The Passenger
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Movie Reviews of The Passenger
Movie Review: A journey into the soul...
Summary: 5 Stars
Michelangelo Antonioni. What can I say? I mean, I haven't seen a lot of his work (I've only seen 4 films) but I certainly admire his vision as a director. He is always true to himself first, which is one of the first requirements for any auteur. Yes, I've mentioned in past reviews that I am not a giant fan of his work. I absolutely loved `La Notte' but found myself indifferent to both `Blow-Up' and `L'Eclisse'.
`Professione: Reporter' is, by far, my favorite of the films I've seen from him.
While the film is wrapped up in the genre of an international thriller (and semi-romantic love story), the film is more of an intelligently disguised character study. Delving into the subject of self-discovery, Antonioni's masterpiece truly understands that underlying desire dwelling in all of us.
The film tells the story of David Locke, a reporter working in Africa. When a fellow traveler by the name of David Robertson suddenly dies, Locke decides (almost impulsively) to take on the man's identity. This allows Locke to completely leave his old life (husband, father, journalist) and start over. Locke knows nothing about Robertson, but he has his datebook and so he starts using it as a guide to his new life, taking meetings and slowly putting the pieces of Robertson's life together. Soon, Locke uncovers the dangerous business Robertson was a part of, but he's far more concerned about his former life catching up with him.
The film is truly intense, but it is the more human elements that prove the most haunting. Locke represents every individual who has ever wanted to just walk away and start over. His life isn't horrible, but his just unsatisfied with where he is headed. He longs to find something that gives him a feeling of purpose. By wandering aimlessly into another mans life, Locke has found that rush he was looking for. In a conversation had towards the end of the film, Locke recounts his interactions with a blind man who had undergone a surgery to regain his sight. He mentioned how the man was at first elated, but soon began to fear everything he never knew existed. He became sheltered and reclusive and eventually killed himself. That story adds layers to the character of David Locke, for it helps us to understand his mindset, which is not that uncommon or unique. The fact is that this world is not a nice place, and even when things are going well for us, sometimes we can find ourselves derailed just by comprehending the world's darkness.
Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors of all time, and here he is magnificent. I loved Maria Schneider in `Last Tango in Paris', and while I found her a tad ragged in this film, she embodied her character nicely. Jenny Runacre was, in my opinion, the films star performance. It is a small but pivotal role (that of Locke's wife) and she smolders on the screen.
This film is truly a directors vision, and it carries with it Antonioni's aesthetic, but it is certainly a film that all can enjoy. Don't be afraid that this will be an artsy film, for while I won't say that it is commercial, I will say that it is accessible.
Movie Review: Book Passage On This Unique Trip
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been wanting to give The Passenger a second chance since first seeing it almost thirty years ago -- a screening by a now long-defunct local film society at the rustic decades-old Footliters Theater in downtown Cadillac, Michigan, the erstwhile venue for the local community theater troupe and since lost to an electrical fire. Either the print or projection was awful while the sound system just plain stunk!
This new DVD edition has the "feel" of age (I could never understand why Antonioni used dark titles, same as on his Blow-Up) but is nonetheless very watchable (and listenable!) with brilliant color saturation and nary a noticeable scratch.
Needless to say, a keen sense of "place" and the emotional "distance" we keep from protagonist/reporter David Locke (Jack Nicholson) amidst his developing boredom and burn-out are brilliantly rendered through Antonioni's trademark cinematic sensibility. We see and feel Locke's need for change and are held rapt as he carries out his impromptu plan for self-reinvention. In my opinion, this consistent theme of Antonioni's is as well-performed and technically executed as in any of his films.
From the North African desert to London to Germany and finally to Spain, Locke embraces his newfound identity through unintended political intrigue and a search by his wife and former colleague (who believe his former self to be dead!) while sharing his exploit with a young fellow soulmate and nameless lover (Maria Schneider). The trip is both fascinating and spellbinding.
The denouement is something to behold, not only from a technical standpoint (which is extraordinary!) but from the sheer emotional dispatch we feel upon Locke's ultimate realization. The slowly diminishing "distance" from him we were feeling to that point utterly collapses! We're left feeling strangely as one with Locke, but more detached than ever from a mostly inert and indifferent world.
Any fan of Antonioni's renowned Italian trilogy (L'avventura, La Notte, and L'eclisse) or his wonderfully enigmatic English language masterpiece Blow-Up will certainly enjoy this. I also wouldn't hesitate to recommend The Passenger to the Antonioni uninitiate who wants a more accessible entry in which to explore a unique cinematic vision and language. Though I've yet to hear the commentary track from the screenwriter Mark Peploe and journalist Aurora Irvine, that of the seemingly world-weary yet self-satisfied modern-day Jack Nicholson was fun to hear if not overly insightful.
One of these days I may just give Antonioni's much maligned Zabriskie Point a "second chance"...one of these days.
