.

The Passenger

Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Rolling Stone: star rating
5 3.5
Community: star rating
5 3.5 0
October 20, 2005

For the provocative questions it asks about identity and brute force, David Cronenberg's A History of Violence is the best movie of the year so far. That's what makes the rerelease of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1975 landmark, The Passenger, such a well-timed companion piece. The script, co-written by Antonioni and Peter Wollen, focuses on a TV journalist (a superb Jack Nicholson) who steals the identity of a dead man and embarks on a new life, only to find violent surprises on his trail. Antonioni and Cronenberg differ greatly as stylists, but their shared gift for expressing the comfort and agony of dislocation is uncanny.

prev
Movie Review Main Next

ADD A COMMENT

Community Guidelines »
loading comments

loading comments...

COMMENTS

Sort by:
    Read More

    Movie Reviews

    More Reviews »
    Daily Newsletter

    Get the latest RS news in your inbox.

    Sign up to receive the Rolling Stone newsletter and special offers from RS and its
    marketing partners.

    X

    We may use your e-mail address to send you the newsletter and offers that may interest you, on behalf of Rolling Stone and its partners. For more information please read our Privacy Policy.

    Song Stories

    “Help Me”

    Joni Mitchell | 1974

    Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

    More Song Stories entries »