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Taking of Pelham One Two Three |  | Director: Joseph Sargent
Actors: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $5.94
as of 11/27/2009 07:39 CST details
You Save: $9.04 (60%)
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Rating:  96 reviews
Sales Rank: 2555
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 104 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 5
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 908375
ISBN: 0792843649
UPC: 027616837523
EAN: 9780792843641
ASIN: 0792843649
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Release Date: February 29, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE THE (DVD MOVIE)
Amazon.com essential video
Dog Day Afternoon. Annie Hall. Taxi Driver. In the pantheon of classic New York films, these three take pride of place. But there are, of course, others, some of which have fallen through the cracks over the years, criminally overlooked and unjustly relegated to commercial-riddled Saturday-afternoon TV broadcasts. Joseph Sargent's The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is just such a picture. This taut 1974 thriller about four armed men who highjack a New York City subway train and hold it and its passengers for ransom may be hopelessly dated (it's loaded with ethnic stereotypes, impossibly wide neckties, and bad hairdos--and there are no explosions!), but that's part of the fun. A gruffly sardonic Walter Matthau heads a fine cast that includes Jerry Stiller, Hector Elizondo, Martin Balsam, and a perfectly villainous pre-Jaws Robert Shaw. Think you'll find a better film that depicts a nearly broke city led by an inept mayor forced to deal with armed terrorists? Fuhgeddaboutit! --Steve Landau
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 96
 5 stars for the movie, 2 for the DVD November 18, 2009
Ryan Agadoni (Whittier, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great little movie. Poor DVD.
The story: New York subway car Pelham 123 is hijacked by four identically dressed and armed men lead by Mr. Blue (Robert Shaw). They hold seventeen hostages on the car and demand one million dollars within an hour or they will begin executing hostages. Lt. Garber (Walter Matthau) is the transit cop on duty who must handle the situation.
Though the idea of hijacking a subway is unique, it's still a rather basic hook. The excellence lies in the execution. The story takes all kinds of interesting little turns. The movie drops you in right as the hijacking begins. No background about the planning or characters yet. As the movie progresses we are still only given hints and short glimpses into the characters' backgrounds. Why would anyone hijack a subway? It's underground, with limited exits. If these hijackers are so smart, how do they plan on getting away? This is the great mystery that we ponder with Garber.
The characters are full of subtly textured details. Mr. Blue has a British accent and mentions a military background. Mr. Green (Martin Balsam) is conflicted and uncomfortable about the whole affair, and I wondered what his recruitment looked like. Mr. Grey appears to be a misanthropic loose cannon, and when Mr. Blue confesses (early on in the caper, I might add) to Mr. Green that he distrusts Grey, I was led again to wonder at the recruitment process, especially given Mr. Blue's penchant for strict planning and control. Mr. Brown (Earl Hindman) is mostly a mystery, but he has a stutter and possibly a professional history with Mr. Green.
On the other side of the law we have Lt. Garber, who is introduced to us giving four Japanese visitors a boring tour of central transit control. Matthau plays Garber in his good old subdued Matthau way. I believed he genuinely cared about the situation and the passengers' lives, but he keeps his emotions pretty low-key (save for one scene where he finally explodes at an irate transit controller played by Dick O'Neill). I thought it was a good performance which played to Matthau's strengths and fit both his character and the tone of the movie. Two humorous scenes really highlighted the core of his character for me, but describing them would spoil a lot. They occur towards the end and involve Matthau's interactions with two of the hijackers separately.
The large and colorful supporting cast is also quite fun. I won't name them all, but some highlights include a younger Jerry Stiller as Lt. Rico Patrone and Doris Roberts as the mayor's wife.
The direction (by Joseph Sargent) and pacing are very well done, and it was refreshing to see such a story told without the sort of pounding musical cues, forced emotional conflicts and obvious story/character details that I'm expecting from the Tony Scott remake. The direction lets the viewer decide their reaction to the characters and story rather than being obviously manipulative. Movies are all about manipulation, of course, but Sargent keeps his choices subtle. The script allows some natural humor, but doesn't shy away from a few bits of dark violence that enforce the movie's intention to be a serious crime flick rather than light-hearted caper. Mr. Blue's last scene is particularly memorable and shocking.
While I'm sure I'm the millionth person to discover this, I noticed that Tarantino took some inspiration from Pelham for Reservoir Dogs. In both films, the villains are codenamed for colors and all dress identically for the crime. I loved the costumes worn by the hijackers in Pelham. Each wears a drab coat, a mustache, glasses, and a hat. Combined with the nasty looking machine guns, the ensemble makes for quite a memorable image. (Speaking of the guns, they were S&W M76s, the same kind that Ledger carried as The Joker in The Dark Knight. Just a note for the gun nerds like me out there.)
I heartily recommend a rental. This DVD is, unfortunately, non-anamorphic, so if you have a widescreen TV, be prepared for either a tiny picture or some fiddling and a slightly stretched picture. I had hoped that, with the release of the remake, we'd see a Blu-Ray release of the original like we did with The Day the Earth Stood Still. I'd even accept a new anamorphic DVD! Sadly, it looks like MGM has decided to continue punishing us with this cruddy old DVD for a great and little-seen movie.
not anamorphic November 16, 2009
a movie fan (Orangevale, CA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although the package is dated 2009, the disc appears to be a recycling of an out-of-date widescreen edition. If you ever wondered what anamorphic means, this is an excellent negative example. Being non-anamorphic, the widescreen image is compressed into a full-screen box. If you have a zoom function, and a projector, you can scale it up to a decent size, but with compensatory loss of definition. It seems shameful to print up a new package label without the small upgrade that would make this a decent DVD, but these old MGM films are now in the hands of Fox, so what do expect.
 The Original does not blow away the remake.... November 5, 2009
Farnsworth M. Dye (Wentzville, Mo, USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
In fact after looking back, the original, with the exception of Robert Shaw, who was an excellent bad-guy -
the movie was really slow and boring. I am 59 year old and I was around for the original, and it is not a
classic, and if you call it a classic then please define what makes it a "Classic"! You can ask a half-dozen
people right not and the majority of them would not have even heard of the original Taking of Pelham 123.
The re-make of pelham 123 will blow the original out of the water! John Trivolta is the most excellent bad-guy!
You old droopy eyed Walter Matthau lovers, I'm sorry - but the old Pelham 123 is history. Put it on the sheleves
with the rest of your old things, like the WEIGHT your were when you first saw it.
 good movie to recall September 30, 2009
Mylene Palacios (Panama, Rep. of Panama)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
this is the original movie and considering the year of the film, this is a good movie
The Original, is best September 14, 2009
Jake Basset
I just bought this dvd off amazon, and was glad I did. I saw the re-make in the theater when it came out, and as always, it sparked my interest in the original, that I never knew existed! A great movie, there is enough action, suspense, and mystery to entertain you throughout. The dvd was well formatted and played well. A must have for the collector of great movies like charley varrick, and other classics from the 70's. A real enertaining story.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 96
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