The Taking of Pelham One Two Three

Four armed men hijack a New York subway car and demand a ransom for the passengers. The police problem is not the money: underground, in a single tunnel, with nowhere to go, how do the men get out? The source is John Godey's novel, adapted by Peter Stone. The hijackers address each other by colours: Mr Blue, Mr Green, Mr Grey, Mr Brown. Tarantino took the idea directly for his first film, Reservoir Dogs. The cinematographer Owen Roizman noticed that the dimensions of a subway car fit the widescreen frame almost exactly and convinced Sargent to shoot at 2.4:1; the anamorphic lenses produce unexpected compositions in a cramped space. Walter Matthau plays Lieutenant Garber of the transit authority and Robert Shaw is Mr Blue. David Shire's percussive score set the measure for the genre. The last shot is one of cinema's best closing jokes, and it ends on a single sneeze. Who it is for: viewers who like the dirty New York of the 1970s and thrillers driven by dialogue. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action. It is almost entirely radio traffic and negotiation, and the racist idiom of the period sits in the dialogue untouched.