L'incident

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.

a truly excellent film with remarkable performances from all of the cast. The film explores a theme of the uncaring New Yorkers which was very much a dominating force here in the mid and late 1960s. Two boys terrorize and essentially hold hostage about a dozen people on a subway car in the early morning hours. The passengers represent a crossection of New York society. It is a film about ones fears in confronting terror...in allowing evil to happen to all around you and doing nothing to stop it. It ends when finally an outsider in that subway car has reached his breaking point. Yet he too is eventually abandonded.

as a New Yorker and a subway buff i really enjoyed the exteriors of the number 4 train although the cars early on are pre 1960 and later on the exteriors are the post 1964 cars...but this is a continuity error that someone like myself would look for.

Along with a very young Martin Sheen...look for Donna Mills as a late teenage virgin..the veteran Great THELMA RITTER and a surprise appearance in a dramatic role by Johnny Carson's sidekick ED MCMAHON

As I watched this movie this evening, it affected me like a good movie should. In this one, Martin Sheen and Tony Musante are 2 hoodlums who board a subway car and proceed to terrorize/harass the various occupants riding this car. Psychologically, it accomplishes what the director sets out to: Provoke/Stir up Emotions in the viewer. In particular, the atrocities committed against the gay man and Black couple are disturbing, especially given the era in which this film was produced. I was driven to anger watching the responses of the characters. Beau Bridges, Martin Sheen, and Donna Mills are interesting to watch in this film. The ending is something to see, and the very ending provokes some questions to the summation of this film. Recommended to see.

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

It's the subway ride we all dread, closed in for many minutes with street hoods. In the early a.m hours, petty criminals (Martin Sheen, Tony Musante) board a crowded subway train after mugging a helpless old man. Inbetween subway stops, the hoods terrorize the passengers in the subway car. They hit upon the women, taunt the male passengers into fights. Finally, a young man in uniform (Beau Bridges) becomes the first to defend themselves, and gets into a harrowing fight with Musante. One of the first attempts at a low budget independent film. Director Larry Pearce gets excellent performances out of the all-star cast. Some of the dialog is a rather forced, cliched, and the time period between subway stops go on way too long. But there are fine moments (Musante verbally tearing apart passenger Brock Peters, Sheen scaring the daylights out of boarding passengers when the subway DOES stop) The film makes one think of the more exciting, and more thought out "Taking Of Pelham One Two Three (1974)"