The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)

Slick 70s heist movie with a fantastic soundtrack.

The premise is that four similarly dressed gentlemen who refer to each other by colors (Mr. Blue etc, sound familiar?) take over a subway train car. They demand one million dollars in an hour and will kill a civilian for each minute the city is late on payment. Walter Matthau is an MTA cop who has to piece it all together and bring these crooks DOWN! Hector Elizondo and Robert Shaw (from Jaws. god he’s amazing) play two of the criminals and they tear it up.

When I wrote ‘slick’ earlier I meant that everyone in this movie has style and attitude. This is dirty 70s New York City full of pimps and drug dealers. It’s a town where children laugh when bad guys brandish guns and one old lady is so nonplussed she sleeps through the whole thing. Fabulous.

Perfect for late nights, rainy days and when you’re feeling under the weather.

I will not give the remake the time of day.

Last weekend Aggie and I went to see Jane Eyre and we loved it. For me it inspired a Friday night spent indoors obsessively googling the Bronte sisters. Did you know that Charlotte may have died from contaminated water runoff from the nearby cemetery? Be still my morbid heart. Seriously. Be still.

In any case it was an excellent adaptation and even if it hadn’t been it would be worth watching because its SO BEAUTIFUL. (Also, Fassbender! Be still my Byronic heart.) My searches eventually led to my new favorite lady, Cary Joji Fukunaga, the director. I couldn’t wait to see her other movies but guess what? There’s a Bertha in the attic. Turns out Cary is a 33 (cute) year old dude with only one other feature length film to his credit, Sin Nombre.

Similarities: gorgeous landscapes, amazing contrasts in color, tight closeups, the absence of makeup, main characters weeping beautifully in the pouring rain.

Differences: everything else

It’s two stories, a Mara (aka MS, MS-13, Mara Salvatrucha) gang member initiating his very young protege and a family from Honduras trying to sneak over the US border. The stories converge about 40 minutes in and then its all escalation. 

A great surprise, totally worth watching, I’m excited to see what Cary is working on next.

PS: A picture of the main character at sundance in a zip up sweater under a blazer. This fashion choice is SCARIER THAN HIS FACE TATTOOS IN THE MOVIE!