User Reviews

I was amazed last night when it showed up on AMC. What a cast! What a subject! Martin Sheen played a scarily convincing street punk. A precursor to "Badlands", and for that matter to Charlie's "Boys Next Door" and Emilio's "Repo Man" twenty years later. Attitude definitely runs in that family! There's no doubt this film gave birth to the "Death Wish" films, and many other action movies (imagine the same scenario with Steven Segal, only the movie wouldn't last longer that the time it would take for Steven to waste the two punks with his bare hands).

How come I never heard of this movie before? Why isn't this a cult classic? You might say it's the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" of the 60's, with all the as-yet undiscovered talent.

Just saw this on the TMC and must say it was great. It did a nice job of exploring human psychology. The two thugs each served to lay bare the insecurities of each one of the passengers. The two dynamic and wild young men came to disrupt their static lives, the result of pathologies and obsessions that slowly congealed into a state of permanent neurosis. The black guys hate of whites, the one wife's ambitions for her husband, the homosexuals self-hate, the old folks hanging on to passing tradition etc. It made sense that Beau's character stood up because he was unanchored like the two thugs. Fresh out the army with not much direction he didn't have much to lose(his friend had dreams of being a lawyer and all, so he thought twice about causing trouble.)This is also why he may have excused their harassment in the beginning and even looked like he wanted to join in. Many people are saying that this movie is unrealistic because no one stood up to them. Well sorry, but thats human nature. First of all, the men who were with their women were in a delicate situation because to stand up to their harassment would be putting them in danger as well. We see this when Brock Peters character(the black guy with the righteous anger) did confront Joe he backed down when the little guy(Artie-Martin Sheen) gets his hands on his wife. He rethinks his position because he does not want to see her get hurt. You see, what each person feared was embarrassment not actually physical damage because these guys weren't going around beating people up. The thugs were pointing out each characteristic that distinguished one person from the other and highlighting it for all to see. This kind of treatment makes people feel very vulnerable and insecure, thus the retreat in their own corners hoping their stop would come soon. These differences also prevented them from joining up to throw the punks off because your not sure if the other folks will really have your back. I reserve most of my disgust for the other army boy who failed to have his fellow service mens back when things finally went down. He was actually in the best position to something. THe gay guy was to far gone into bitchood. The other single guy was middle aged and probably couldn't have handled them and as I pointed out, the men with the women were in awkward positions. And even once his one-armed buddy stood up to fight, he still did nothing. I understand Beau's disgust at the end.

I also predicted that once Joe started messing with the child that is when someone would decide to do something about him. Seeing children in danger tend to trigger unexpected feelings in people, feelings they may not have known they had. The only other person free from hangups and shame was the bum. I like how the director highlighted this at the end by showing that even after all that has transpired he still hasn't woken up, almost like he ignored the whole affair because it had nothing to do with him. And of course at the end everyone walks off without a word because their all ashamed. When you have been exposed bare like that you go run and hide not stand up and make friends with folks. I really didn't get the sense that the director wanted to me think a certain way after seeing the movie. He was simply pointing out some disturbing aspects of human psychology. There really was no "moral to the story". At least not an obvious one. Even Felix, the "hero" pays a price for his actions. If this was a morality tale, I think the director would have tried to make it seem that a particular action would have been the best action to take. I didn't see that.

Any detail of any film is a spoiler, to me.

I turned this on late on night about ten years ago, and it sent a fear through me like no other I've seen. That fear was, "Would I be too afraid to stand up and fight?"

I turned on the film for the first time when the guys were just about to get on the train. That was a perfect beginning for me. Later, I saw it again, and saw all the other stuff about how bad they were. Watching it the first time was a better experience; if you start with the train, you live the experience like you would in real life -- no knowledge of anybody's character until that character acts.

Poster "Sol1218" wrote that he found it not credible that none of the other passengers on the train tried to interfere with the thugs or help their fellow passengers. But the reality of 1967 was that it was a rare New Yorker who would stick his neck out for a stranger.

