Kevin Gallego
Eng 103
Professor Luke
12, November 2010
The taking of Pelham 123
The movie “the taking of Pelham 123” truly depicts life in New York City both at the time it was filmed at and at the time their story takes place. The stance of the movie took toward the social, political, and economic reality of the time and it was portrayed in an realistic way. The movie was filmed in the mid 1970’s, just around the time where many phenomenal events occurred. The 1970’s was in a very stable historical time, situations going on from the stagflation economic crisis to Wars. The economy at the time was in a horrible state and it truly affected New York City.
President Jimmy Carter was in office at the time and tried to combat economic weakness and unemployment. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to recuperate the economy, instead he worsened it. It seemed as if inflation was literally feeding off itself. Demand pushed the prices up resulting to demand on higher wages which pushed prices to go even higher. The government literally had to reach their last resort which was to peg payments, such as those for Social Security, causing the best force to the economy. Meanwhile the government was helping the workers and retirees were coping with the situation, inflation was still continuing. Eventually the budget deficit reached rock bottom when the government proceeded to lending funds and led to more government borrowing. Inflation then escalated to higher interest rates, increased cost for businesses and consumers even further. Unemployment escalated even higher and became a serious issue. According to the Unemployment Rate graph from 1970-1979 the unemployment percentile went on a spiral upward direction. In the year of 1970 the percentile was at 4.0 but in the year of 1975 it increased to a 9.0. Lastly in 1979 the percentile decreased to a 5.5. Every state in the U.S was obviously affected with economic issues but New York City had it more difficult. Mayor Abraham Beame was in administration and during his time being mayor he did nothing but deal with economic issues. New York City had very much tension going on, not only with the inflation but with social issues.
In the 70’s crime rates in New York City were extremely high it actually became infamous and notorious. Many types of crimes were going on such as robbery, assault, murder, vandalism, abusiveness, exhibitionism. Till this day, crimes are going on every day in New York City. According to the New York Crime statistics there is more violent crime than property crime. The chart shows all the possible crimes in New York City and it seems like Larceny/ Theft are above everything else. Larceny/ Theft have an estimate of 124,846 on the statistics chart. Violence in New York is a major issue and most of it is shown by Rival Gangs. Gangs in New York commit the most dangerous and crucial crimes. Crimes are so extreme in New York that there are more regulations in the state than any other. The movie The taking of Pelham one two three was filmed in Brooklyn, New York, a borough in New York that is unfortunately considered one of the most high rated crime borough. New York is broken up into 5 different boroughs which are Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, and the main city Manhattan. Out of all the boroughs the Bronx is considered the most dangerous. According to the violent crime in the Bronx chart, the rates for murder are 9.6, for rape is 22.6, and for robbery is 351.3 making it the worst. Brooklyn was rated the second highest crime rated borough in New York City.
In New York public transit transportation is a major necessity to get around places. Train stations are definitely considered a necessity in New York; many people depend on them to get around. According to the movie the New York subway system is the largest in the world, with 7000 cars and 237 mileage of track. Without subway transportation New York would be a wreck and it would totally be a difficult task to travel. The negative side on subway transportation isn’t as safe as it is. In 1991 there was a report that a train crashed in New York making it the biggest subway crash in history. Normally there would be crimes in the subway such as rape or murder, but this crime was ironic reason being that it was fault of the motorman. According to an article on the internet “The motorman, Robert Ray, who was drunk and going more than 40 mph where the speed limit was 10 mph, is later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison”. That just goes to show that nothing in the world is safe and dependable, and that crimes can also be committed by not only criminals, but regular human beings.
New York’s population in the 70’s rose and rose, immigrants especially had an impact on the expansion of population. By the year of 1970 the total population rose to 18,236,951. According to the statistics of the Census chart of 1970, the New York population had more women than men. Women had a percentile of 52.2 and the men had a percentile of 47.8. The foreign-born population reached a percentile of 40.7 making it such a rapid change since the 60’s. The financial life at the time was at a falling and rising flow. According to the 1970 economy/prices statistics, the life expectancy was 70.8 years. The U.S budget ran deficits throughout the years of 1970. The federal spending reached about $195.65 billion making the federal debt to be $380.9 billion. Prices of food, living, and other accessories were at low values. Prices such as for a new home would cost $26,000. In the present decade a average cost for a new home would be around. The prices for a new car would change dramatically, most of the time it remained vast. The average cost for a median household income remained at 8,734.00. The cost of a first-class stamp was as cheap as 0.06 cents. Gas at the time was very cheap; it would be about 0.36 cents for a gallon of regular gas. A dozen of eggs were also very cheap costing about 0.62 cents. Lastly, the cost of milk reached only about $1.15. The financial difference between the present decade and the 70’s is that demand was at a different range. The demand on prices were higher than they are now, resulting to demand on higher wages.
There was extreme tension going on in the 70’s, such as politics and wars. The times of the 70’s were just in the middle of the time when the Cold war was happening. There were many other wars as well such as the Vietnam War, Soviet War in Afghanistan, Angolan Civil War. The altercation was mostly between the U.S. and the Soviet Union (Russia). Military action was involved in the War although it was necessarily clashed directly; they mostly expressed their anger over military coalitions. The war got so tense that they reached a higher level and decided to have a competition. The competition was called the “Space Race” and basically it was a competition for supremacy in outer space exploration. It was a race between the Soviet Union and the U.S involving who would get the first human to land on the moon. The reason for the competition was to see which country had the best scientific and technological superiority. Unfortunately the U.S. beat the race and won their triumph when they got their first man to land on the moon. Another political altercation that occurred in the 70’s was with President Nixon and the Watergate Scandal. The Watergate complex was a governmental spot of 5 buildings in Washington D.C.Richard Nixon became president in the early 1970’s and in his last 2 years of office he was accused of a scandal which he had no intention of even being a part of it. The scandal was established by a group of 5 men who attempted to intercept telephones and other communication. The reason the president was involved was that he had many tape recordings and people found it very suspicious that he had them and never revealed it to the public.
