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Tony Scott on The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
By Fred Topel | Image property of Columbia Pictures
The Taking of Pelham 123
Tony Scott Talks The Taking of Pelham 123
“For me, the city is the third character in the movie, and it’s the bad guy in the movie,” Scott said. “John [Travolta’s character] wanted to take revenge and humiliation on the city like it took from him. So that became a very important factor to me. That’s why I opened the movie with that freneticism, that anxiety. That’s why we began with the city like that, so to make the city a very strong character. I think Tobias Schliessler shot the city in a way that it hasn’t been shot before. It’s always about noise, people and anxiety, so it’s a great contrast. For me, this movie was a brilliant canvas in terms of the bowels of the city of New York, down in the subway system to the calmness and quietness of the MTA control center. I had that luxury of being able to punctuate that adrenalin with a money train coming through the story when we need it. So we had a great canvas on which to work.”
Scott felt his style suited the film, because the situation would be dramatic even without his visuals. “I think that the way the characters are structured and the way the story is structured, it has an in-built drama in terms of how it peaks. All I can do, what I do is that I watch, I listen and I do my homework and then I say, ‘So this is the way I can amplify that: by the way my camera moves or my editing.’ Normally it’s just where the camera is. If you look at the latest sequence of the tension and the drama built more and more between Denzel and John. The camera faster and the editing is a little harder. So I support what I see and what I feel.”
Since the film will be compared to its predecessor, Scott explained how he feels his version is different. “I think the motivation of the characters is very different and the similarity is that it’s a hostage situation in the subway, but if you think about the two, you think about the Robert Shaw character. The thing about the Robert Shaw character, if you think about Denzel’s character, the whole motivation is very different. For one thing, Walter Matthau was playing a cop but also in terms of John’s character, it’s based off a real guy, who actually came out of Brooklyn and gravitated to Wall Street and worked for the city and then he went and did time in jail. He just got out of jail, before the movie, and his character is motivated by revenge, take revenge on the city of New York. In the original movie, the movie was about the million dollars, about ‘Let’s hold hostages in a subway for a million bucks,’ it was sort of a stupid place to hold hostages because it’s a cul de sac. And this here, the John character, he had a plan, he had a plot. Luis Guzman, who is the guy who he happens to hatch the plot with in jail, so it is based off of real events and real characters. It’s an organic process in how to build a character. It was an MTA worker that we had as a role model but then Brian [Helgeland] brought on this other backstory. The glasses all become part and parcel and you start to feel how the character feels, whether it’s the wardrobe, the glasses with the lines in conjunction with the mannerisms.”
A research junkie, Scott also enjoyed getting deep inside the real world of the MTA. “It’s the size of a football field. It’s unbelievable. It’s like NASA. It’s the last thing you’d expect, especially if you look at the old one, because the old one is just sort of a grubby office with this subway thing on the wall. But in the real world, I get to educate and entertain myself by going and touching the real world and touching real people. And that’s my way into movies. So, I love that and I bring that.”
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 opens to theaters on June 12th.
For the trailer, poster and more movie info, go to the The Taking of Pelham 123 Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of Columbia Pictures
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