Just three years earlier, in 1964, a terrible crime occurred in Forest Hills, Queens that made headlines world-wide. A barmaid named Kitty Genovese was attacked and killed on the street while dozens of neighbors in surrounding apartment buildings listened to her screams. During the attack, apparently one person yelled from a window and the attacker backed off for a few moments. But when no further interference took place, the attacker returned and stabbed Miss Genovese to death.

None of the neighbors even called the police. They all later said, when interviewed, "I didn't want to get involved." That sentiment reflected the majority of New Yorkers in that era of rampant street crime: mind your own business, don't get involved.

The passivity of the passengers in The Incident was perfectly in line with the sensibilities of the time, and the fact that it took a visitor from Oklahoma (Beau Bridges) to step up to the plate, was also very apt.

All that being said, this movie is extremely powerful. The first time I ever saw it, on television, I was shaking for hours.

Martin Sheen and Tony Musante are both chillingly intense and believable as a couple of nasty no-count hoodlums who terrorize a motley assortment of folks on a New York City subway car late at night. The pernicious pair force the various passengers to face up to their true (often pathetic) natures. Director Lary Peerce, working from a painfully incisive script by Nicholas E. Baehr, trenchantly uses the subway car as a microcosm of American society where all of man's worst fears and foibles come into play. Moreover, Peerce makes a grim, yet provocative statement about how most people become passive victims when thrust into a dangerous crisis situation. The sterling cast all give stand-out performances: Bob Bannard and Beau Bridges as two soldier buddies, Donna Mills as a mousy virginal blonde, Victor Arnold as Mills' amorous boyfriend, Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter as a bickering elderly couple, a surprisingly solid Ed McMahon as a harried middle-class father of a little girl, Diana Van Der Vlis as MacMahon's wife, Robert Fields as a timid homosexual, Brock Peters as an angry white-hating black man, Ruby Dee as Peters' long-suffering wife, Gary Merrill as a desperate, down on his luck businessman, Mike Kellin as a meek school teacher, and Jan Sterling as Kellin's fed-up wife. Better still, the characters are well drawn and recognizably real human beings. This in turn makes the brutal ordeal they endure that much more potent and disturbing to watch. Gerald Hirschfeld's stark, vivid black and white cinematography, Terry Knight's rattling, rousing score, and the plausibly grungy Big Apple atmosphere further enhance the gritty realism and claustrophobic tension of this rough and unnerving movie. An absolute powerhouse.

It's hard to know what one would do in a situation like this. We would all LIKE to believe we would do something, but you really don't know until your faced with it. The fact that they tried to fill the subway car with just about every variety of person was a bit comical, but the cast was good and even if it wasn't always so well done, it kept my attention. I also think it is a subtle dig at New Yorkers as it is the Oklahoma soldier, who only has one good arm, who finally takes a stand against the punks. For the most part, the New Yorkers are apathetic. I kept wanting to scream at the TV for all the younger men to just rush the punks, but it didn't happen. It's every man for himself and as the New Yorkers leave the train they have not learned their lesson as they casually just step over the drunken "bum'

An exceptional, frightening film that will make you think twice about taking the subway too late at night.

Hoods Tony Musante and Martin Sheen terrorize a group of late night passengers on a NYC train. Everyone's true feelings and frustrations tear to the forefront as the hoodlums humiliate one person after another. There's sexy Donna Mills, angry Brock Peters and his silent wife Ruby Dee, henpecked Ed McMahon, middle-aged shrike Jan Sterling and her milquetoast husband Mike Kellin. Beau Bridges plays a young soldier who breaks from the pack and defends himself. Gary Merrill is startling...and startlingly cast as a repressed homosexual.

Musante and Sheen are dynamite...scary, tough and cowardly all at once. Musante may not have had a sustained film career, but he's great here. Sterling and Kellin make a wild couple, with Kellin giving the film's best performance. Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter are in it too. Extremely well directed by Larry Peerce.

I think Bernie probably saw this film. Two toughs terrorize a subway car until one person on the train, with no real interest in the situation and a handicap, stands up to fight them.

