GrimPrecise I'll tell you why so serious

UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

dougdoepke I agree that grim subjects warrant grim treatment. There are exceptions, of course, such as the effective black humor of Dr. Strangelove (1964), but not many. The trouble with this film is that it rubs our nose in its grim subject matter to a fault. In short, it's too long, too shrill and too unrelieved in the grinding nature of its message.The movie takes the now familiar topic of urban non-involvement and plays it out along a harrowing el ride through New York City. Along the way, two young thugs terrorize listless fellow passengers. Okay, lots of potential there for intense drama of the riveting kind; at the same time, the film does have its intense moments. The trouble is, it looks like everyone among the passengers dislikes everyone else. Thus, the anti-social behavior of the two thugs has nothing much for us to compare it with. For example, consider how the couples relate before boarding the el. The Wilks's bicker about a taxi; the Beckerman's whine about their son; the Purvis's complain generally; while Robinson rages before his wife. Then there's young stud Tony mauling poor helpless Alice; grouchy old Douglas; and dour gay man Ken. The only exceptions are the two amiable young soldiers. All in all, these folks offer little sociable contrast to the anti-social young thugs. Thus, the movie makes a strong statement about urban alienation, but at a price. And that price turns New Yorkers into one-dimensional automatons. Everybody crabs at everybody else, all the time-- that is, when they're not mugging or terrorizing strangers. Now maybe that is the case in NYC, but given its expanding birth-rate, I doubt it. I do know that 100-minutes of this kind of relentless in-your-face seriously overstates its case. Worse, it's to the detriment of the more effective case that could be made had the producers more regard for shading. I also know some such would have made a much better movie.

Woodyanders Martin Sheen and Tony Musante are both chillingly intense and believable as a couple of nasty no-count hoodlums who terrorize a motley assortment of folks on a New York City subway car late at night. The pernicious pair force the various passengers to face up to their true (often pathetic) natures. Director Lary Peerce, working from a painfully incisive script by Nicholas E. Baehr, trenchantly uses the subway car as a microcosm of American society where all of man's worst fears and foibles come into play. Moreover, Peerce makes a grim, yet provocative statement about how most people become passive victims when thrust into a dangerous crisis situation. The sterling cast all give stand-out performances: Bob Bannard and Beau Bridges as two soldier buddies, Donna Mills as a mousy virginal blonde, Victor Arnold as Mills' amorous boyfriend, Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter as a bickering elderly couple, a surprisingly solid Ed McMahon as a harried middle-class father of a little girl, Diana Van Der Vlis as MacMahon's wife, Robert Fields as a timid homosexual, Brock Peters as an angry white-hating black man, Ruby Dee as Peters' long-suffering wife, Gary Merrill as a desperate, down on his luck businessman, Mike Kellin as a meek school teacher, and Jan Sterling as Kellin's fed-up wife. Better still, the characters are well drawn and recognizably real human beings. This in turn makes the brutal ordeal they endure that much more potent and disturbing to watch. Gerald Hirschfeld's stark, vivid black and white cinematography, Terry Knight's rattling, rousing score, and the plausibly grungy Big Apple atmosphere further enhance the gritty realism and claustrophobic tension of this rough and unnerving movie. An absolute powerhouse.

whpratt1 This is truly a very horrible story about subway riders in New York City made up of an older Jewish couple, Jack Gilford (Sam Beckerman); two African Americans; two soldiers, one wounded with a broken arm, Beau Bridges (PFC Felis Telfinger); a young couple with a baby, Ed McMahon. All these people are being belittled and degraded by two crazy boozed up guys who will not let anyone off the train and picks on everyone in the car. There is no one to stand up on their own two feet and give these guys a good beating, everyone decides to keep their mouths shut and take the beating they are handing out to them or we could say cowards. There are many veteran actors on this train, Martin Sheen, Donna Mills, Thelma Ritter, Jan Sterling. There is plenty of bigotry towards most of the people riding in this subway, but mostly against the two African Americans. This is a rather upsetting film and I am glad that New York City is better protecting the people in their city by putting police officers in these subway cars running deep under the city.

cptjimmy This film which stars an array of notable celebrities, including Ed McMahon gives a portrayal of the era that changed our country and the split between generations. While the message of uncaring New Yorkers is the description of this film one can't help, But to see the attempt at expressing the anti-war sentiment as wheel as issues that highlighted the 60's. This film also represents how film makers continue to preach their political one sided agendas to audiences. Any 4th grader can see through this film and its not so hidden format. This film has the creativity of a bad high school play and proves that movie companies need tax write offs because this was a waste of film and money, liberalism at its finest.