Movie Review: A puzzle, but the pieces do fit if you look closely...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm amused at all the reviewers flummoxed by this beautiful film. I notice that most of the interpretations/reviews (outside of Amazon) have been by male reviewers. Perhaps they didn't "get" the subtleties that to me, a woman, seem rather obvious. First off: the "Passenger" is symbolized by Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider (who passed away recently, RIP Maria, you were exquisite in this film). Nicholson is the "passenger" of life, buffeted this way and that, a nomad, suddenly taking a doomed detour. Schneider is his literal passenger riding with him to his end (and setting up much of the transportation, in case you didn't notice). If you watch the ending closely, you will see that Schneider, lingering in the courtyard as Nicholson naps in his (separate) room, is approached by men we know to be foreign national thugs who have come for him, probably to kill him before he can create an international scandal for their (African) country. Nicholson, as the imposter, is now an embarrassment for the country's ruler, who wants to quell all rumors that the guerillas are still a threat to him. Therefore, Nicholson, a famous journalist who may or may not know too much, must be eliminated. When the men surround Schneider, you at first think they might harm her, or force her to take them to Nicholson's room. However, she subtly points to the front office and keeps walking around the courtyard, seemingly unphased by what has just occurred. Then she sort of wanders off as if uninterested in Nicholson or the men she must know have come for him (since the pair has been on the run from these thugs since she met him). Shortly thereafter, Nicholson's wife and Barcelona authorities arrive and break into his room, only to find him dead on his bed, just as he found the man whose identity he has assumed. Maria Schneider suddenly wanders in, and views the body with Nicholson's widow. Both women disavow him. His wife shakes her head: it's not him. (Better to let him have died, uneventfully, in Africa, than in this strange and disturbing setting and manner). Schneider says "I never knew him," which, to some degree, is true. She knew him as both men - himself and the one he pretended to be. Was she protecting him even in death? Or was she simply staying off to the side, to deflect the interest of the authorities? I believe she lured him away from Barcelona from the beginning, so that he could be murdered more easily by his pursuers. Any further thoughts from others are appreciated.Movie Review: One of the best films ever made.
Summary: 5 Stars
Jack Nicholson plays David Locke, a successful but jaded reporter in a mid life crisis. His mixed up mid Atlantic origins, failing marriage and dissatisfaction with his work come to a head in a small hotel in an obscure town in a war torn African country. The only other guest is the enigmatic business man Mr Robertson who confesses to having no family or friends only a list of appointments. The mid-life crisis fantasy turns into reality for Locke when Robertson dies from a heart attack. Locke switches passport photos, assumes the other man's identity and heads off to keep the apointments. The list of apointments in the dead man's diary lead Locke on a journey across Europe. He is pursued by a team of assassins who, believing him to be the real Mr Robertson, want to kill the man selling guns to the rebels in their country. Also on the trail are the police together with his wife who is the only other person in the film to have realised the identity swap. Despite the state of her marriage, (she has taken a lover) she still cares about him and wants to warn about the danger that he faces.
No mid life crisis film would be complete without the younger woman with beautiful eyes and no past herself who falls for the leading man. Maria Schneider plays this role very well providing both an innocent acceptance and a sophisticated understanding of Locke's game.
Very few actors could have played the part of Locke as well as Nicholson. He brings an air of detachment to the part that fits in with the character's behaviour. He is taking part in another man's life but as a spectator.
As well as the storyline, the film is shot with the artistic poise and exquisite technique that I always enjoy when I see the work of director Antonioni. From the scenes in the African dessert to the final moments in a small sun baked Spanish town, the film is a joy to view. At the end of the film comes one single camera shot that is quite magical. The scene starts in Nicholson's hotel room and slowly homes in on the barred window. We zoom towards the window and then fly out through the bars into the square outside. Then slowly, the camera, now clearly on the other side of the bars pans around the square before returning to view the window from the outside. At the time, this was the longest and technically the most demanding camera shot ever attempted.
Movie Review: Transient Identity....
Summary: 5 Stars
Michaelangelo Antonioni takes as a starting point a plot that could have easily made a standard or even quite good thriller, and quietly dismantles nearly all of its thriller tropes to create a strange and moody meditation on the fragile veneer of identity, and the danger both psychic and real from stepping off from the known and familiar into the unknown and mysterious.
A free-lance TV journalist forlornly trying to get some inside film on a North African rebel group abruptly switches identities with a look-alike stranger, dead of a heart attack, in the same run-down provincial hotel where both are staying. The remoteness of the locale, their close resemblance, and the unsophisticated institutions of this dismal country allow the journalist's impulsive caprice to succeed, and he begins an examination of both the life he's left behind and a search to answer the riddles of the identity he has stolen.
All of this is told in unconventional fashion, 70's style, with wide vistas, deliberately leisurely pace, enigmatic dialogue or no dialogue at all, with a great attention to the visual space the characters inhabit and a mimimum of explanation as to what these characters are feeling. There is some very clever work with time shifts done within continuing single shots, and of course, in the celebrated finale that elapses without dialogue and brings the film full circle in a single, justly famous, continuous shot.
This film will try the patience of many a 21st.Century viewer. Antonioni was all about breaking conventional screen story-telling devices, no less so than here, although this is actually one of his more accessible works. I have found some of his other films impenetrable.
Jack Nicholson's commentary is very welcome, less in recalling the shoot, however interesting, but more in his pointed comments as to how and where Antonioni breaks with traditional narrative. An intriguing look at the zeitgeist of the 70's from Antonioni's very European perspective.