THE PASSENGER (1975)

David Locke (Jack Nicholson, at right), an American reporter, is trying to get interviews with a group of rebels in a hot and dry African country in the throes of a civil war, in order to wrap up a documentary he's doing for British television. We see him make contact with people who take him into the desert, but then inevitably, they leave him behind or he loses them. Feeling frustrated, he heads back to his village hotel to commiserate with another Westerner, a British businessman named Robertson, who is staying in the room across from him. But Robertson is dead from a sudden heart attack. Knowing the man had no immediate family, and aware that the two had a passing resemblance, Locke impulsively decides to swap identities, putting Robertson's body in his own room, complete with identifying papers, and takes Robertson's papers and belongings, then reports Locke as dead to the hotel keeper. As Locke tries to fit himself into Robertson's life, we get flashbacks to Locke's recent past: his witnessing of the execution of a rebel by government forces, an ambiguous interview with the president of the African country, his discovery that his wife Rachel has probably been having an affair with a man named Steven, his discussions with Robertson. Then, in keeping a series of appointments in Robertson's calendar, he comes to realize that Robertson is an illegal arms dealer working with the African rebels. As he tries to figure out what to do, he meets up with an aimless young woman (Maria Schneider) whose name we never find out, who joins him on the road as he gets more involved in a dangerous situation: he takes money meant for Robertson, but cannot deliver the arms to the rebels. In the meantime, both Rachel and Locke's boss start looking for Robertson, hoping he can provide some information about what happened to Locke. The full implications of what he's done begin to dawn on Locke, but maybe too late to avoid paying a high price for his identity dabbling.

Among the words and phrases bandied about when critics talk about the films of Michelangelo Antonioni are alienation, identity, existentialism, ambiguity, ennui, and modern life. Most of those words apply to this film, the last of three English-language films the Italian director made for MGM. The first, BLOW-UP, was a big hit; the second, ZABRISKIE POINT, was not. This one was certainly a critical success, though it didn't break out into a pop culture milestone as BLOW-UP had. There is plenty of ambiguity here about plot points and characters, but the narrative is mostly easy to follow, and partakes of traditional tropes of the thriller, even if there are not a lot of old-fashioned thrills to be had. Nicholson, who is in nearly every scene in the movie, carries it quite well, as a guy who feels almost dead to himself and tries (only half-heartedly, I think) to come back to life as someone else. Schneider is much less impressive, partly due to how incompletely her character is developed; I wish I could make a case that she is an imaginary companion that Locke dreams up, but that doesn't really work. Some critics wonder if she is the "passenger" of the title, since she spends much of the movie riding in Locke's car, but I think that Locke is the passenger, riding in the life of Robertson, though clearly not in control. The flashback in which Locke and Robertson (Charles Mulvehill, who does look a bit like Nicholson) meet feels a lot like two men arranging a one-night stand. The search that Rachel (Jenny Runacre) undertakes for Robertson winds up feeling more dictated by plot needs than by character. The famous unbroken seven minute shot near the end is interesting to experience but I'm not sure it means much. As in all Antonioni films, the visuals are compelling, with the sets and backgrounds sometimes commanding more attention than the action occurring on screen. [TCM]