100
TV Guide Magazine
Visually stunning adventure. (Review of Original Release)
The Passenger (Professione: reporter)
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Italy,
- Spain,
- France
- 1975
- · 126m
Director
Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast
Jack Nicholson,
Maria Schneider,
Jenny Runacre,
Ian Hendry,
Steven Berkoff,
Ambroise Mbia
Genre
Thriller,
Drama
Sent to cover a story in Africa, American journalist David Locke makes little progress. Upon discovering the body of a man who looks like him, a frustrated David takes on his identity. As it becomes clear that the dead man had a complicated past, David must avoid both the authorities and criminals that are looking for him.
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What are critics saying?
100
Chicago Reader
A masterpiece, one of Michelangelo Antonioni's finest works. (Review of Original Release)
100
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
The film's final seven-minute shot is one of the great denouements in film history.
100
Chicago Reader by Don Drucker
A masterpiece, one of Michelangelo Antonioni's finest works. (Review of Original Release)
100
TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)
Visually stunning adventure. (Review of Original Release)
100
Film Threat by Phil Hall
Whereas "Cuckoo’s Nest" is a brilliantly over-the-top accomplishment, The Passenger is more brilliant with the most effortless underplaying one can ever hope to witness on screen.
100
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
Still packs a wallop. It's also a movie with no easy passage to its dark heart.
100
Boston Globe by Ty Burr
What's most shocking about The Passenger 30 years later? Seeing Jack Nicholson at the lean, sardonic height of his youthful powers? Finding a Michelangelo Antonioni movie with an actual plot?
100
San Francisco Chronicle by G. Allen Johnson
A rare chance to see a major cinematic work on the big screen.
100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
Antonioni's moviemaking panache and distinctive narrative rhythm rarely have seemed so enticing and satisfying.
100
Philadelphia Inquirer by Steven Rea
A visually dazzling mood piece.
91
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
The Passenger isn't finally the masterpiece some have made it out to be, but it retains a singular intrigue: It's the first, and probably the last, thriller ever made about depression.
90
Variety
Nicholson plays the character with personal flair, as penetrating as Antonioni's handling of the film. (Review of Original Release)
90
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
No other performer (Jack Nicholson) in an Antonioni film, except Jeanne Moreau in "La Notte," has so gracefully submitted to Mr. Antonioni and survived intact. (Review of Original Release)
88
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
The script, co-written by Antonioni and Peter Wollen, focuses on a TV journalist (a superb Jack Nicholson).
88
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
Intended as a thriller of sorts, although Antonioni is, as always, too deeply involved in the angst of his characters to bother much with the story. (Review of Original Release)
80
Salon by Andrew O'Hehir
In casting Jack Nicholson as the jaded Anglo-American journalist who abandons his previous life during a trip to Africa and adopts a dangerous new identity, Antonioni was working with a more powerful and charismatic actor than he has before or since. The result is something like a glamorous thriller or a disaster film in slow motion.
80
Village Voice by J. Hoberman
The Passenger is a relic of that moment in international co-production when famous European auteurs hitched their wagons to hip and eager Hollywood stars.
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