Paying a price for nostalgia

Film: The Taking of Pelham 123
Cast: Denzel Washington, John Travolta, John Turturro, Luis Guzman, Michael Rispoli, James Gandolfini
Director: Tony Scott

Pelham was originally adapted for screen from John Godey’s novel in 1974 - for the classic Joseph Sargent helmed dramatic thriller showcasing Walter Mathau and Robert Shaw ably supported by a tension defining composition by David Shire.

There’s been a TV adaptation in 1998 and now director Tony Scott has screenwriter Brian Helgeland renegotiating the same beaten track for some hi-tech supported purchase. But this film finds it hard to live up to the nostalgia-driven infallibility of the 1974 classic.

The film is a tanked-up version. The $1 million ransom has gone up to $10 million. Walter Mathau’s sardonic subway cop is being played by Denzel Washington as a morally compromised, though fundamentally decent, demoted authority figure. Travolta, who plays an ex-con, tries his best to live up to Robert Shaw’s cold-blooded mercenary act of yore.

The technology used is way ahead, but the finished product fails to hit the right notes. Tony Scott fails to recreate an atmosphere with depth. The gritty realistic setting of the ’74 film has been replaced by a CGI dominated superficiality that appears less endearing.

The basic story elements are the same. The $10 million ransom has to be delivered in an hour else a hostage will be killed for every minute thereafter. The sameness is debilitating and therefore appears unexciting.

It undermines the overall tension. The hostage drama seems dated mainly because there have been so many deviants to the same theme that it has become almost impossible to extract any more juice out of it.

The grey shades in characterisation appears almost superficial and even the personality driven performances of the two lead stars fail to create the right ambience for realism. All-in-all a less than satisfactory outing!