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The Passenger
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Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Drama |
Format | Multiple Formats, NTSC, Color, Subtitled, Widescreen |
Contributor | Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Berkoff, Ian Hendry, Jenny Runacre, Maria Schneider, Jack Nicholson, Carlo Ponti, Proteus Films, Inc. See more |
Language | English, French, Spanish, German |
Runtime | 2 hours and 6 minutes |
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Product Description
Product Description
Three-time Oscar(r)-winner Jack Nicholson (Best Actor, As Good As It Gets - 1997, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 1975; Best Supporting Actor, Terms of Endearment - 1983) and iconic screen beauty Maria Schneider (Last Tango in Paris) star in THE PASSENGER, a cinematically brilliant romantic thriller written and directed by Oscar(r)-winning filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni 1995 Honorary Award (Blow Up, L'Avventura). When a fellow traveler dies suddenly, burned-out journalist David Locke (Jack Nicholson) assumes his identity. Using the dead man's datebook as a guide, Locke travels throughout Europe and Africa, taking meetings with dangerous gun runners and falling for a beguiling young woman (Marie Schneider). But his exciting newfound freedom carries a fateful price as Locke realizes he is in over his head. Featuring a tour-de-force performance by Nicholson, THE PASSENGER won the Bodil Award in 1976 for Best European Film and was nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1975 Cannes Fi
Amazon.com
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 mans 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 Robertsons 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, its just a premise for Antonioni to explore on themes of identity, humankinds 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 screens most visionary directors.
On the DVD:
The commentaries are most definitely welcome guides, and those looking for a way into the movie and into Antonionis head will really enjoy them. Jack Nicholson provides one commentary track where he generously shares his memories of the shoot, his thoughts on the movie thirty years on, and lets out the secret of how they managed to get the camera through the bars on the window for that seven-minute shot in the last scene. On the second commentary track, journalist Aurora Irvine and screenwriter Mark Peploe offer more of a wide-angle lens view of the movie and its place in history. Both are insightful narrativesNicholsons is particularly enjoyable--and make excellent additions to the DVD. --Daniel Vancini
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
- Product Dimensions : 7.75 x 5.75 x 0.5 inches; 2.88 ounces
- Item model number : 12654
- Director : Michelangelo Antonioni
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, NTSC, Color, Subtitled, Widescreen
- Run time : 2 hours and 6 minutes
- Release date : April 25, 2006
- Actors : Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff
- Subtitles: : English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Thai, Chinese
- Producers : Carlo Ponti
- Language : Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
- Studio : Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- ASIN : B000E33W0I
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #95,396 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #15,899 in Drama DVDs
- Customer Reviews:
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You can't really understand To Kill A Mockingbird until you can thematize the hingelike relationship between Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Similarly, in The Passenger, one must understand the relationship between impulsively changing your identity, and the world of politics and revolution. When David Locke impulsively assumes the identity of Robertson, he has become a gunrunner providing guns to revolutionaries in Africa. Locke is forced to confront the political world as an actor rather than as an observer (as a journalist he had interviewed the fascist dictator whose minions are now pursuing him as Robertson).
Perhaps the link between the two concepts is the fact that a revolution is a starting-over, a violent abandoning of an enormous past, a step into an unknown future. The dislocation is profound. And the old guard, the dictatorship, clings to power with all its might, resisting change. Just as a person's identity clings to him or her, not so willing to be thrown away.
The arc of the movie is described by Locke himself near the end, when he tells the story of a blind man who regained his sight. After an initial period of elation, the blind man began to notice the ugliness, the dirtiness of the world. He retreated into his room and eventually killed himself. Similarly, David Locke, initially exhilarated by his new identity (he said to Robertson, "Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could leave each day behind, forget about it and start over?"), becomes depressed by it as the film goes on. He says to Maria Schneider, "Let's go eat. The old me is hungry."