Someone said Martin Sheen had a great performance here - ?? Most of what he did was stand around and say "yeah baby" like his SNL appearance in the "Martin Sheen" hair product commercial. "You wouldn't hurt the environment, would you Martin?" "No way, baby".

Anyway, Tony Musante needs the credit because he's who makes the punks impossible to ignore and possibly dangerous enough to be feared. Some tough subjects for '67, homosexuality (watch how that guy acts in the bar again after you see this movie, or since you know about it it might be more obvious to you than it was to me at that point), race-baiting (I agree with Ebert's review that the black character's change of heart was more than ridiculous, he would have pulled a Jules Winnfield on them just to watch Whitey's expression change).

Still, very intense and well done, wish they showed this in high schools to lead discussions about who is (and should be) responsible for what in society. Yes, the characters are straight off the American Archetype Pez Dispenser, but they're -supposed- to be; they're placeholders for us to project our own feelings, not independent agents.

****SPOILERS**** Until I saw the movie "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer" in the late 1980's I never saw a major movie out of Hollywood more vicious and disturbing then "The Incident".

Two brutal and vicious thugs Joe Ferrone & Arti Connors, Tony Musante & Martin Sheen, after brutally murdering a man, Ben Levi,coming home from work at night get on a New York City subway train and terrorize all the passengers on it. Like in most New York City movies the train contains every nationality age and social group and even sexual preference on it and Joe & Arti treat them all just about equally.

What was very phony about the movie is that the subway car had something like a dozen passengers on it and nobody or no group of the passengers tried at attack and subdue the two thugs that until the very end. The thugs didn't even show or pull out any weapons and when they did the only weapon they had was a switchblade knife. Even more so they not only brutalized everyone on the subway car they nauseatingly humiliated all the women who were on the train in full sight of their husbands or boyfriends! With the men doing absolutely nothing to help them! I couldn't help wondering what the wives and girlfriends of these wimps did after this hell was over did they still stay with them? Another thing that was a little bit off was that both Joe & Arti went from person or couple to couple abusing and humiliating each one as it they were working on an assembly line.

The two jumped on a poor gay man Ken, Robert Fields, and brutalized him so badly that he looked like he lost his mind and was left in a catatonic state with nobody on the train lifting as much as a finger to help the poor man. There was also a black couple Arnold and Joan Robinson,Brock Peters and Ruby Dee, who were about to leave the train on their stop at 125th street in Harlem but Arnold insisted that his wife stay with him on the train so he can see the "show", how stupid can one get? Being the only two blacks on the train Arnold was especially singled out by the two white thugs for special treatment. The big strapping black militant was left whimpering and crying like a baby in front of his wife Joan and a train full of whites whom Arnold showed earlier in the movie nothing but hatred contempt and scorn for.

The outrages continued until Felix, Beau Bridges, A GI on leave with a broken arm in the big city just couldn't take it any more when Joe started molesting Mr. & Mrs. Wilks, Ed McMahon & Diana Vander Vilis, young daughter. Felix finally took the law into his own hands by smashing Joe's face in with his plaster cast that he had on his broken arm, that it took a dentist to pull all of Joe's teeth out of it. Felix then cornered and kicked Arti so hard between his legs that if he were a football he would have traveled at least fifty yards for a field goal with Felix getting a knife right in his gut, and as usual in this movie, with nobody coming to his aid until it was too late or better yet until the police finally came to the "rescue".

Seventeen years later after the movie "The Incident" was released on the early afternoon of December 22, 1984 another "Incident" happened on the Subway in New York City that was like the movie but with a much better ending. Bernie Goetz was on a crowded #2 subway train minding his own business when he was confronted by four muggers wanting his wallet. In him knowing what he was in for Bernie then pulled something out of his jacket pocket but it wasn't a Christmas gift and ended up putting the four would-be subway Christmas shoppers out of action for a long long time. I always thought and suspected that Bernie saw the movie "The Incident" and knew what just to expect on the NYC subway and also made sure that he would be ready for it when it came.