The Taking of Pelham 123 was an ultimate NYC film because it had a great representation of the ways New York really is. The way New York is depicted in the movie is basically as a insular, moody, dangerous, cynical city. Pelham 123 is a specific train in New York that goes through the bounds of Brooklyn. A reconstruction of the Transit Authority control center was built on a soundstage. The basics the movie is about a group of 4 armed men who decide to hijack the Pelham 123 train and held hostage a group of 17 passengers for 1,000,000. Main character Mr. Blue who is one of the main hijackers and does all the controlling, demands the 1,000,000 million dollars to received to them in less than an hour otherwise they would kill all 17 passengers in the train. For each minute they don’t have the money they would start killing one passenger.
Throughout the movie the suspense is just spectacular and really catches the viewer’s attention. After the New York transit police receive the news they immediately send the news to the mayor of the city. They way the mayor is portrayed in the movie is in a very upfront manner. In one scene of the movie the mayor is laying down on his bed with a very lazy look and the movie gives the viewers the intention of him that he doesn’t seem like to care for the city. The mayor plays a role in which he is the very opposite of what a real mayor should be like. Once the mayor receives the news of the hijackers, he decides to pay the ransom. An in instant the situations of the ransom money just come up and make it even harder to cope with it, especially since they have only an hour to do everything. In less than an hour they have to (a) the mayor must convene his staff, (b) they must decide if the city should pay (NYC is bankrupt), then after agreeing to the terms, (c) they must count the money in non-sequenced $20 bills, and (d) transport the ransom money across town with a police escort. The time limit is what causes even more dramatic tension throughout the film. Once the hijackers received the money that instantly go with their escape plan and it was the very opposite of what everybody else thought. Since the train still showed that it was in motion the service workers assumed that the hijackers continued to stay in the train but they basically tricked them. Once they are at the exit everything just turns upside down. Unfortunately none of the 4 hijackers get away with the money and that’s what made the movie classic but because the “bad people” never get away with what they do.
The stance of the movie really depicted toward the reality of the city. The basic fact that the movie is based on crimes such as hijacking points toward the reality of the city in many ways. Hijacking a subway car is a real NYC setting, especially since hijacking was the main grotesque of crime rate. A very famous incident that dealt with hijacking was the Dawson’s field hijackings in New York City. The EL AL Flight 219 hijacking incident was one of the worst in history. The plane had 148 passengers and 10 crew members aboard. The hijacking involved high armed men just like the movie. The difference between the hijacking of the train in the movie and the hijacking of the plane is that there were more passengers in the plane and it was a higher chance of deaths. According to an article on the web, “The 1974 movie capitalized on the national skittishness over plane hijackings to Cuba”. There were various hijackings to Cuba and some of them were successful and obviously unsuccessful. In 1974 a Venezuelan man from New York successfully hijacks a plane from New York to Cuba. Even though back in the day hijackers mostly focused on hijacking planes, the movie did not specifically base it on plane hijacking. There were many other hijack attempts in the 1970’s especially and most of them aimed for Cuba. What made the movie very unique is that they based it on train hijacking, and that’s something people would least expect.
The movie shows an accurate picture of how New York really is and how the City people are like no other. The definition of a “New Yorker” is portrayed in the movie as pure craziness, and unjustified individuals. Technically the New York attitude isn’t portrayed so much toward the positive side. However the political and social part of the movie shown is exactly how it is in New York. The scene where the chief of the transit police department is showing the 4 Japanese directors of the Japan transit subways around the place, the director clearly shows the New York transit workers as lazy people and don’t seem to take their jobs very seriously. In one scene the chief asks operation lieutenant to tell the Japanese directors what is new in the subway system and the operation lieutenant replies with a ridiculous answer. The service workers in the movie act in a very unprofessional manner. The point that was trying to be made was that the Japanese transit workers are more professional than the New York transit workers. The simple fact that the director shows the “New Yorker” way as craziness, truly did serve the theme of the movie. The way the citizens reacted to the hijacking incident is so dull. It seems like since they’re so busy into their lives they find the incident to be unimportant and act careless towards it. Attitude is also another emotion that is shown in the movie. Throughout the whole movie every character had at least some sort of awful attitude toward one another. The scenes that had the most attitudes were the ones where character Mr. Blue would talk into the intercom with the Chief. Every time Mr. Blue would talk through the intercom he would speak with so much emphasize and intimidation to get his point across about the ransom money.
The plot of the movie was if the ransom money would be received to the hijackers or not in less than an hour or not. The job was obviously left to the police because it is their objective. The main object for the police is to protect and to get back the passengers safely. In the movie and in reality the police department do their part really good and most of the time they achieve their goals which are to protect citizens and enforce the law. The NYPD in general is the greatest and the largest municipal force in the entire United States. There are many types of police specialized services such as harbor patrol, bomb disposal, counter-terrorism, public transportation. The average salary for a cop is between $35,881 to about $41,975. Salary depends on the level rank you are rated in the department. Such as police officer, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, 3 types of chief, and lastly the main chief of the department. In the movie and in reality the police have a relevant reputation of success. In the movie the police took quick action to the incident and did whatever necessary to hand in the money to the hijackers on time. And so they managed to succeed with that scenario, however they do not always in reality. The difference between the movie and reality is that there is none, at a certain extent.
Works cited
The novel “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three”
Bright lights film journal
The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974)
The Ultimate NYC Film
The internet movie database
The social explorer database