Soon after their meeting, as they are driving in his convertible, Schneider asks Locke, "What are you running away from?" He replies, "Turn your back to the front seat." She turns and sees a tree-lined road receding behind her. At first she smiles, amused by his metaphor. Then her smile fades as she senses the falseness of his position.
At the end Locke is murdered by the dictator's secret police. But do they know his real identity? Do they believe they are murdering Robertson? Or do they realize that Locke is an impostor, and they are eliminating the impostor? In any case, Locke dies as another man. And when the police show his wife his dead body, she says significantly, "I never knew him," which means, "I never knew Robertson" but also "I never knew my husband. I never thought him capable of a stunt like taking on another man's identity."
My favorite sequence is the beginning, where the Africans treat Locke with arrogant indifference, and the empty desert helps conspire to frustrate him in his desire to get a story about the guerrillas who are fighting against the fascist government. There is an impressive aridity about this sequence, which is followed by the hotel's airy interior, where Locke converses with Robertson. The ceiling fan is used ingeniously by Antonioni as a time lapse device. We see Locke sitting at the table in his checked shirt, the camera looks up at the fan, and when it returns to Locke he is wearing Robertson's blue shirt.
When Locke finds Robertson's body and decides to take on his identity, he correctly assumes that the Africans who run the hotel won't know the difference between one white man and another. He tells them Locke is dead, and they immediately inform the authorities.
The film ends with the famous shot of the camera in Locke's room moving slowly toward the window, then through the bars of the window, as Locke is murdered off screen. Once outside the hotel, the camera watches the police arrive and take Locke's wife to the room where he is lying dead.
The color lime green plays an important visual role in the movie. It is seen in the African hotel, it is on a wall in the German sequence, it it bathes the entire large restaurant where Locke and the girl are found by the police, who tell Schneider that Locke's wife thinks he is in danger.
The Sony transfer is magnificent. The movie looks better on my plasma TV than it looked in the theater. There are commentaries by Jack Nicholson, interesting,[for instance, when Schneider says "People disappear every day" and Locke replies significantly, "every time they leave the room," Nicholson comments that he himself added this line to the screenplay] and screenwriter Mark Peploe, less interesting.
A complex, thought-provoking thriller which re-established Antonioni as a great filmmaker after the critical disaster of Zabriskie Point.
So how to judge this movie becomes the issue for me. This is no high speed ride. It's fine cinematography with a few shots that are probably more famous than the movie (she in back of the car as the trees go by her is an incredibly beautiful visual image). The story again while conceptually interesting didn't go as deep for me as it seemed to for other reviewers. While forgivable, I didn't find the scenes where Jack interacts with the arms buyers extremely likely - he obviously looked like he didn't know what was going on and I didn't wholly buy their complete oblivion to this.. I liked the girl. She was a real work of art. Her presence in the movie made about as much sense as anything else, but I was glad she was there. It was a fun "what if" study. What if a man went to the extreme of getting rid of his whole history in this way? This idea is probably attractive to most people from time to time in their lives, so there's no question that the idea appeals. The next question is would such a thing be possible, and would it play out something like the way it is depicted in "The Passenger"? My gut reation to that is probably "no". But these are not the most important questions - like one of the interviewees says to Jack when he asks him loaded questions before an interview. The questions tell you more about the asker than the subject questioned. For me, the question is what makes this a good movie? Is it a good movie or a great movie? The answer will depend on the criterion that you bring.
