This movie is about apathy, BUT...

I'm not certain, but it seems to me that the screenwriter and director may have been using the fictional story to comment on a real life event that had recently and infamously taken place in NYC: a woman was raped and killed while screaming for help and an entire apartment house full of people overheard what was happening and did nothing--I think they didn't even telephone the police until it was too late. The shock of their inaction gripped and saddened the rest of the country, where many people were outraged by their inaction and insisted that THEY would surely have done something if they'd been involved. Except, of course--they weren't. This is why, at the very end--after everything has happened and these people have been traumatized by their mutual experience, they pointedly ignore the "bum" passed out on the floor of the car and simply walk out without even trying to see if he is okay or even notifying the police or someone at the station.

And, to reply to your point about the inertia among the passengers: there is more movement than you seem to recall (I just watched it tonight so it's fresh in my mind) but, yes--overall, the passengers seem mostly to behave as if minding their own business and not confronting (or even challenging) the hoodlums will save their skins. Instead, from today's vantage point, they seem almost impossibly passive and cowardly. The one sequence that really disturbed me (I had seen it years ago but did not recall this part) is when Jan Sterling (the blonde woman with the hat & veil) has finally had enough and stands up to Tony Musante, only to have the tension turned on her by her weak husband, whom she slaps--and HE SLAPS HER BACK, to the sadistic delight of the hoodlums.

It's still a very powerful and thought-provoking film that asks us to consider how we might all react under such circumstances.

"Thank you, thank you--you're most kind. In fact you're every kind."

But, do you all think EVERYONE'S passivity (save for Beau Bridges) was a little TOO extreme?

I guess the makers of this film were trying to say something about those times but I found this to be one of the most ridiculous movies I ever watched. There were enough able bodied men to take the two hoodlums but everybody just sat there and waited their turn to be verbally abused. It was like they were cued when it was their turn.

And the army guy who didn't help Beau Bridges character should have been ashamed of himself. Maybe that was part of the point of this movie what with Vietnam and all happening at that time.

If any of you remember Bernhard Goetz, you will understand why he did what he did. At least he didn't sit there like a sniveling coward, he acted!

You hit the nail on the head, and that's why this film didn't really work for me. It wasn't their just their passivity. When the two thugs began to misbehave, several of them spoke up individually and were cowed when they were threatened in return. In particular, the black man was quite ready to get physical and only backed down when he realized that he'd almost certainly cause his wife to be injured.

When the little girl was being harassed, it finally crossed the line for Beau Bridges, but I found it hard to believe that the others would have allowed it to continue. Even the older women had shown enough backbone to make it more likely that they would have walloped one of them with her purse. I don't think it would have been unrealistic to expect an "I am Spartacus" moment.

I didn't mind the lack of heroics in the earlier part of the movie. No one wants to be singled out as a target by two unpredictable sociopaths, but once it turned physical and with numbers clearly in favor of the good guys, having everyone remain seated was just silly. At the very least, the guy who had to watch his girlfriend fondled and the black man who was mercilessly insulted would have wanted to get a shot in.

Well, to think that basically, all it would have taken to solve the problem, was two guys making a simultaneous, resolute move... wouldn`t even have required any particularly advanced fighting skill.



"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

i see this happening on a daily basis, never to the same degree, but close enough. i've had to crack a guy's skull open once but it was self defense.

people are scared *beep* it's pathetic.

I was in a couple of situations like this, just not in NYC metro. And guess what? Exactly the same reaction. No one wants do deal with scums because no one wants troubles, to be beaten or got a knife in your belly. What for? Because of couple of minutes mostly harmless stuff? Especially when guys drunk it's pointless to say something reasonable, no one wants attracts attention. And i am not an exclusion myself.