Based on a book from 1973, The Taking of Pelham 123 was adapted to film for the first time in 1974, which told the fictional story of a New York City subway train hijacked by a group of guns for hire who are foiled by a Transit cop. Over 30 years later, it returned to the big screen in a remake directed by Tony Scott that isn’t talked about much today. It might not be the most memorable movie on Scott’s resume, but it does have one significant piece of cinematic history that makes it worth discussing. This forgotten 2009 remake is the only time that Denzel Washington and John Travolta ever performed together in anything.
It’s hard to believe these two titans of cinema never crossed paths before, and it’s just as surprising that it happened with a film about a hostage situation beneath midtown Manhattan. At the time of its release in 2009, the new Taking of Pelham 123 was met with mediocre reviews and barely earned a profit from its bloated budget. The one thing most agreed was seeing Travolta and Washington at the same time in the same movie was something special, and the desire to see more from these two together was undeniable. While that has yet to happen, we can enjoy this one-off moment in their careers that brought movie magic to life, and reinvigorated a classic film that it might have actually treated better than the original.
In an interview with Blackfilm.com in 2009, Denzel Washington offered his perspective on The Taking of Pelham 123 remake. “What this film has in common with the original is the fact that it’s New York City,” Washington explained. “I don’t know that my character and the character that Walter Matthau played are that similar. I don’t know why anybody would remake a film that is literally the translation or definition of the word.” His assertion is true as the 2009 movie shares many core elements from the 1974 original, but the similarities are few and far between after that. Even the plot retains pieces of its source material, but expands on it in a way that had great potential to be something far better than the 70’s version. Unfortunately, a few things got in the way that slowed down this runaway train from becoming the box-office smash it should have been.
The story is the same — a group of hijackers commandeer a subway train and hold its passengers hostage while demanding a large sum of money. Instead of being a soldier of fortune like Robert Shaw’s character was, John Travolta is a white-collar stock broker trying to game the stock market during this situation to steal even more money. On the other end is Garber, a character originally played by Walter Matthau as a Transit Police lieutenant but now is a disgraced train dispatcher played by Denzel Washington who has a secret of his own that becomes revealed. The two negotiate back and forth, forming a strange and uneasy bond while the NYPD and city of New York figure out how to handle this crisis. While the original movie had many comedic elements to it (Jerry Stiller is the funniest Transit cop you could ever wish to be arrested by), the 2009 remake is more dramatic and touches on many aspects previously ignored, such as Travolta’s character mirroring the NYC financial crisis that happened during the time of the Joseph Sargent-directed movie.
The remake has so much potential with elevated tension and a modern update that made it feel like it could happen in real life. Unfortunately, it was a victim of the era it was made and feels like an overstuffed action-flick trying to masquerade as something deeper. Like New York is the city that never sleeps, so too does this film never stop moving with a nauseating camera style that is constantly spinning circling around the subjects. Fast cuts and visual effects reminiscent of early 2000’s music videos knock off any chance to feel the emotional weight of this terrifying hostage situation. There are unnecessary car crashes to have something exciting to put in the trailers, and when it actually is necessary it’s so over the top you’re expecting Arnold Schwarzenegger to show up and make a punny quip. It’s a jittery visual mess that is made more disappointing by the fact that our two leading men have to work even harder to make their characters believable and relatable. This isn’t Shakespeare, but what could have been a character-driven thriller like the original instead tried to be something it wasn’t, and those choices made it suffer at the box office.
When two well-known actors share the spotlight in any project, it’s a huge deal. Travolta and Washington were at the top of their game when The Taking of Pelham 123 was released, and many wanted to see how these veterans would flow together. However, what makes this meeting more auspicious is the fact that the two barely share any physical screen time. Most of the film is played out through dialogue that jumps back and forth between the uncoupled subway car and the MTA command center. In reality, the pair of actors performed roughly six to eight weeks speaking only through phones before they were both on the same set at the same time. Travolta and Washington’s characters don’t meet face to face until the third act of the film, when Ryder demands Garber drop off the money since he doesn’t trust the NYPD to handle the exchange. Garber unwittingly becomes part of the scheme as he is forced to navigate the train a few stops down the line so Ryder’s crew can make their getaway, breaking off to flee from the criminals while later tracking down their mastermind on the Manhattan Bridge for their final standoff.
In a movie that is over 100 minutes long, Washington and Travolta spent less than 10 minutes standing across from each other in the flesh, and the moments they do have are far less than thrilling than those performed remotely. Both of these living legends spoke highly of each other and loved the experience, saying they felt they had great chemistry together and enjoyed their time off-camera as much as they did in front of it. If you watch the movie, their rapport is unmistakeable, but the script they were given forced them into ham-fisted roles that could have been more dramatic and interesting. Instead, we were given caricatures from an action movie that left audiences wishing for more, a travesty when you consider the caliber of performer both of these men are and how they made the most out of this subpar material.
Is the 2009 remake better than the 1974 original? In many ways, the answer is surprisingly yes. Having watched both of these versions back to back for my research, I was shocked to find myself more enthralled by the 2009 iteration. Despite the shoehorned action and other questionable elements it didn’t need, there was deeper gravitas in Tony Scott’s take on the material which made me invested in both Travolta and Washington’s characters, and had me genuinely interested in their mutual outcomes. But, how do these two compare to the redheaded step-child of the bunch — the 1998 made-for-TV movie starring Edward James Olmos and Vincent D’Onofrio? Well, that’s a subway ride for another time.
Did you like this version of The Taking of Pelham 123 or should this have never been remade? Let us know in the comments!
