Today, New York is a relatively clean and safe city. Indeed, it’s one of the safest major cities in the United States. This was the result of a number of initiatives which were introduced in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since 1991, crime rates in the Big Apple have been steadily dropping. Set a few decades earlier, Larry Peerce’s film The Incident captures a moment in time in the country’s history.
Set on a warm New York city night in the 1960s, Joe (Tony Musante) and Artie (Martin Sheen) are two delinquents looking for mischief. In search of thrills, they head towards Times Square. They board a subway car full of people with their own problems, hang-ups and issues. This includes two servicemen, a recovering alcoholic, an Afro-American couple, a homosexual, and elderly Jewish couple and young passionate lovers. They begin a reign of terror on the occupants.
The Incident is one of those films which is hard to watch for all the right reasons. Peerce spends time building up the passengers’ back stories, one by one. This means that when the action tarts to happen there’s nothing to slow it down. Shot in gritty black and white, The Incident feels dangerous and is genuinely unsettling. Part social commentary, part captivity thriller, it’s a magnificent piece of taut and nasty film-making.
Special features:
- 1080p high-definition digital transfer, available for the first time ever on Blu-ray
- Uncompressed monaural soundtrack (on Blu-ray)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Brand new and exclusive audio commentary by film critic and writer Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Audio Commentary with Director Larry Peerce and Film Historian Nick Redman
- Post-screening Q&A with director Larry Peerce, filmed at the 2017 Wisconsin Film Festival [30 mins]
- Original Theatrical Trailer
- Limited Edition Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film writer Samm Deighan; critic and journalist Barry Forshaw; Welcome to Fear City: A Survival Guide for Visitors to the City of New York – a reprint of the notorious pamphlet distributed at the height of New York’s crime epidemic [First Print Run Only]
The Incident is released on Dual Format (DVD & Blu-ray) by Eureka Classics on 12 August.
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