Post by Walker, Texas Ranger on Jun 17, 2009 13:43:34 GMT -5
Written by Phillip Johnston
Director Tony Scott’s previous two films have both starred Denzel Washington and, to put it crassly, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 could be referred to as the third installment in Scott’s “Denzel Faced with Moral Uncertainty” trilogy.
In 2004’s Man on Fire, Washington played an alcoholic former CIA assassin hired to protect a prominent industrialist’s young daughter. Déjà Vu, released in 2006, had Denzel attempting to manipulate the space-time continuum and prevent needless deaths. In The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (in theaters now), a remake of a ’70s cult hit starring Walter Matthau, Washington plays Walter Garber, a portly civil service employee at the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City.
On this particular day, Garber finds himself dealing with a man who calls himself Ryder—an armed criminal who has blocked a transit tunnel by stopping a subway car inside. Over the radio, he communicates to Garber his philosophy of “people as commodities” and explains if he doesn’t get $10,000,000 delivered to him on the hour, the hostage commodities in the train car will start disappearing and innocent lives will be lost.
Garber firmly stands his ground until the government hostage-negotiation crew (led by a one-note John Turturro) rushes in and takes over the conversation with Ryder. Garber is asked to leave, but when Ryder finds out that his favorite civil employee is gone, he is infuriated and kills the driver of the hijacked subway car. Garber is forced to return and continue the conversation with a criminal who is reaching higher levels of insanity by the minute.
chattanoogapulse.com/film/film-feature/film-feature-travolta-on-a-train/
Director Tony Scott’s previous two films have both starred Denzel Washington and, to put it crassly, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 could be referred to as the third installment in Scott’s “Denzel Faced with Moral Uncertainty” trilogy.
In 2004’s Man on Fire, Washington played an alcoholic former CIA assassin hired to protect a prominent industrialist’s young daughter. Déjà Vu, released in 2006, had Denzel attempting to manipulate the space-time continuum and prevent needless deaths. In The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (in theaters now), a remake of a ’70s cult hit starring Walter Matthau, Washington plays Walter Garber, a portly civil service employee at the Metropolitan Transit Authority in New York City.
On this particular day, Garber finds himself dealing with a man who calls himself Ryder—an armed criminal who has blocked a transit tunnel by stopping a subway car inside. Over the radio, he communicates to Garber his philosophy of “people as commodities” and explains if he doesn’t get $10,000,000 delivered to him on the hour, the hostage commodities in the train car will start disappearing and innocent lives will be lost.
Garber firmly stands his ground until the government hostage-negotiation crew (led by a one-note John Turturro) rushes in and takes over the conversation with Ryder. Garber is asked to leave, but when Ryder finds out that his favorite civil employee is gone, he is infuriated and kills the driver of the hijacked subway car. Garber is forced to return and continue the conversation with a criminal who is reaching higher levels of insanity by the minute.
chattanoogapulse.com/film/film-feature/film-feature-travolta-on-a-train/