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The Passenger is one of those movies that is all about the vision of the director, in this case, screen legend Michelangelo Antonioni. Starring none other than Jack Nicholson, and featuring a plot billed as an international romantic thriller, The Passenger defies expectations by turning the genre on its head, making the characters and the story secondary to theme and tone. London-based Journalist David Locke (Nicholson) is working in North Africa when a fellow traveler by the name of David Robertson, who looks remarkably like him, happens to die suddenly. Burned out and depleted, Locke decides to assume the dead man’s identity, drops everything, and starts again as a new man with a new life. With no idea of who Robertson was or what he did for a living, Locke uses Robertson’s datebook as a guide as he travels through Europe and Africa, takes meetings with people he finds out are gun runners, and ends up falling for a beautiful young woman (Maria Schneider). As Robertson, David Locke thinks he has found an exhilirating new freedom, but the fact is he's in over his head: there are people looking for him and his life could be in danger. The movie is a thriller in structure only. While designed for suspense, it’s just a premise for Antonioni to explore on themes of identity, humankind’s seemingly futile relationship to the world around us, and isolation. For Antonioni, the action is the means by which the image unfolds, and not the other way around. The actors and the plot are set pieces, simply smaller means to a larger end, and the image and atmosphere supersede all else. A slow pace, long, lingering shots, a focus on emptiness, and a detached, almost brutally objective point of view are the trademarks on full display here. Especially notable is the stunning seven-minute long shot in the final scene, one of the most famous in cinema history, which Nicholson, in his commentary, tags as an "Antonioni joke." It caps a crowning achievement by one of the big screen’s most visionary directors.
Synopsis
A burned-out journalist assumes the identity of a dead man and embarks on a dangerous charade, including meetings with gun runners and an affair with a mysterious young woman.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Antonioni has that gift of dropping you into a story and leaving you to explore the characters' situation, or so it seems, without the film appearing to follow a typical narrative arc. We are all strangers on a strange planet, our sentience inviting us to question our motivation for putting one foot in front of the other, to choose left rather than right, yes rather than no. people put schemes into action, make spontaneous, random decisions: live or die with the consequences.
Refreshing to see Nicholson in a film with no raised eyebrow or wolfish pantomime;Schneider pre-Last tango, also apart from the image many may carry in their memories of the lusty Parisian; a free spirit tagging along with Nicholson's journalist turned arms dealer/escape artist.
It's a beautiful film with a magical final scene outside a bullring. One of Antonioni's best, least frustrating films.
To think I was in a room recently where people were discussing the acting genius of Jet Lee. Heavens!
Refreshing to see Nicholson in a film with no raised eyebrow or wolfish pantomime;Schneider pre-Last tango, also apart from the image many may carry in their memories of the lusty Parisian; a free spirit tagging along with Nicholson's journalist turned arms dealer/escape artist.
It's a beautiful film with a magical final scene outside a bullring. One of Antonioni's best, least frustrating films.
To think I was in a room recently where people were discussing the acting genius of Jet Lee. Heavens!
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
A jaded journalist steals another man's identity & gets embroiled in arms trafficking connected to North African liberation movements.
In the early 1970s there were many attempts to fuse the European art house movie with the Hollywood thriller - The Passenger is probably the most successful example, though today it will probably appeal to art house cinephiles more than to fans of typical Jack Nicholson blockbusters.
Antonioni was never better - almost every shot & frame is extraordinary but in an unostentatious way (not always the case with Antonioni!). The entire complicated final scene seems to be filmed in one long circular take, which will have technical types wondering how it was done. The plot, narrative & dialogue are as focused as any "New Hollywood" film from the period (eg Scorcese). Jack Nicholson gives an acting masterclass - the lengthy scene where he steals the dead man's identity shows all the complex thoughts & considerations involved - but all without words. Maria Schnieder replays her Last Tango in Paris role here & Ian Hendry turns in a perfect performance (as he usually did).
The film also touches on "third world" and "post colonial" political issues in a provocatively non-judgemental way that is still relevant.
The Passenger was out of circulation in the cinema for many years for mysterious reasons & it's wonderful to have it back on this DVD, which also includes 2 commentaries from Nicholson & Peploe (but unfortunately not from Peter Wollen). I'd say The Passenger is one of the very best films of the 1970s - for me it stands up better than Last Tango...
