Subway (1985) – we’re going underground:

Subway

Subway (1985) – we’re going underground

Review by Jack Kost

Like Scanners (1980), another movie that falls into the Fun But Flawed category is Subway (1985).
Or maybe Slick But Silly would be more apt.

Subway has always been the Luc Besson movie I’ve liked least, and yet still enjoyed watching again from time to time.
I didn’t get the opportunity to see Subway when it was first released at the cinema, but I caught it as a video rental.
Before its cinema release, I saw a preview of Subway on a movie review show.
Instead of a regular trailer, they showed the entire opening scene.
It was all the hook I needed.

The movie starts with three quotes scrolling out across the screen:

To be is to do. – Socrate.
To do is to be. – Sartre.
Do be do be do. – Sinatra.

This sets the tone for what we’re about to see.

We’re thrown straight into a gripping car chase scene.
Fred (Christopher Lambert; credited as Christophe Lambert), dressed in a tuxedo, drives through Paris, France, at high speed, as four men pursue and attempt to run him off the road.

Fred crashes his car into a subway train station entrance and escapes on foot.

It’s revealed that Fred is a safe cracker.

He was invited to a party by Héléna (Isabelle Adjani), a bored socialite, trapped in a loveless marriage.
Fred steals compromising documents from her husband, resulting in his being wanted by the cops and the husband’s henchmen.

Fred takes refuge in the train station sub-structure.
He wanders the corridors and adjoining rooms and conduits, carrying a fluorescent light, in a memorable and atmospheric scene that was way too brief.

Fred contacts Héléna, who joins him in the subway.

They become romantically involved, as they encounter and befriend various underworld (pun intended) characters:
The Roller (Jean-Hugues Anglade), a roller-skating thief.
The Florist (Richard Bohringer).
The Drummer (Jean Reno) who carries drumsticks and practices his beat on whatever happens to be in front of him.
Big Bill (Christian Gomba), a body-builder who works out using train parts.

I liked the neo-noir, crime thriller basis and the concept of criminals occupying the underbelly of the city.
I didn’t like how the story, after such a great start, devolved into a mess.
The basic premise was a good idea that wasn’t developed.
Slick, flashy, and energetic it all may be … but sadly it amounts to nothing.
For all its energy and a chase here and there, it turns flat and meanders without tension or suspense to its contrived, unconvincing end.
There’s no attempt to explain who the subway misfits are, where they came from, how they came to be living beneath the Paris subway system, or how they manage to sustain their lives, as they evade the law and hide out within their own eclectic subterranean society.

And what does Fred do?
Does he use the Paris Metro subway system to escape?
No.
He stays and forms a rock band.
That’s exactly the rational course of action for a career thief being hunted by cops who want him jailed, and criminals who want him dead … stay right where they’re all searching and manage a rock band.
Makes perfect sense … right?

Subway was directed by Luc Besson, a story he co-wrote with Marc Perrier, and released in France on April 10, 1985.
The music is by Éric Serra, who also has a role as a member of the band.

My favorites by Luc Besson are:

La Femme Nikita (1990)
Léon: The Professional (1994)
The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
Angel-A (2005)
Lucy (2014)

Movies I enjoy more with each viewing.
I can’t call Subway a favorite, but it still has appeal, charm, and good scenes that make it worth the time to see.
It’s off-beat. An oddity. Unconventional. Eccentric. Stylish.
This is style over substance.
No argument.
The cinematography and sound give it a surface allure.
The tracking scenes where we follow characters as they move through the corridors are engaging, but they lead nowhere and amount to nothing.

Subway is a curiosity piece, good for fans of Luc Besson who want to look up his earlier work.
Be warned, this is nowhere near as accomplished as Besson’s later movies.
The writing, character, and story development just isn’t there.
It feels like Besson was learning his craft with Subway.
The weak and disjointed plot is unsatisfying.

Subway left me wishing that it ended as well as it started.
However, I know in a few years, I’ll likely see it on TV and watch it again.
As improbable and pointless as Subway is, it’s still a fun and entertaining movie, even to watch only out of curiosity of how far the director progressed as a film-maker.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about Subway.
I can’t go deep on a movie with a story that simply has no depth and falls apart before the first half-hour is up.
It left me unsure of what Luc Besson was ultimately going for with this movie.
As a crime thriller, it falls flat.
It isn’t funny enough to be regarded as a comedy or spoof.
A pity.
As likeable as the movie is for its few likeable scenes, it could have been so much more.
Aficionados of the 1980s may get more out of it.

In the end, I think of it as a good bad movie and, considering the multitude of other movies in that category, I’ve sat through a whole lot worse.

Since its release, Subway has been held up as a classic example of arthouse cinema.

Like a lot of art, it looks great, but there’s nothing behind it.

Do be do be do.