This film is about the passengers in the fourth hijacked plane of September 11, 2001, based on cell phone calls, and other sources.
This film made me think about this entire day differently because the passengers banded together tried to stop the hijackers. When so many movies today are about superheroes or A-Teams and Expendables it's nice to see some real heroic efforts.
I recently watched another doomed airline movie called The High and the Mighty which was terribly dated and doesn't hold up well at all.
This movie is pretty impressive.
This weekend Cinematic Sara wrote a review of this film.
Defiant Success also blogged about this movie here.
Available on DVD/Netflix.
Showing posts with label Hijackings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hijackings. Show all posts
6/20/2009
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
The original thriller from 1974, when train fare was 35 cents: a group of hijackers hold a subway and its passengers for ransom, demanding a million dollars from New York city. Robert Shaw ("Jaws") is the head hijacker, and Walter Matthau is the cop who works to negotiate with them. The original is a decent thriller, but very "70s". Also starring Martin Balsam, Jerry Stiller, Doris Roberts, Earl Hindman (of "Home Improvement") and Hector Elizondo as one of hijackers. I always love Walter Matthau as a comedic actor, but I think he is miscast in this role. I could see another actor, maybe Steve McQueen, play this. Every time Matthau is on screen he provides some comedic relief. (This is the same year he plays "The Drunk" in "Earthquake") At one point Matthau refers to one of the hijackers as possibly being a "fruitcake". Then there's a strange interspersing of scenes which are very violent (the hijacker's beating of passengers, shooting down of someone on the tracks) then very comedic: (One of the Grand Central supervisors back on the ground swears like and sailor and says, "How can you run a g-damn railroad without swearing?" and doesn't want to quit swearing just because "they lets some broads work there" - there's a woman in the room). One of dim-witted hijackers threatens someone on the train by saying, "I'll shoot your pee-pee off". Actor Lew Wallace plays the mayor of New York City, and he's a dead ringer for Ed Koch. (Wallace also played the mayor of Gotham City in Tim Burton's "Batman" (1989). "Pelham" was remade twice, for the second time in 2009 starring Denzel Washington in Matthau's role and John Travolta as the hijacker.
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