The two screen adaptations of John Godey's novel "The Taking of Pelham 123" demonstrate some of the changes in the cinema since 1974, when the original appeared. Thanks to a number of technological advances, in the last three decades action-adventure films feature (and audiences demand) both a rapidly increasing degree of authenticity in the depiction of violence and a concomitant heightening of the violence itself. At the same time, the new picture suggests a certain softening in the sensibility of contemporary filmmakers and filmgoers, as if all the customary fireworks merely concealed an excessive emotionalism, the real sentimentality of violence.

While maintaining the original situation and plot of a relatively straightforward thriller, the movie also changes some elements, adding back stories and considerable context. In the original, Walter Matthau played an officer in the New York City Transit Police dealing with a group of criminals who hijack a subway train and demand $1 million from the city in exchange for the lives of the passengers. Now the hijackers demand $100 million (inflation) and deal with an amateur, not a cop - Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), a dispatcher working at headquarters, who controls traffic and orchestrates an extremely complicated mechanism of patterns and people.

The shift from a professional policeman to an ordinary civil servant intensifies the dangers and adds layers of complexity to the situation. Ryder (John Travolta), the leader of the hijackers, prefers to deal with Garber rather than the cops, so that when a police hostage negotiator takes over the job, he starts shooting people. The many conversations between Ryder and Garber establish something of a relationship between the two men, which tends to push the hostage situation aside, turning the thriller into an exploration of the two personalities.

As the clock ticks relentlessly, the director constantly intercuts among several lines of action. The criminals operate their scheme with cunning and considerable technical savvy, which holds its own fascination; meanwhile, the police bring a SWAT team through the tunnels to attempt an assault on the subway car the hijackers control. Garber tries desperately to discover the identity of his antagonist, understand his rage, and defuse his intentions to kill hostages. In the process, Ryder extracts a painful public confession from Garber about a bribe he accepted from a Japanese railroad car manufacturer.

In its concentration on the passage of time and the technology of the subway system, which both the criminals and the police manipulate, the movie follows the patterns of the big caper flick. It also adds a version of the familiar automobile chase in the speeding convoy of police cars and motorcycles bringing the money across the city, which enables the director to include a series of sensational and ultimately gratuitous crashes. Piling on yet another back story in addition to Garber's confession, it brings in the mayor (James Gandolfini), under a cloud because of a messy divorce (think Rudy Giuliani without the dresses), who actually contributes some insight to the problem.

All that context thickens the essentially simple material at the center of the picture, but also suggests certain changes in attitude since the original appeared. Instead of the tough, ironic Walter Matthau, Denzel Washington seems cowed and passive, victimized by his rotten supervisor, ignored by the media who naturally love the ongoing story. He's an ordinary, decent, vulnerable human being, an easy opponent for the smart, cruel psychopath John Travolta, and very much a man of our time, the sort of hero who appears more and more frequently in contemporary motion pictures.

Besides his various contextualizations, Tony Scott employs almost every technique available to sustain tension - slow motion, fast motion, rapid crosscutting, split screens, even pixilation. He also succeeds, through establishing shots, street-level shooting, aerial cinematography, and just about every other visual trick in the book, in capturing New York City in all its beauty and squalor: the remarkable skyline and the darkness of its underground tunnels, the jumpy, nervous rhythms of its everyday life, the faces and personalities of its inexhaustible variety of humanity. Unusually enough, "The Taking of Pelham 123" succeeds as a remake, but also joins the short list of movies that truly reflect the rich reality of a grand and endlessly exciting city.

The Taking of Pelham 123

(R), directed by Tony Scott

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