In the early 1970s there were many attempts to fuse the European art house movie with the Hollywood thriller - The Passenger is probably the most successful example, though today it will probably appeal to art house cinephiles more than to fans of typical Jack Nicholson blockbusters.
Antonioni was never better - almost every shot & frame is extraordinary but in an unostentatious way (not always the case with Antonioni!). The entire complicated final scene seems to be filmed in one long circular take, which will have technical types wondering how it was done. The plot, narrative & dialogue are as focused as any "New Hollywood" film from the period (eg Scorcese). Jack Nicholson gives an acting masterclass - the lengthy scene where he steals the dead man's identity shows all the complex thoughts & considerations involved - but all without words. Maria Schnieder replays her Last Tango in Paris role here & Ian Hendry turns in a perfect performance (as he usually did).
The film also touches on "third world" and "post colonial" political issues in a provocatively non-judgemental way that is still relevant.
The Passenger was out of circulation in the cinema for many years for mysterious reasons & it's wonderful to have it back on this DVD, which also includes 2 commentaries from Nicholson & Peploe (but unfortunately not from Peter Wollen). I'd say The Passenger is one of the very best films of the 1970s - for me it stands up better than Last Tango...
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I saw this in the cinema. I had no idea what to expect. It was fabulous. I loved every minute, and when I came out I felt I had been through a complete experience - i felt I had been in the cinema for days.
That's why I can understand people who are disappointed and frustrated by it. It's made for cinema, not TV, and DVD just ain't the same. I can give it only four stars - unless you've got a private Odeon in your mansion, in which case it's five.
Antonioni's films are slow, but he was the last great European filmmaker who understood the medium. In these days of push-button editing the chance for viewers to immerse themselves in long, single shots are gone, and with them the nature of the art.
That's why I can understand people who are disappointed and frustrated by it. It's made for cinema, not TV, and DVD just ain't the same. I can give it only four stars - unless you've got a private Odeon in your mansion, in which case it's five.
Antonioni's films are slow, but he was the last great European filmmaker who understood the medium. In these days of push-button editing the chance for viewers to immerse themselves in long, single shots are gone, and with them the nature of the art.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Classic Existential Arthouse
I missed this film when my student film society showed it in the early eighties, but the description of a dissillusioned journalist who swaps identities with a dead man stuck with... Read more
Published 14 months ago by tallmanbaby
Wonderful
After getting used to HD, the opening minutes of this movie worried me. Looked cheap, a bit of a mess. But... wow. I loved this film! Read more
Published 15 months ago by A. J. Morris
A very strong film, on the edge of brilliance
More accessible and less mysterious than any of the other widely known Antonioni movies, with more of a plot in a traditional sense. Read more
Published 15 months ago by K. Gordon
The Passenger
Like a turning off of The Sheltering Sky,this film takes off from the desert when Locke's(Nicholson's)jeep's wheels cannot get out of a sand dune. Read more
Published on 12 May 2009 by technoguy
How films are made
Apart from the superb film itself there are two 'commentaries' on this disc, one a run-through of the film with Jack Nicholson talking about his view of it as a masterpiece,... Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2007 by Alan Tucker
A Truly Flawed Masterpiece
'The Passenger'is the very essence of quiet, profound filmaking. Elliptical, incrediby ambiguous and with a noirish storyline that discards the importance of plot for the... Read more
Published on 17 Nov 2006 by P. V. Oldham
Sublime Antonioni
I'd heard about this but never had the opportunity to see it before this release. It was worth the wait. Read more
Published on 5 Sep 2006 by Britalian
Over-hyped reissue
This a dissappointing and rather slow film. The plot involves the Jack Nicholson character deciding to swap his identity in darkest Africa with an arms dealer who suddenly dies in... Read more
Published on 1 Sep 2006 by don't look now
Absolutely essential 70's cinema
I'm not going to write a long, bloated review demonstrating how well I know this film or how auteur-savvy I am ,or repeating the usual things people say about this film, like... Read more
Published on 4 Jun 2006 by Kubricker
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