And So, the 70's...

 Raging Riders, and Lots of Bull

Depending on who you ask, the ten-year period of 1965-1975 was either one of the best eras in American cinema, or one of the worst.

While it was certainly a Golden Age if you were a straight white male who loved extreme violence, casual sexism, xenophobia and homophobia, it was far less enjoyable if such things tended to make you uncomfortable. (Three guesses how I feel about this era.)

To some extent, Cinema was merely reflecting the tone of Society itself during that decade. After living through the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of  President Kennedy (and, two years later, Malcolm X; and a few years after that, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King) there were the almost daily news reports of  violent suppression of  Civil Rights campaigners and (if you wanted some relief from the vicious and bloody domestic news) there was the ongoing horror show of the Vietnam War.

Eventually of course the 1960s came to an end, and America moved into the 70s, when everything promised to be calmer and more hopeful. Except of course for the Watergate Scandal and the resignation of President Nixon. 

As I say, a fun decade. Thank goodness everything is so much better in this day and age.

This week's film is very much a product of that era, but unlike so many other films of the time, it manages to be fun. 


The Taking of Pelham One Two Three deals with a group of armed men who hijack a subway train in New York. (Apart from everything else going on, the late 60s was something of a "golden age" for air hijacking. It was less common on subway cars, however.)

Released in 1974, the film brilliantly captures the tone of the era; the city is dirty and broken down; everyone is cranky and obnoxious, and a constant feeling of  racial and sexual anger continually boils just below the surface. But somehow, miraculously, the film itself is not downbeat or grim. Every character in the story may be having a very, very bad day, but we (the audience) are never asked to share in the misery. The Taking of Pelham One Two Three is a rare bright spot in a very grim decade.



We'll be showing The Taking of Pelham One Two Three at the usual time of 7.30 on Thursday, the 25th of November at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.




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