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A joke on the New York minute, a hostage situation negotiated underground as the city's choleric vibes swirl above. Subway riders have their routines, hijackers with trench coats and machine-guns are one more irritation in a long day. "Why don't you grab a goddamn airplane, like everybody else?" The mastermind (Robert Shaw) was once a British mercenary in Africa ("the market dried up"), one million for the carload of citizens is the plan. His opposite number is the transit lieutenant (Walter Matthau), who takes a break from chaperoning Tokyo visitors to play ringleader in the circus that ensues. The difference between running a town and a democracy is brought up to the mayor (Lee Wallace), who weighs ransom money in votes and shares febrile sniffles with one of the pirates, a disgruntled city employee (Martin Balsam). "I feel like I'm walking into the fucking O.K. Corral." Joseph Sargent keeps every acerbic moment humming, tunnels and control rooms and streets attuned to the flares and tremors of Owen Roizman's cinematography. (Lang's Man Hunt, Werker's He Walked by Night and Fleischer's Trapped are the choice models.) The camera in front of the locomotive divides the screen into multiple planes in a composition of windows, steam and figures illuminated or silhouetted, velocity is otherwise favored in exemplary location shooting studded with salty mugs and gags. (As the cab careens out of control, Sargent gives a quick view of the trendy lass trying to meditate amid screaming faces.) "Screw the goddamn passengers! What the hell did they expect for their lousy 35 cents, to live forever?" The marvelous stretto that follows the fireworks has working-class schlubs facing off in a seedy apartment, the Nabokovian sneeze resolves it all. With Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, Jerry Stiller, James Broderick, Dick O'Neill, Tom Pedi, Kenneth McMillian, Tony Roberts, Julius Harris, and Doris Roberts.
--- Fernando F. Croce |