THE PASSENGER

by Kevin Koehler

Not so much a lost film as a hidden one, stored away in jack Nicholson's closet for thirty years after its release in 1975, The Passenger finally sees the light of day in the new millennium with this inaugural DVD release (to the rejoice of cineastes the world over). Representing a thematic cousin of Antonioni's own pop artifact Blow-Up, Nicholson’s hollow man David Locke stumbles down the rabbit hole of social responsibility on his way to unrealized redemption.

Using the pretense of a Hollywood plot (again, see Blow-Up) as a clothesline artfully-constructed European film candy (a passive "God is dead" dispassionate camera, notably the famous seven minute tracking shot that closes the picture), Antonioni studies a man trying desperately to be someone other than himself but instead finds he is recommitting his original sins. As a newly-christened gun runner (with a conscience), Locke shows up for meetings scheduled in his doppelganger's appointment book for no real discernible reason other than that they are written there - a rather neat analogy for much of what we call (non)existence.

Like many of Antonioni's other endings (at risk of repeating myself... Blow-Up), the one here is both full-circle and ambiguous (not to mention technically enthralling, in a how did they get the camera through the bars kind of way). Has Locke resigned himself to his existential fate of being or been reborn as the man whose soul he coveted? The answer is likely both and neither.

Interesting footnote: Maria Schneider, previously seen getting the butter for Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, makes an appearance here as girl with no name and shows her bare ass. She originally declined to do nudity fearing she'd be typecast as the actress who always does that (see: Sharon Stone), but ultimately relented.

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