Re: The Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3, anamorphic?
Incase anyone is interested, here's a review I wrote on the remake after seeing it last night:
This was worth the wait -- most of the time remakes can't live up to an original's charm, much less its tactile impact in terms of originality. But in updating the almost-forgotten Taking of Pelham One Two Three, Tony Scott has indeed created one of the most exciting films of summer 2009. It has some shortcomings, which I'll get into below, but for the most part, this was every bit as exciting and shot in the same kinetic style as Man on Fire.
Crimson Tide...Gladiator...Man on Fire...Black Hawk Down... is there any genre one of the Scott brothers can't handle? The gamble Tony Scott took in re-imagining Pelham for a modern audience was a steep one; how many people outside of the metro New York area could relate to a little ole subway train being taken hostage by psychos who want millions in cash? Perhaps a better question should be, could anyone imagine James Gandolfini playing the mayor of New York? Well, I suppose Tony Soprano could handle that job...at any rate, when I saw the posters for this film in theaters, I couldn't believe they chose to greenlight this as a remake -- of all the old films to fall into the annals of our psyche, a Scott brother chooses to remake The Taking of Pelham One Two Three? But I knew I wanted to see it -- because the original was just such an underrated little crime caper with standout performances from both Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw.
The original Pelham had Matthau playing a New York City Transit dispatch boss in charge of making sure all the subways are running correctly -- but the job was not as clear-cut as it is in the remake. In the original film, Robert Shaw (Jaws, Black Sunday) leads a group of three men who are disguised and given aliases such as "Mr. Green" and "Mr. Blue" as they take over a subway train for ransom money. In Scott's re-imagining, Denzel Washington collaborates once again with Tony as Walter Garber, the transit dispatch character who gets into a battle of wits with John Travolta, the over-the-top psycho hostage-taker playing Shaw's role. In the shadow of his son's death, Travolta plays such an out-of-control criminal here, it reminds one of his nutty roles in Broken Arrow and Face/Off. Supporting performances from Luis Guzman as one of Travolta's men as well as John Turturro as a NYPD hostage negotiator and James Gandolfini as the mayor are all excellent for the most part, with Guzman's character not given enough to do (or Guzman didn't get a chance to really eat up his scenery, as he did so well in things like Carlito's Way) and Turturro's character coming off as a pushover.
The film is shot in that same unsteady-camera-motions and hectic, wild editing style that Scott filmed Man on Fire in, which is to say, some scenes can make you nauseated. The opening hip hop score is mixed with blaring stinger tracks that exaggerate the tension of the plot; the opening sequence pretty much stays with the original, in that we see the men in Travolta's team getting on the Pelham 1,2,3 line (a train route in the Bronx, New York) at different stops, preparing their "disguises" and weapons, and then the taking over of the train. Scott has upped the violence and language here to unreal levels; Travola's use of the "F" word comes almost every 30 seconds or so. Once in command of the train, Travolta makes a demand -- in clever ways -- of 10 million dollars, and additionally demands Washington's character get on the phone with the mayor to get the ball rolling on this. The consequence? A passenger will be killed if there is a delay in getting the money to them at the time they want. Where Robert Shaw played his character cool and collected, Travolta's take on it is like a livewire, crackling with electricity and rage. He threatens city officials, passengers and anyone who gets in his way, spewing profane rhetoric left and right. A disturbing element in his character was the underlying homosexual references he makes to being in jail and what he would do to Washington's ass if they were ever in the can together.
For some reason, Travolta's character will only deal with Washington -- but when Washington is sent home by his boss when the negotiators arrive due to bad blood between them because of an alleged bribe Washington's character took years ago, Travolta becomes unstable and threatens to kill a hostage unless Washington's character negotiates with him directly. The mayor is told of the situation and joins the home base at the transit headquarters, where Washington continues to communicate with this madman on the radio. Gandolfini plays the mayor just fine, and in an interesting part, Travolta demands he speak with the mayor directly -- he offers him a chance to trade himself for the hostages as Travolta toys with his emotions. It was a clever sequence.
As in many hostage situation films, a strange relationship develops between Travolta and Washington as they talk to each other and try to figure each one's next moves out; Travolta preys on people's fears and backgrounds, as a good villain does, and Washington finds himself as the hero for the first time in his career. In keeping with a more modern theme, there's a sub-plot here regarding Travolta's character and his involvement in Wall Street; the NYPD figure out that he has caused this panic in New York with the train takeover so the stock market would go haywire, and he would make a shit load of money in gold reserve. The idea is a bit sketchy and didn't make much sense to me, but in figuring this out, they also find out Travolta's real identity. He has been calling himself "Ryder" on the radio, but his real name is "Ford" and he was indeed into commodities trading of some kind. Guzman's character, in the meantime, is identified as an ex-transit worker who was hired to drive the getaway train for the heist.
Where I was disappointed was with the ending; the original's ending was so clever, I was hoping for something along those lines. In the first film, the last man to have the cash from the heist gets a visit from Matthau's character. Once in his apartment, Matthau recognizes the man from his sneeze -- giving him away. Here, Scott's approach to the ending of the remake wasn't nearly as satisfying or clever. The summit of the action comes in the form of a standoff between Travolta and Washington atop the Manhattan Bridge.
But I have to say, people: This was an excellent, taut, kinetic film, and one of the best of the summer so far. I really look forward to buying it on Blu-ray when it comes out.
Recommended!
