Movies Can Take New Yorkers Back to the ’70s. But Why Go There?

In “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” a film classic about a New York subway hijacking and hostage-taking — the 1974 version, not the pallid 2009 remake — an exasperated transit official only wants to get his train back. He couldn’t care less about the fate of the captive riders. “What the hell did they expect for their lousy 35 cents — to live forever?” he grumbles.

Given the decay that has lately seeped into the bones of the city’s mass-transit network, some New Yorkers understandably wonder if that sort of bureaucratic indifference is more than a screenwriter’s throwaway line. One week ago, a southbound A train derailed and filled with smoke, causing passengers to fear that they could indeed die on the tracks.

The agony of the subways also has more than a few New Yorkers worrying that they’ve begun an inexorable descent, maybe even back to the 1970s, when the city endured what could reasonably be described as a near-death experience. It might be useful, then, for everyone to take a deep breath and think about how far New York has come from those bad old days.