Susan Granger’s review of “The Taking of Pelham 123” (Columbia Pictures/Sony)
Updated for 2009, this subway heist thriller grabs you and never lets go. Instead of remaking the 1974 version, staring Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw, or the 1998 TV movie with Edward James Olmos and Vincent D’Onofrio, screenwriter Brian Helgeland and director Tony Scott utilize John Godey’s idea from his original 1973 novel, concentrating on a riveting verbal battle of wits between Denzel Washington and John Travolta with contemporary, high-tech Wall Street overtones.
The action begins as an armed quartet, led by revenge-propelled Ryder (Travolta), commandeers the motorman’s car of a downtown #6 train known as #123 because it departed from Pelham Bay Park in The Bronx at 1:23 pm. Ryder shoots a plainclothes transit cop as his thugs hold hostages at gunpoint, demanding a $10 million ransom and giving New York City only one hour to deliver it before he starts executing passengers one-by-one.
At the dispatcher’s desk is veteran transit worker Walter Garber (Washington), who must negotiate with the psychotic Ryder as the clock is ticking away the allotted 60 minutes. “Are you a terrorist?” Garber inquires. “Do I sound like a terrorist?” Ryder chortles. “This is just about money.”
Unlike previous versions, these two disparate men develop a rapport, of sorts, revealing similarities in their backgrounds as the terrified Garber proves himself a far more effective communicator than either the NYPD hostage negotiator (John Turturro) or the billionaire Mayor (James Gandolfini), who cracks a Rudy Giuliani joke. Ryder’s cohorts do little to differentiate themselves but a few of the hostages have their moments, punctuated by Harry Gregson-Williams’s pulsating score.
What’s fascinating is the authentic urban atmosphere, filled with fleeing glimpses of the dank, dark, rat-infested underground tracks beneath the city streets. Less effective is the visually chaotic, above-ground “money run,” as police cars and motorcycles careen through the streets carrying $10 million from the Brooklyn Federal Reserve to Grand Central Station at 42nd and Vanderbilt. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Taking of Pelham 123” is an enthralling 8. It’s all about greed and money.
