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The Passenger

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The Passenger (1975)

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Reviews Counted:63

Fresh:57

Rotten:6

Average Rating:8.1/10

Consensus: Antonioni's classic, a tale of lonely, estranged characters on a journey though the mysterious landscapes of identity, shimmers with beauty and uncertainty.

Rated: PG

Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:Oct 28, 2005 Limited

Box Office: $359

Synopsis: Originally released in 1975, The Passenger is, on the simplest level, a suspense story about a man trying to escape his own life. This haunting film is a portrait of a drained journalist, played by... Originally released in 1975, The Passenger is, on the simplest level, a suspense story about a man trying to escape his own life. This haunting film is a portrait of a drained journalist, played by Jack Nicholson, whose deliverance is an identity exchange with a dead man. The film was shot on location and takes Nicholson on an incredible journey through Africa, Spain, Germany and England. As with all of Antonioni's work, however, there is another dimension. From beginning to end we are witnessing a probing study of the human condition. The protagonist's fate reflects each individual's own private thoughts about real and/or imagined destiny. The climax of the film, alone – a final sequence lasting seven minutes and taking eleven days to shoot is truly a synthesis of the movie and a tribute to the director's art. Antonioni, in talking about his motion picture, says: "I consider The Passenger my most stylistically mature film. I also consider it a political film as it is topical and fits with the dramatic rapport of the individual in today's society." The Passenger brought together two of the screen's most exciting personalities, Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider, who had become an overnight sensation opposite Marlon Brando in "Last Tango in Paris." The Passenger is based on an original story by Mark Peploe and was filmed from a screenplay by Peploe, Peter Wollen and Antonioni. This preferred director's cut is the version of the film that was originally released in Europe under the title Professione: reporter. --© Sony Pictures Classics [More]

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff, Charles Mulvehill

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Screenwriter: Michelangelo Antonioni
Story: Mark Peploe
Screenwriter: Mark Peploe
Producer: Carlo Ponti
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Release:

Mar 14, 2006

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Reviews for The Passenger

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The Passenger is not only a great Hollywood movie, it's a great movie in world cinema.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
01/01/00
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Antonioni's moviemaking panache and distinctive narrative rhythm rarely have seemed so enticing and satisfying.

Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | comment Comment
11/17/05
William Arnold
William Arnold
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

There's always a sense of a ferociously quick mind working like an engine behind Nicholson's eyes, even if he's doing nothing at all.

Full Review Source: Movieline | comment Comment
11/26/02
Michael Atkinson
Michael Atkinson
Movieline

Even when he threatens to fall into an abyss of navel-gazing, Antonioni never fails to offer up striking images.

Full Review Source: Las Vegas Weekly | comment Comment
12/02/05
Josh Bell
Josh Bell
Las Vegas Weekly

A classic of a difficult and alienating kind, but one that really does shimmer in the mind like a remembered dream.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
06/24/06
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]

One of the deepest, most rigorous, and most rewarding films of its era.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
11/11/05
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

To watch Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1975 masterpiece is to see film the way it once was and may never be again.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
03/03/06
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

The best of Antonioni’s three English-language pictures.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Dave Calhoun
Dave Calhoun
Time Out

As usual, Antonioni's pace is langorous, but The Passenger is never less than compelling.

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
06/05/06
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

What in different hands would have been a bombastic psychological thriller becomes a stark study of existential alienation.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
08/12/06
Carina Chocano
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The Passenger...meanders but there is an interesting story of changed identity, international arms deals and a failed marriage.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
11/11/05
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

In The Passenger, Jack Nicholson gives one of his finest performances as television journalist David Locke.

Full Review Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune | comment Comment
11/30/05
Colin Covert
Colin Covert
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

If you're willing to wait and give it a little bit of effort, Antonioni offers a life lesson

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
12/10/05
Pete Croatto
Pete Croatto
Filmcritic.com

Michelangelo Antonioni's film about a man on the run from himself dazzles from first shot to last.

comment Comment
05/09/05
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Thanks to Luciano Tovoli's magnificent cinematography of the African desert and the arid Spanish countryside, we gain a potent sense of Locke's internal emptiness.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
05/30/06
Tom Dawson
Tom Dawson
BBC

Next to this film, Blowup seems a facile, though necessary, preliminary. By all means go [see it].

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
01/10/04
Don Druker
Don Druker
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

I admire the movie more 30 years later. I am more in sympathy with it.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
10/23/04
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Here is Nicholson's classic, post-Mitchum cool, but humanly exposed, providing the star punch in Antonioni's pensive dreamscapes.

Full Review Source: San Diego Union-Tribune | comment Comment
11/18/05
David Elliott
David Elliott
San Diego Union-Tribune

Nicholson gives one of his best performances in this magnificently shot and lingeringly powerful thriller.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/24/03
Jon Fortgang
Jon Fortgang
Channel 4 Film

Sure, it's obstinately slow, but what an eye this man has. Every frame is fascinating.

Full Review Source: Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus | comment Comment
08/23/06
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer
Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus
 
 
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Latest News for The Passenger

July 31, 2007: Remembering Michelangelo Antonioni
Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, who gave the world such influential films as L'Avventura, Blow-Up, and The Passenger, died Monday at the age of 94. More...

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