MovieChat Forums > The Incident (1968) Discussion > No way

No way

posted 14 years ago by mojo2004
13 replies | jump to latest

The thugs didn't have guns and all those people would have just sat there?? Especially the guy with the little girl and the Black man who wife was grabbed?? If they were just all up in their faces I could see that happening even today but but the way they were bothering people?? The women?? Then two thugs kept separating. It would have been easy to take both of them. The soldiers were passive until the one with the broken arm got fed up! Then when the police showed up no one said anything about the police helping the hurt thugs first!! As angry as that Black guy was he would have beat the *beep* outta both of them for grabbing his wife, once he realized no one was going to do anything. I've ridden the train in NYC. That guy was already a time bomb from what happened at the token booth. No way would he have taken that crap!

"Where were you born? At home. I wanted to be near my mother."

[–] vpilutis 14 years ago

First off friend it is ONLY a movie.
Look that business at the end, no way would the police let the people go home before they interview them and get the story of what went on.

See some stars here
http://www.vbphoto.biz/

[–] dacritter17 14 years ago

Thats the point nyers suck i lived in brooklyn all my life,thats the way it is now.It took a out of towner to stand up.I just dont get the part with his friend hes in the army and just sat there????

[–] RRPounder 14 years ago

Yep...and some of the older people had pointy umbrellas. The movie was intriguing though.

[–] partsman 14 years ago

I wonder if now, post 9/11, people would be more prone to stand up together against people like that. At that time it was probably more common for people to just mind their own business and hope they just went away. Also the way the thugs went about it; they went at people one at a time, isolating them preying on their weaknesses, making it each person for themselves.

[–] Sheldonshells 11 years ago

Why would you think people would stand up together for anythig post 9/ll? Are people standing up against the assault on due process and habeaus corpus in the Patriot Act and NDAA? Are they standing up against the big moneyed takeover of their government? I don't see why you think people would help out any more now. There's those backwards idiot dolts that like to look like hereos to women (usually the more attractive ones) but would they do the same for anyone else?

[–] liscarkat (18541) 4 years ago

You're talking about something completely different from standing up to thugs who pose an immediate physical threat. As for those "backwards idiot dolts" you mentioned, you sound like you would never defend anyone, not even an attractive woman.

[–] melrosebeach 14 years ago

I saw this on AMC and it was so stupid, but I know it was the sign of the times. This movie would have lasted only five minutes in today's world. First of all Martin Sheen should have gotten body slammed and two guys on that subway could have taken the other guy. Yeah...no remake for this one

-stay thirsty my friends

[–] puplover 14 years ago

As said in several other threads: we all are just APPALLED by the reaction (or NON-reaction) of the passengers, but that was the point. I think it was a commentary on the self-involvement of people (look at how each "pair" were fighting amongst each other BEFORE they even got on the train); they (especially the men in this movie) could bully other women, but when it came time to stand up to a legitimate threat, they couldn't do it. (Look at Donna Mill's sexually harassing date; he bullied her into submission when they were alone, but he became a doormat when the thugs picked on them).

I think it was supposed to frustrate the hell out of us. And remember it's so easy to say how we would react "if we were there!!!" but we don't know, cuz we weren't there.

[–] marbleann 14 years ago

It is crazy. This is my experience working as a conductor on the #6 train. ANd I worked in the middle of night like this train. Any time some kind of incident happens you know because the passengers are running toward the conductors position(the fifth car). Nobody just sits there and watches things like that. Or a bunch of folks get off the train and alerts me about what is happening. Also at that time of night the fifth car is usually filled because they know that is where the conductor is at or the first car when the train operator is. Very little people would be sitting in any cars far from the 5th or 1st car. This train stops more then once I can't believe no one gets off or on the train. And I just noticed the train is against the wall at 125th street. Only locals are against the wall.

[–] singjohn 14 years ago

Exactly. The train ride went on forever! They could have rode all the way to Chicago! They stopped the doors with a shoe! Would have been easy to fix that. The angry black man would have kicked their asses in about 5 mins!

[–] puplover 14 years ago

But, I'm wondering...wasn't that the point of the movie though? The black guy DIDN'T kick their asses. Nobody did ANYTHING. It seems so unrealistic, but maybe it wasn't? I said in another thread there was a reason WHY we got to see each relationship BEFORE the "incident" on the train. And every one of them was "all talk". They could bitch out their partner, husband, wife, whoever, (or in the case of the black man, he threatened the toll booth guy while he was BEHIND THE TOOL BOOTH!) But when a real threat presented itself, no one did anything. So, is THAT what the director was showing us; how easy it is to talk but not act? And/or look how self-involved people are: they don't want to get involved w/ anything that doesn't directly affect them.

These are my thoughts, and I pose them as questions because I'm not sure exactly what the director/screenwriter was trying to tell us. Except for Beau Bridges, no one even stood up for THEMSELVES, and I am really curious about that too.

[–] ObstinateAnnette 13 years ago

I agree. In NYC or anywhere else in the U.S., you can't tell me two soldiers wouldn't at least try to kick some ass, broken arm or not.

It was an interesting movie, but not very realistic. And all I kept thinking was, "Where is Bernie Goetz when you need him?"

I need my 1987 DG20 Casio electric guitar set to mandolin, yeah...

[–] Sheldonshells 11 years ago

"If they were just all up in their faces I could see that happening even today"

What do you mean "even today". What the hell makes you think people would be any more generous to put their health or life on the line now compared to then in such a situation? What did people just magically evolve to be more courageous and desiring of helping others? The only thing that's different today is that there's more police/security and it's easier to contact them, that's about it.

Btw, your forgetting that this is a movie and that characters are made a certain way with a certain point and purpose in mind for them to add to the oveall theme of the movie. For instance the case with the black man, the whole point was to reveal a new part of his character when he started whimpering when pushed by the thug, to contrast how he behaved earlier with the ticket vendor and to reveal that he really wasn't so ready to fight after all and that he was actually a very broken man, that he was more depresssed than angry, and his anger was a cover for that. This is called character development.

"The women??"

What about the women? Let women protect themselves instead of expecting some man to put their life and limb on the line for them. There's martial arts, weight lifting to build strength, tasers, knifes, guns, and so on. If women can make more money than men and be the bosses of men, then they can defend themselves against men too.