Denzel Washington in The Taking of Pelham 123. (Warner Bros.)

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Tony Scott may not always make good movies, but after watching the opening credits on his new film, The Taking of Pelham 123, I defy anyone to come up with a career he’s better suited for. A caper thriller set in the bowels of New York’s subway system, the picture opens with spectacular rat-a-tat visuals that set the twin stages where most of the action will take place: The Lexington # 6 line in Midtown, where a quartet of well-prepared hijackers are about to board the titular train; and at Manhattan’s southern tip, the MTA dispatch center, where Walter Garber (Denzel Washington) is directing subterranean traffic via a giant digital screen. A lot of information is communicated quickly here, and Scott’s well-honed sense of urgency slips it into the movie’s bloodstream like a life-giving IV in the skilled hands of a veteran health-care specialist.

Ryder (John Travolta), the doughy, mustachioed ringleader of the hijackers, has a different medical scenario on the brain. Specifically, he’s giving a lot of thought to the damage his automatic pistol will do to his 19 hostages if the city doesn’t give him $10 million in 60 minutes. Loquacious and super-confident, Ryder chats up Garber on the radio of the subway car he’s separated from the rest of the 123 train below 51^st Street. For the next hour – a generous portion of the movie is told more or less in real time – these two men will cajole, taunt, humor, threaten and scream at each other. As terrifying hostage situations go, it’s a remarkably good time.

This is the fourth time Scott has directed Denzel Washington (after Crimson Tide, Man on Fire and Déjà Vu) and the leading man hasn’t been this wholly appealing in a long time. He put on a little weight for the role, and wears the poundage like a suit of armor: A humiliated desk jockey, demoted while accusations of bribery are investigated, his Garber has built a fortress around himself made of pride, competence, and cheeseburgers. It’s hard not to like the guy; and the same, oddly, goes for Ryder, a garrulous but charming maniac who insists he’s not afraid to die (“Everyone owes God a life,” he says) but clearly has both an escape route and a motivation that goes beyond the paltry ransom.

In fact, Pelham is stuffed with great characters. John Turturro’s NYPD hostage negotiator begins as an officious creep but quickly sizes up Garber as the most principled man among his MTA colleagues – even after he owns up to taking that bribe. Aunjanue Ellis (Freedomland), as Garber’s wife, has about two small scenes but makes an authentic impact as Garber’s wife. James Gandolfini pinches his voice for a terrific portrait of bureaucracy: He’s the Mayor, but term limits are pushing him out of office, so what does he care what people think of him? Even sad sack Michael Rispoli, as Garber’s colleague and tormentor, exudes a solid New Yawkuh attitude.

Which brings us to the real reason to love The Taking of Pelham 123: It’s the first post-modern 9/11 movie, a story of straphangers (Gandolfini’s Hizzoner prefers the subway to his motorcade, for Pete’s sake) defending their city against what seems an awful lot like a terrorist attack. (Even Ryder’s hidden agenda has ties to Osama bin Laden’s ulterior motives for attacking the Twin Towers. It's hokum, but agreeable hokum. And the Mayor is the one who figures it out!) United 93, World Trade Center and other films have tackled the text of the 9/11 attacks with varying degrees of success, but those pictures couldn’t help being shackled to the audience’s horrified, queasy sense of what really happened that day. By invoking the event’s dread without connecting the grim dots, we’re able to simply cheer Garber’s everyday heroism as he stands up to Ryder’s gun-toting heckling and death threats, and join the city as they salute him as well.

The film takes something of a wrong turn toward the end, as Scott and screenwriter Brian Helgeland (Payback) work like crazy to find a semi-traditional happy ending amid all the urban chaos. They could have saved themselves the trouble: the engaging The Taking of Pelham 123 works best when things are left believably messy. Like New York City itself, the movie take on an oddly unconvincing sheen when it’s buffed and shined. 8

Erich Van Dussen is the Managing Editor of Rochester Film Journal, and a local writer. You can reach him at info@rochesterfilm.com.