The Incident

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

"The Incident" is a dark story, drama and crime picture set in New York City. Much of the story takes places on a late night subway ride when two hooligans run roughshod over the people in the last car of the train. This is hardly an entertaining film, and not very good as a mystery or crime film. It's a social film with a picture of inner city hooligans abusing people and threatening them with violence. It's also a good picture of how people can be cowered by fear.

The acting is very good by all of the cast, which includes some prominent names of the day. Among them are Jack Gilford, Thelma Ritter, Gary Merrill, Beau Bridges, and a young Ed McMahon. It's one of the first movies, outside of TV, for Martin Sheen. He co-stars as Artie Connors in the lead roles with Tony Musante as Joe Ferrone.

This isn't a film for families or anyone who wants some laughs or mystery. But, if one is training or interested in civil order or handling rowdy characters who threaten people or the peace, this might be a good film to watch. Those who live in the big city who watch this film will likely not be taking any late night subway rides.

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.

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)"

I caught this movie on AMC at 3 o'clock this morning (or so), and was blown away! What a tense, gritty drama - and what a cast! I was trying to figure out who was who, as they were all so young (Ed McMahon? Donna Mills? Ruby Dee without Ossie Davis? Wow!) Martin Sheen's baby face made his psycho character all the more frightening. To me, the movie is a great time capsule of the sixties, and of New York. I do have a complaint to register regarding the AMC channel - instead of squeezing the end credits to make room for commercials for the next movie, how about staying true to your movie fans who have a compulsive need to read the credits, and show them full-screen to the end? Who's with me on this one? Thank goodness for IMDb to get us through!