The Incident

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)"

The Incident was a film that got great critical notices when it came out then seemed to disappear. I was waiting more than 50 years to see it and it was worth the wait.

A bunch of familiar players pair off in twos mostly some married, some not and at least one gay guy looking to hook up in those pre-Stonewall days. They're all quite absorbed with their selves and significant others not to notice a pair of deadly hoodlums, Tony Musante and Martin Sheen board the train. These two are quite deadly and they are the first we meet. And when we do meet them we see how deadly they are.

As our dramatis personae gather on the subway after we see bits of their lives, Musante and Sheen start to terrorize the occupants of the subway car. All of them so self absorbed in their own situations they don't make any kind of move. The men humiliated, the women degraded.

I'd love to know where the transit cops were? This was in the Lindsay years and back then the big campaign was to advertise New York as Fun City.

Some of the more memorable couples were Jan Sterling and Michael Kellin, Thelma Ritter, and Jack Gilford, Ed McMahon and Diane VanderVlis, Brock Peters and Ruby Dee.

The Incident is a film testament to New Yorkers legendary code of non-involvement. When rescue comes, it comes at the hands of the only non-New Yorker on the train.

After 50 years The Incident with its many fine performances packs a wallop.

Two psychos (Martin Sheen and Tony Musante) terrorize the passengers of a NYC subway car. The first half introduces the characters...the second half is the attack. The "victims" are an unhappily married couple (Ed McMahon and Diana van de Vlis); a young couple (Edward Arnold and Donna Mills); an elderly couple (Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter); two Army guys (Beau Bridges and Robert Bannard); ANOTHER unhappy couple (Mike Kellin and Jan Sterling); a gay man full of self-loathing (Robert Fields); a recovering alcoholic (Gary Merrill) and a black couple (Brock Peters and Ruby Dee).

This is a great movie and STILL unknown to this day. It is very unpleasant to watch and the realism may be too much for some people. Also the film is, sadly, still topical (although NY subways are nowhere near this bad nowadays). Each character is attacked (verbally and physically) during the course of the film--the attacks on the black couple and the gay man are so extreme and violent they're virtually unwatchable. All the acting is excellent which makes this film very hard to shake off. Also it's very interesting to see Ed McMahon doing drama and this is the film debut of Sheen and Mills. Shot in b&w which actually helps. A must see...just brace yourself.

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.