The Passenger

Michelangelo Antonioni is not often a director to bring in the popcorn, blockbuster, movie crowds. In fact, he never once did in his brilliant career. He couldn't do that, for almost all of his films involve people looking for something, often with no background music and in silence. This can be really trying for most modern moviegoers, as opposed to way back in the day when films like this got a surprisingly good turnout. But a good movie is a good movie, no matter how the tastes and film viewing styles of the public change from baby boomer to gen X to millennial and beyond. And The Passenger, from 1975, is a great movie that has been almost swept to the foreign film dustbin. It shouldn't.The film stars Jack Nicholson, (my favorite actor BTW) as an American journalist covering a story in Africa concerning a despotic military regime. Another journalist in the same hotel as Jack suddenly dies, and so Nicholson decides the opportunity to switch identities with the dead man is too good to pass up. This turns out to be a big mistake, as he soon finds out that the dead man was an illegal gun runner down in Africa. This leads to a time honored Hitchcock situation: guy thinks he can get away with something - guy soon finds himself in over his head - have fun watching the guy try to squirm his way out. But of course with MA you have a different approach. The film seems to me to be about how some people (if not all) desperately want to escape their life and be someone else. And here it takes seemingly forever for that approach to the story to unfold. But the great attribute of MA is that you are compelled to be interested nonetheless. This film, like Blow-Up, La Notte and Red Desert (to name a few) gets you caught up in nothing, through some of the most brilliant camera work in cinematic history. It is, as Jack states on the audio commentary included with this DVD, all about moving space. And I think with Antonioni, that is where the art lies.The film also stars Maria Schneider, not long after the terrible and abusive experience she went through in making Last Tango in Paris. She is far better here, and her character is more restrained and enigmatic. Yet far more expressive, since she really has little to do. And In a MA film, that's a lot. The locations are memorable, with almost all of the film shot in either Africa or Barcelona. Rarely have they looked so haunting.This is one of those films in which moments stand out for me: Sweat pouring off of Jack's back as he drags the dead man from one room to another. Jack unleashing his anger on a sand stuck truck with a shovel (and not a golf club!) Maria Schneider with her hair blowing in the wind from an open convertable, finding out just what Jack is trying to run away from. Some British white guy doing a lame job of pretending to be Bruce Lee. Footage of a political prisoner in Africa being shot by a firing squad, and not dying right away. (BTW this was documentary footage and not fake). Those magnificent Gaudi buildings in Barcelona. And, of course, the virtuoso finale. As for how that brilliant penultimate shot, which seems to go right through the window, was shot, Jack explains the secret on the commentary.Speaking of that, Nicholson offers a very nice and fascinating audio commentary to the film. Lots of great anecdotes about working with one of the great geniuses of cinema. Although, it sounds like he recorded it while still in bed, too tired to get up in the morning. Nevertheless, any Jack is better than no Jack. But boy does he sound his age! A second commentary included is more of a historical context to political situations in Africa around the time of the shooting, and is still interesting if a bit dryer. Overall this is a must see movie. But please, keep in mind: very little seems to happen in this film for pretty much the entire 126 minute run. However, to the careful observer, everything happens in this film. All of the films of Antonioni are like that. If only we had more careful observers watching movies today. ---------------------PEACE

Michaelangelo Antonioni's 1975 film is dreamlike and mysterious. On one level it is about the literal danger in stealing someone else's identity. That premise alone presents numerous dramatic possibilities, but "The Passenger" goes much further, to become a haunting meditation on rootlessness and ennui. It examines the paradox of seemingly endless freedom gradually becoming a prison with only one means of escape.David Locke (Jack Nicholson, in one of his greatest performances), is a photojournalist working in North Africa. Out of nothing more than boredom, apparently, he steals the identity of a dead man, the only other guest in his hotel. The man, known only as Mr. Robertson, is barely known to Locke. They have had one conversation, and Robertson has said little more than that he is a businessman who travels all over the world and has no family.Once Locke becomes Robertson, he begins meeting the appointments in Robertson's datebook. It becomes his own personal Michelin guide and sends him all over Europe to gorgeous locations, filmed to their greatest advantage by Luciano Tovoli. In Munich, Locke learns that he is an arms dealer. But, as Jack Nicholson notes in his wry commentary on the DVD, "at least he knows he's selling to the rebels."Locke keeps all the appointments in the datebook, but the people he is supposed to meet abruptly stop showing up. He is mystified, confused, bewildered. There is trouble and fear in the silence that seems to meet him everywhere. Along the way he meets a young student, "The Girl," played enigmatically by Maria Schneider. She speaks in epigrams, is intrigued by Locke and views the life he has adopted as something of a game.If we're not who we know ourselves to be, who are we? This is the question Antonioni repeatedly raises, and wisely never answers. One more than one occasion, Locke asks the girl, "what the ---- are you doing here with me?" Her first response is the most telling: "which 'me'?" Repeatedly he pushes her away, whether to protect her from himself, his alter ego or those who might be after either one of them, we can't say. But she remains cleverly steadfast.There is very little dialogue and not a great deal of action. But the feeling of menace and dread grows more powerful with each reel. And the payoff -- and it's a big one -- comes in the final seven minutes, with a single shot that is justifiably famous. It neatly ties up all the loose ends, although you may not realize it on first viewing. There are technical questions about how this shot was accomplished which the DVD commentaries answer. As with many scenes in many Antonioni movies, the final shot of "The Passenger" appears to say nothing while saying everything. It's just remarkable. No other word will do.I did not find screenwriter Mark Peploe's commentary to be particulary interesting. He talks too fast, he backtracks, he gets ahead of himself. He has a female friend with him who had no involvement in the film; she doesn't get the chance to say much and when she raises (good) questions, Peploe fails to answer them. I did not finish listening.Jack Nicholson's commentary -- which I believe he says is the first he's ever done for a DVD -- is quite good. He has owned the rights to "The Passenger" for many years, and it was his choice to re-release it to theatres in late 2005, and then to release it on DVD. Nicholson takes a great deal of pride in having worked with Antonioni. (He remains the highest-caliber actor to have done so.) Jack sounds like he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, but listen to the words. He's not intrusive, he chooses his words carefully, and he displays great intelligence and sly wit. It is he who says "The Passenger" is "beautifully hypnotic", and he is correct.