The other day I watched Dog Day Afternoon, and I have a confession to make—I’d never seen it before. Yeah, yeah, but we all have holes in our movie-watching history, and that just happened to be one of them for me. It’s obviously brilliant, and has a lot more zip than I expected, and it got me to thinking about how much I enjoy those grimy New York movies.
This is a thing, by the way, go google “Grimy New York” and you’ll find lists of movies from the 1970s and ‘80s set in New York, when the streets were mean, and the city was dirty. The best of these crackle with the energy and tension of a place that no longer exists, and while you do often have to put up with casual racism, sexism, and homophobia, this often says more about the characters on screen than about the filmmakers.
Probably my favorite is 1974’s The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, which must be one of the most purely entertaining movies ever made. It stars Walter Matthau as a transit cop who has to deal with four very bad guys who’ve hijacked a subway car, which seems as ridiculous to Matthau as it might to you. The movie never really drags for a second, Matthau’s dryly humorous performance is a delight, Robert Shaw is ice cold as the criminal ringleader, and there’s plenty of good dingy New York character.
One movie that barely anyone seems to talk about these days is Prince of the City, from 1981, directed by Sidney Lumet, who also did Dog Day Afternoon and a number of other great films in the genre. This one stars Treat Williams in a knockout performance as a corrupt cop who turns federal informant, and I can’t believe Williams didn’t become an A-list actor after this. The movie’s notable for its nuance—no one is a caricature, we see the breakdown between idealism and the laws of the streets, and we question what doing the “right” thing actually looks like.
Prince of the City and The Taking of Pelham One Two Three are both easily found through streaming rental services, as is Dog Day Afternoon, but if you haven’t seen that one already, goodness, what’s wrong with you?
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Fletcher Powell is KMUW's production manager, host of All Things Considered, and host of the podcast You're Saying It Wrong. His movie reviews air every Thursday and movie commentaries air on alternate Mondays. Follow him on Twitter @fletcher_powell.
