Review: The Incident

We slowly meet a varied group of NY train passengers who are about to have their courage, patience, and spirits tested by a couple of seemingly hopped-up criminals (cackling sadist Martin Sheen and wild-eyed Tony Musante) who try to break everybody down. Just for the hell of it, seemingly, as everyone’s flaws (and general apathy) are exposed. Gary Merrill is a recovering alcoholic, Robert Fields is an intensely nervous homosexual, Brock Peters is an arrogant black activist married to the more sedate Ruby Dee, Beau Bridges plays an injured good ‘ol boy returned soldier, Thelma Ritter and Jack Gilford are an old married couple, Mike Kellin is a jealous husband to leggy Jan Sterling, Ed McMahon (!) is a cranky tight-arse travelling with his wife and kid, and Donna Mills plays one half of a vapid young couple too busy making out to notice anything going on around them. There’s also a drunken bum asleep on the train too.

 

This startling 1967 Larry Peerce (“Ash Wednesday”, “Two-Minute Warning”, the notorious John Belushi biopic “Wired”) flick was one of the most uncomfortable, irritating, and nerve-wracking experiences I’ve had in a long while. Luckily, that’s the kind of reaction it was aiming for, as it paints a picture of shocking yet true-to-life apathy. Yes, in 2001 some plane passengers were brave enough to band together to try and overcome hijackers, but that’s a rarity. In most cases now, as presumably was the case in the 60s, us human beings are a scared, self-preserving, or at least apathetic lot, by and large. We don’t want any trouble and we don’t want to get involved. The kind of thing that happens in this gritty, grim film still happens today, and is one of the main reasons I’m very anti-train.

 

The characters here may be stock, but the situation and stark B&W photography by Gerald Hirschfeld (“Fail-Safe”, “Young Frankenstein”) resonate, even if the transit from stop to stop seems awfully bloody long. It’s strong, disturbing stuff, with memorable psycho portrayals by Martin Sheen (in his impressive film debut) and wild-eyed Tony Musante, and Beau Bridges is terrific as a likeable good ‘old boy soldier who may be the only one here with a backbone, but also has his arm in a sling. Brock Peters at first seems a tad overboard as the angry black militant, but when push comes to shove, his true colours show and you understand why Peters portrays the character as so initially arrogant and outspoken. He ends up giving a very powerful and quite sad performance as a man who talks tough, but when he comes face to face with a real threat, that’s something entirely different. Admittedly the underrated Jan Sterling (who always seems to play women in or around middle age who are on the edge of losing their looks- or feel like they are), Ruby Dee, and old pro Thelma Ritter could play their roles in their sleep, but no one is coasting here. Ritter is particularly important casting because, based on the roles she tends to play, we’re constantly worried she’s gonna open her big yap and get herself popped. Robert Fields, in particular, is almost as nerve-wracking as the film itself as a seemingly tortured gay man who makes for an easy target for the two thugs, and even TV sidekick Ed McMahon is fine as an angry but protective family man. But almost all of these characters are angry, irritable, frustrated, or hopeless. Gary Merrill adds a layer of weary dignity to his part as a recovering alcoholic trying to get his family back together. But for the most part, this apathetic lot will have you so red-faced and steaming at their inactivity (especially given they clearly have the numbers advantage), unfair as it may be to judge them. It’s certainly not a fun romp.

 

This one’s not very well-known, but even today it still packs a helluva wallop, after a somewhat slow start. It might even make you look inward and force you to face things about yourself you’d rather not think about (I’m lucky, I’m in a wheelchair, so no one expects me to act the hero, surely). I was on edge pretty much from start to finish. And that final shot of the drunken man...brilliance (So too a scene towards the end with Peters. You’ll know it when you see it, and it was probably quite true of the time as well). It’s not hard to tell that the screenplay by Nicholas E. Baehr was based on a teleplay by the same man, but don’t let that stop you from seeing this interesting and still confronting film. It deserves to be much better known.

 

Rating: B