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"Go play with yer trains."
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Posted: |
Jan 24, 2011 - 9:29 PM
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By: |
Richard-W
(Member)
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An authentic American classic.
I gave the remake 23 minutes, then I left. It offers Nothing.
This movie is a rare case of something that is a vast improvement on the original source material, the novel by John Godey, which suffered from not having a solid protagonist to act as the focal point. In the novel, the Garber character is black transit detective named Prescott who then does *not* figure in the manhunt to find the hijackers after they jump off the train. The ending is a rather anti-climactic moment in which another detective realizes the "Longman" character is taking too long to answer to the door and he just nabs him trying to get down the fire escape.
I crack up everytime Matthau's Garber first sees Inspector Daniels and is taken aback to see he's black and then tries to cover himself with, "Oh, ah, I thought you were a.....shorter guy," and Julius Harris then gives the cop next to him a priceless look as Matthau finally gets in with an, "I don't know what the hell I thought."
There is also no finer movie that shows the decay New York City fell into in the 1970s.
Nice observations, I'm glad I never read the book. The script is excellent.
Any film with Walter Matthau in the seventies is a must-own. Joseph Sargent remains a vastly under-rated director and I attribute much of the excellence of the film to him.
I also laughed at the dry humor, even though it was used to show the lack of sophistication in Matthau's character. After they hear a toilet flush and the guy comes to the door, Matthau says "I hope he washed his hands before he came to the door." At the start of the film, an impatient Matthau makes fun of the Japanese to whom he must give a guided a tour of the facility only to find out, as they leave, that they know English and understood every word he said. You gotta give Matthau credit for not being afraid to play this character.
The film also shows the NYC that I grew up in, and sometimes I watch it just for the personal nostalgia of it.
Richard
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"This way, dummies, over here, dummies."
This is one of my very, very, very favorite movies. I literally grew up with it. It was on at least once a year on my local KPTV channel 12, and from about age 10 to 20, I watched it every year and loved it more with each delicious viewing. THEN...when it came to laserdisc, not only did I get to see it widescreen (WOW) and uncut, but to hear all that outrageous New Yawk foul-mouthed spewing...oh it just got better and better.
Wonderful performances from all...razor sharp dialogue...a thrilling and iconic '70s score...more quotable lines than most movies can hope to provide...one of the great bah-da-boom endings of all time. It's just perfect. There isn't a single wasted moment, and almost every performance even from extras or one-sceners are distinct and memorable and frequently hilarious (e.g. Doris Roberts and her "sure votes" one-liner).
I never bothered with the remakes. What would the point of that be?
"Beats the shit outta me, Phil."
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Agree with everyone, a crackerjack picture with an aces cast. And that score - well, everything about the film works. I endured the remake just to see how bad it could get - Mr. Travolta's performance immediately entered my pantheon of horrendous acting jobs. The script was awful, the direction worse and it just proved how brilliant the character actors in the 70s were and how no one has come along to take their place.
I, too, hope for a Blu-Ray or at least a showing on MGM-HD.
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Love it, love it, love it. Seen it a million times, and never get tired of it. The cast is superb from the leads to the character actors. Love that 70s New York vibe. Favorite line: "Yesterday we had a bomb scare... but it turned out to be a cantaloupe" (Jerry Stiller).
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I found the remake remarkably inept, on every conceivable level.
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