If being intellectually or intuitionally intrigued is a condition for your idea of a great movie, then.. you will have to answer whether or not it does that for you. For me, there were moments. Definite moments. There was always this kind of vast isolation, and mild uneasiness wrapped up in a sense of possibility that didn't seem likely to produce. But the journey seemed a worthwhile one just for the sake of being what it was - an attempt to escape. Chances are, our watching these movies is nothing less than that same urge, on some level. Thus, the protagonists story has meaning and was worthwhile for me. Other things too, make it worthwhile. Antonioni's rendering of the story - the scenery and some of the scenes were worthwhile. One I liked - near the end, a little girl is casually blowing a bubble as Jack is walking by, and that pink bubble just gets bigger and bigger, but before it pops - the shot stops. The concept of the movie, the subdued loveliness of the actress very much a part of the Spanish landscape, the moments of sparse dialogue where brilliance occasionally flashes through - I tip my hat to all these things - but what keeps me from giving this movie 5 stars is that it didn't succeed in helping ME escape. And while the ending was fitting and somewhat ironic, it didn't blow me away content wise. And let me also say that while there are some good shots in this movie camerawise, there are also many that go on long enough to test your endurance. So much so, that I could go look outside my window for ten minutes and have a similar emotional reaction. Not usually what I go to the movies for. So, all things considered, the movie'll probably be even more interesting for viewers after they've seen it, should they care to think about it, rather than while they are undergoing the actual movie.
Top reviews from other countries
Peccato manchi la traccia audio italiana.
Meravigliosa la presenza in HD del corto "L'amorosa Menzogna".
Merita
Reviewed in France on March 23, 2021
His carreer followed a remarkable similar path to De Niro's: Superb early performances, most notably with Scorsese, but also Bertollucci ('1900') and Leone ('Once Upon a Time in America') followed by decades of crowd-pleasing rubbish. All right, that's a bit harsh. Deminishing returns, with the occasional flash of brilliance.
It was said that Jean Gabin always demaded a scene where he spectacularly loses his temper and Nicholson seemed to emulate this, at first highly entertainingly, as in the diner scene in 'Five Easy Pieces'
I urge you to see this Antonioni, required viewing for anyone who claims to be interested in "World Cinema" that comes with lots of interesting extras, but also see the others I've mentioned, especially 'Marvin Gardens', where he plays the introverted brother, leaving the showy "Jack
Nicholson role" to Bruce Dern.
Remember, Jack wasn't always the saturnine letcher, for a brief period he was Bogie, before he became mannered and took the easy option.
Truly great artists become even greater in old age, they don't become lesser, minor artists. Which is probably why the Hollywood boys and girls are really artistes, with an 'e', not real artists without the 'e'.
P.S. Conscious that my "review" doesn't say much about the film, as others have pretty much covered, it ad nausem, I will say that it's a technically brilliant, bourgeois travelogue about alienation, identity and architecture, first world problems filmed, largely, in third world countries. Is it a film noir black comedy because the Nicholson character is a monumental idiot, or dumb sap, in the American vernacular. It's easy to disappear and re-invent yourself, people do it everyday, but only a cretin would take on the persona of a gun runner, at risk from all sides. It's as dumb as stealing from the mob and simply begging for trouble. Or is that the point? Is he asking for an assisted suicide?
Poor old naive Maria Schneider, who sadly isn't around to join the "me too" generation. Cinema feeds on youth and beauty and discards it after a decade. Did she really think it was her acting talent they wanted? She was a barely legal model to satisfy the desires of ageing men.
It's a minefield and the young would do well to take the advice and wise councel of those older and more experienced but all too often the young think that they know everything. Hence the expression, "Youth is wasted on the young."
A bit "heavy", I'll grant you, but this is an importent film that demands regiourous scrutiny. Prescient and troubling.
主人公ロックが訪れるアルジェリア、バルセロナ、アルメリア、どこの風景も殺伐と美しい。いつも晴れていて哀しい。ロックの心象がそのまま映像になっているようだ。多分あの哀しく美しい風景に惹かれて何度も観てしまうのだろう。
ラスト、廃墟となった闘牛場の前の砂ぼこりの広場、小さな白いホテル。何もなかったように訪れる黄昏時の美しさ。流れるギターはアンダルシアの名曲「盗賊の歌」。いつまでも記憶に残るタイトルエンド。
今回限定5,000コピーのブルーレイが発売されたので購入したが、DVDとの画質の差はそれほど大きくありませんでした。