Joe Sargent, director of the original ‘Pelham’ heist thriller, now teaches future filmmakers at Malibu’s Pepperdine University.
By Michael Aushenker
Special to The Malibu Times
His most famous feature film was remade by Tony Scott in 2009, heavily referenced in Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 breakthrough debut “Reservoir Dogs” and given a shout-out in a 1994 Beastie Boys song. But there’s nothing like the 1974 original heist thriller, “The Taking of the Pelham One Two Three.” And now, nearly 40 years later with some 85 movie and TV credits to his name, director Joseph Sargent is going back to film school…sort of.
In early 2011, Pepperdine University’s Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture announced that it had appointed the four-time Emmy-winning Sargent as its first Distinguished Filmmaker in Residence. Sargent spent 2011 judging the student film festival REELFEST and hosting a Pepperdine screening of his 2004 TV film “Something the Lord Made” (starring Alan Rickman and Mos Def).
“As of January, I have led an advanced directing, acting and writing collaborative workshop,” Sargent told The Malibu Times. “Basically, I’m giving [16 students] as much of my personal experience and training as I can to [prepare them for Hollywood].” A master film program will be instituted in the fall.
The man born Guiseppe Danielle Sorgente in Jersey City has come a long way since an uncle gave him an 8 millimeter camera when he was only 11. While studying acting at the New School of Social Research in Manhattan, the Italian-American chose a less ethnic-sounding name.
“Many years later, it was very trendy to be Italian and a director so I learned to regret my choice,” Sargent said.
Directing plays led him to “Lassie,” in its sixth season when he got the gig (directing 17 episodes).
Sargent shot “The Corbomite Maneuver” and the first “Star Trek” to air (ahead of its pilot episode). A shark-jumped “Bonanza” was the least favorite of Sargent’s numerous episodic TV credits (including “The Fugitive,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,” “Gunsmoke”).
Released in 1974, “The Taking of the Pelham One, Two, Three” has become Sargent’s signature film, and cinephiles can thank Burt Reynolds. At the height of Burt Mania, Sargent directed the 1973 hit “White Lightning,” landing him “Pelham.”
“We are going to kill one passenger a minute until New York City pays us 1 million dollars” promised the tagline of the movie poster, a chaotic scene in which machine gun-armed men terrorized a subway car filled with panicking New Yorkers. That summed up “Pelham’s” plot, minus the man, Walter Matthau, whose character sets out to thwart the train’s hijackers, who are led by Robert Shaw’s “Mr. Blue.”
Brash and politically incorrect like New Yorkers themselves, “Pelham” also included Lee Wallace’s pot-shot parody of then-New York City mayor Al Koch (which Koch loved).
That brash New York attitude, incidentally, created problems for Sargent when he got to Manhattan, where he shot scenes in a private subway tunnel reserved for movie-making.
“My being hired was met with such East Coast/West Coast rivalry that I was actually stunned,” he said, despite the Malibuite’s former New Yorker status. “It was me and the actors against the crew.”
“Pelham” did not play well in small-town America.
“Maybe only cities with subways could relate,” Sargent said. “It did reasonably well for United Artists.”
With its catchy David Shire score, “Pelham” has become a cult favorite. Its color-coded criminals inspired the heist characters’ aliases in Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs.” A 1998 TV remake pitted detective Edward James Olmos against Vincent D’Onofrio’s Mr. Blue. Scott’s feature starred Denzel Washington and John Travolta. Both remakes lacked the original’s New York sense of humor.
“Pelham” led to a great relationship between Sargent and Universal Studios, which wanted the filmmaker to direct a remake of “King Kong.” Luckily for Sargent, Universal lost the rights to rival producer Dino DeLaurentiis.
“That might have been another ‘Jaws 4’ for me,” he said.
Yes, Sargent helmed 1987’s franchise-killing sequel to Steven Spielberg’s hit 1975 blockbuster.
“Jaws: The Revenge” and “Coast to Coast” were the two movies that basically ended my features career,” Sargent said.
That blessing in disguise led to myriad “TV features” (he hates the term TV movies) across four decades. He has been nominated for nine Emmies, winning two in one year for directing the 1990 films “The Incident” and “Caroline?”
Sargent and his wife Carol have lived in Malibu for 41 years.
In 1981, Sargent basically discovered Malibu’s Pierce Brosnan, fighting to cast the Irish actor in “The Manions of America,” which was actually filmed in England.
Sargent says his Pepperdine experience has been as valuable to him as to his pupils.
“The joy for me as a retired director [is that] I’m still part of the pedagogy of filmmaking. That process is dynamic. I’m learning even as I teach…I don’t feel as if I’m retired anymore. I’m still in the game.”
Well, at least “Jaws 4” got one thing right with its poster tagline: “This time, it’s personal.”