O Incidente

I remember seeing this film in the movie theaters when it came out in 1967. I had gone with a couple of friends to see it. This movie so infuriated all three of us (there was my friend's wife too) at first of all the passivity of all the passengers and how nobody cared to help anyone else and then there were the two hooligans (Musante and Sheen) and their arrogance and their not respecting other people's space or privacy. With this film, you get to see how each and every person works in a terrifying situation.

I was so happy this film was finally released on video. I have been waiting for over 30 years to see it again to see if my opinions had changed--and they hadn't.

I loved the way this film captured the essence of the 60s. Some people today think the 60s was the decade of long hair and flower power, but for the masses, that was really the 70s. The 60s, and most passengers on the ill-fated train car, were represented by tight clothes, businessmen who still wore hats and nondescript overcoats, and young women with straight, glossy hair. The two thugs who take over the train look like they might have come from a Beatles concert. I liked the realistic gritty look of the interior of the streetcar, with litter on the floor, and a design that seemed to come from about World War I. The outdoor scenes of the train passing by are very grainy, and in their black and white simplicity create an appropriate feel.

The movie is a bit heavy handed, though, in its morality lesson. It's as if the screenwriter had a framed copy of the German missive on the Nazi takeover above his desk: "First they came for the Jews, but I didn't speak out because I was not a Jew, then they came for the communists, but I didn't speak out because....." I simply can't believe that so many people could be so cowardly. The mod guy who freezes up while a bully strokes his girlfriend's hair is too much. And the fact that the bullies essentially insult everyone on the car in turn while everyone looks away doesn't wash either. You know you're next, so why not try to put a stop to it now? The black guy who was so eager to punch a white could have pummeled them both as soon as they let his wife/hostage go. Where did all his anger go? And the gay guy who tried to get off meekly returned when the weaker of the two bullies merely said, "go to your room". He was inches from freedom, and was much larger than Martin Sheen's character.

This movie is worth seeing for its cast alone. It's fun to see such a young Beau Bridges, and to see TV's Ed McMahon in a serious role. Virtually every cast member was known to me, if only as a familiar face from countless other movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Oh, and I burst out laughing at a scene which probably was originally intended to be very poignant and thought provoking. Blame my recent addiction to Dave Chapelle's comedy. When the police finally come and see the carnage, they immediately try to cuff the black guy, without asking any questions.

With its flaws noted, I recommend this movie as a great time capsule of the 60s, and a study of how cowardice can lead to worse and worse situations.

This film is a parable. I first saw a really lousy print 20 years ago in high school ethics class. I've since taped it off of cable and have shown it to several friends over the years and they are always knocked out by the portrayal of grittiness for the time period. Indeed, this film still feels contemporary.

Those who judge it on the basis of "what I would do in this situation is..." are really off base. First of all, one of the compelling aspects of The Incident is that it develops each character's weakness so that we not only relate to these very identifiable human frailties (which runs the gamut from racism, submissiveness, marital strife, homosexuality, et. al.), but we also understand their particular reasons for not standing up to the thugs. Of course, just because we identify does not excuse the passengers' behavior (or, should we say, failure to act), which is exactly the ethical dilemma presented by the film. Secondly, it is supposed to infuriate and anger us as viewers. As anyone who has worked in or around the law profession knows, the cowardice depicted here is nothing unusual, nor is it unique to NYC. People under stress behave in ways that often boggle the imagination. Remember the stories from the Titanic, for example, about how some passengers acted dutifully and bravely, while others did inexplicably selfish things? The passage of time has not changed human nature.

The ensemble cast is a fantastic whos-who of up & comers from the period. Even Ed McMahon puts in a fully capable performance! The real stand-outs here, however, are certainly Musante, Sheen & Bridges. I'm not familiar with Musante's work on the old TV show `Toma,' but I am disappointed his career never blossomed on the big screen because he's a revelation here. The nature of his character allows him to emote humor, phony compassion and violence, and he succeeds without becoming a maniacal cartoon. And even though we don't know his character's back story, his expressions exude a personal history of frustration that has given way to toughness, hatred and eventually an unstable and violent temper. This, of course, is his character's ultimate weakness. Who knows, maybe Tarantino will give Musante a ring one of these days.

How did this little film slip between the cracks? This amazing film deserves mountains of more credit than it gets. It's a very real, brutal film that really tests our emotions.

It did to me, at least. The acting job (especially of the two leads) was phenomenal! Especially, by far, Martin Sheen.

The cinematography, the vicious personalities of the two street punks, the music, well... basically everything flat out works. Haven't we all felt like one of the passengers? Or maybe even like one of the hoodlums?

Great film. 10/10

The plot is simple: Late night subway riders are terrorized by 2 thugs out for kicks. The thugs jam the subway doors so no one can get on or off and the conductor never visits the car. It really makes the viewer feel trapped with the rest of the victims, who are, by the way, pretty standard stereotypes of everyday America. There's the teenagers in love who are always kissing, the black man with a chip on his shoulder about white America and his social worker wife who pleads for him to not be so angry, two servicemen on their way to or back from an assignment and one has his arm in a cast, the harried married couple with a sleeping child, the elderly Jewish couple, the alcoholic, the squabbling couple, a man who may or may not be homosexual, a sleeping bum, and that may or may not be all. Tony Musante as the creepier of the two tough guys is well played. He has venom dripping off of him like a coiled serpent about to strike. His villainy is so real you I sometimes wondered if he was acting or just really mean in person. Martin Sheen, of all people, plays the other tough guy, who seems like he is drawn along by the lead of his pal into the mental and physical games they play on the other subway riders. The two laugh a lot at the misfortunes of their sport and as you watch you wonder if there is a happy ending in sight or is this one of those movies where nobody goes home happy, not even the viewer. The movie is in stark black and white and made better by that fact. In the shadows behind each characters eyes you see a universe of fear and loathing but you keep looking for a positive sign. A very well made movie with my only quibble being that the set up is kinda long. We see each person making it to the fateful subway car and learn their back history. If this film were remade today I can see this entire section being dropped. We could start right in on the subway and use flashbacks to illuminate the histories. But that's just me.