalgia

Today, the original seems a movie that both preserves an unimaginable New York, and one that many strangely crave to visit again.

One person who was there and remembers the bad old days is Ed Koch.

“People have a much better spirit; they were oppressed then and now there is a certain amount of anger over the losses to their personal treasuries but they are not frightened like they were," the former mayor said.

Koch has a strange personal connection to the movie. The actor who played the mayor in the film, Lee Wallace, bears a resemblance to Koch, which is not lost on Hizzoner. That casting choice was particularly curious because the film came out three years before Koch's election.

“The mayor looked exactly like me, facially,” Koch said.

The mayor in the new film, played by James Gandolfini, bears no resemblance to Michael Bloomberg — expect for the character's deep bank account. And the way New Yorkers will relate to the new film will hardly mimic what audiences felt in the 1970s.

The original Pelham, Hood said, was one of "a couple of other movies that really embodied people's sense that things were hopeless and that the subway system, literally if you go into it, you could be trapped by a bunch of thugs."

Jason Fink and Shayndi Raice contributed to this story.

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The remake of "Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" understandably takes some creative license. Here's a few things subway buffs will notice are off.

1.) The 42nd Second Street-Grand Central station fills in for the 77th Street No. 6 station.

2.) A large, Times Square-style Subway sign is added to Grand Central Terminal at 42nd Street and Vanderbilt.

3.) The bad guys escape through the so-called Roosevelt Tunnel, referring to FDR's secret access route to The Waldorf-Astoria. For starters, there is no evidence FDR was ever snuck into the hotel that way.

4.) The No. 6 car with the hostages is set free and sent barreling toward Coney Island. The line ends at Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall.

5.) Denzel Washington's character, Walter Garber, is seen riding a No. 7 train back to Queens, we assume, but is shown inside a modern-day train, not the 80s-era trains still on the line.
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