Well I was amazed for several reasons. One that the film was good itself, and two that a picture hyped up by myself was actually better than I thought. I was also amazed at the simple fact that I got a copy of the movie, but that's a whole other story.

Antonioni wasn't exactly on a hot streak when he made this movie. His film prior to this, the even harder to find documentary Chung Kao went unseen, and Zabriskie Point was considered a muddled mess of a movie. He was a director without a home, wandering from Italy, to England, to America, to China, and for this film to Spain. The rootlessness of Antonioni is reflected in the Passenger, and it is the central theme of the story. Anyone who ever wanted to just get up and start a new life can identify with Jack Nicholson's character. He may do it in an extreme fashion, but it is his desire to break free that is universal.

He is a man fed up with his life. Not to say his life is particularly horrible, he just doesn't want it anymore. His wife is ineffectual, he has no children of his own, and despite having a decent high paying job, he isn't happy in it. The angst of the affluent is the central theme of Antonioni's career. People with everything, who want nothing. Not to say Nicholson's David was rolling in dough and could travel the world at his leisure, but he is pretty far from poor.

The identity of the dead man becomes somewhat melodramatic on first inspection (he smuggles weapons for a terrorist group), but it brings up the question of morality. David is intrigued by it, and appreciates the mystery of it, but has no moral obligation to doing it. There is no morality in the film. He has no guilt for leaving his life in the states, and he feels no guilt for handing weapons over to a group that is most likely gonna do more harm than good. This makes him a self centered protaganist, and one that only really warms to human contact when he meets another rootless soul, played by Maria Schneider. She is his match, much more so than his wife, for she has no home, and no destination. Running weapons seems even more idealistic to her.

Now the Antonioni style is all over this. Towards the end there is one of the most incredible long takes I've seen, as a static camera observes the action outside of David barred windows, it seems pointless. The camera slowly inches forward observing the action outside, until somehow it goes through the bars, and ends looking back in on his room from the outside. I justt sat in awe of this shot, that was longer than any other director would have made it, but it was the feeling that Antonioni was after. He wanted you to take this time, near the conclusion to think about what happened, and I personally had to watch this take a second time. The settings, shots, and general feel of the film are much more in tune with his trilogy, and to me it is his finest English language film. Hell for a first viewing, I liked it more than any of his previous films, but that's because I needed a repeat screening of L'Avventura to adequately "get it".

The DVD is available in Japan I believe, and don't hold your breath for the release here. Jack Nicholson owns the rights, and he has no intention of ever getting it released here. This is probably the least Jack-like I've ever seen him. Perhaps the reason he doesn't like the film. His acting is much more downplayed, and the cocky charm that we all love so much is absent. It makes unique in his career, but I believe that nearly any actor could have played this role, which is perhaps the intention. It is more of a look that Antonioni is after, not a performance.