The Taking of Pelham 123 *** (2009, Denzel Washington, John Travolta, Luis Guzmán, John Turturro, James Gandolfini) – Classic Movie Review 4634

Director Tony Scott relentlessly ensures that his remake of the classic 1974 heist thriller The Taking of Pelham 123  is slick, tense, fast moving and flashy. Based on the novel by John Godey, it is all about a well-organised gang of four robbers who hijack a New York subway car with its passengers and demand $10 million in ransom.

But it is an uphill battle for Scott and his well-cast stars Denzel Washington and John Travolta. And that is thanks to an infuriating script that ditches all of the story’s subtlety, quirky character development and, eventually, credibility. It drastically changes the original, losing a lot of its appeal, and pays little attention to the all-important crime movie details that make this kind of movie stand or fall. Memo to writer Brian Helgeland: Pelham isn’t an action movie, it’s a thriller!

Still, a plumper, older-looking Washington gives a stylish turn as the recently demoted subway train despatcher Walter Garber, who happens to be on duty when the gang call to say that, unless the ransom money arrives in an hour, the captured commuters will die one per minute.

Travolta pitches his performance exactly right, too, just this side of crazy and hysterical as the head villain Ryder. John Turturro is also exactly right as the police negotiator Camonetti, Luis Guzmán scores as Phil Ramos, and James Gandolfini sweats for America as the oily NYC Mayor who caves in to the demands for the cash.

This isn’t a bad film, but ditching the baby with the bathwater is a famous error with remakes and this falls into the trap. What happened to the film’s idea of having the crooks referred to as Mr Blue, Mr Brown, Mr Green and Mr Grey, for example, or the sneezing, gay character Mr Green, or the original’s magnificent ending? And having a new ending with Washington as an action hero running around the tracks and later the streets after the gang is nothing short of silly.

Scott and Washington made five movies together: Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, Deja Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123 and Unstoppable. Just before Scott committed suicide on 19 August 2012, aged 68, they were talking about working yet again, on another action movie. Washington says: ‘I talked to him about a week before he died about our sixth movie. He wanted to do a film where I played a submarine captain driving a submarine filled with narcotics.’

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4634

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