Passeur d'hommes

This movie ran in Europe for quite a while in the 1980s. I saw it several times there and, quite unexpectedly, on HBO or Cinemax late at night a few years ago.

The movie was about war and wars are nasty things. I do not think the violence was overblown in the movie - not after visiting a few Holocaust museums in Europe. McDowell's portrayal of a fanatical psychopath (not that know any) seemed very fitting.

In terms of the amount of blood and gore on screen, it seems tame compared to movies made later. Schindler's List is much more terrifying. Starship Troopers has much more severed limb type stuff than The Passage. But what makes this so chilling and repulsive is its realism; that things like these truly happened and happened not that long ago...

United Artist must have lost a bundle back then, when this film only lasted a week in all screens in Seattle when they released this film. The film is "R" rated, violent and brutal! McDowell plays a psychotic WW2 Nazi Captain who is in pursuit of a doctor (Mason) and his family (Neal, Lenz, Clement) who is on the run from the Nazi's, and is helped by a Basque guide (Quinn) and two agents (Lonsadale/Bouzuffi) to take them across the mountain to safetly. McDowell turns into a Nazi Caligula as he do sick things and plays it almost in a camp like fashion like wear a chef hat and chops off Lonsndale fingers while cooking and saying "chop chop, chop chop!", Burn a gypsy (Christopher Lee) alive saying "I'm send him exactly where he told me to go....HELL", and rapes Kay Lenz as he wears a Nazi symbol on his underwear! McDowall also places a black comb under his nose to look like Hitler in one scene! This film is beyond what McDowall did in CLOCKWORK ORANGE! This is a performance that Mike Myers should look into remaking! The ending is incredible, but I can't give it away, but the bad guy's death doesn't involve a gun. Not recommended if you hate this sort of entertainment, despite the fact this is one of those all star cast international co productions, but the TV print cut out of most of the nasty stuff, so check out the TV print instead if you are a fan of the 70's interantional all star cast epics! Others beware! Great score by Michael J Lewis though!

The film talks upon a Basque shepherd (Anthony Quinn) whose assignment results to be the leading a family (James Mason , Patricia Neal , Kay Lenz and Clemens) through the Pyrenees mountains (France) until Spain . But they are relentlessly pursued by an evil Nazi officer (Malcolm McDowell) .

The movie is set in Second War World when Hitler invaded France and ruled the collaborating government from Vichy under command of general Petain .

In the flick there are shocks , action , thriller , shootouts , drama and deal of violence and tortures in charge of Malcolm McDowell .

Acceptable acting with all-star-cast . Anthony Quinn and James Mason are good and give nice performances ; also Christopher Lee acting as an agreeable gypsy , changing his usual villain role .

Malcolm McDowell's interpretation is overblown , he plays as an evil , sadist , wry and murderer Gestapo officer .

The final confrontation between the starring family , the Basque and the Nazis across the snowy landscapes is breathtaking .

The flick was regularly directed by J. Lee Thompson .

The yarn will appeal to suspense , emotions enthusiasts and WWII buffs .

Rating : 5.5/10 , mediocre .

This is one of those films that haunts you years after seeing it. I remember when I first saw it I was horrified. I watched it again and the violence, although horrific, was easier to get past. McDowell is creepy (as always). Quinn is great (as always). Lenz, well what can I say, acting not great, but nice to look at. The violence is extreme in a few scenes, so be warned. All in all, a pretty good movie. I give it a 7.

...I managed to pack into a dozen scenes with the whole period of Nazi tyranny in a convincingly evil way." - Malcolm McDowell about his work in The Passage.

When I saw The Passage back in 1981, in Moscow, I had no idea that it had been a big flop in the USA where it only lasted a week upon theatrical release, that it was considered a bad movie a failure. It would be much later that I recognized very famous and talented actors who were in the film, James Matson, Anthony Quinn, Christopher Lee, and Patricia Neal. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson, the Oscar nominated director of highly successful The Guns of Navarone (1961). By the time I was watching The Passage at the theater, I had not seen Stanley Kubrick's A Clock Work Orange or notorious Caligula, and I did not know what Malcolm McDowell was capable of as a screen villain. I did know McDowell from the Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man that also had been released theatrically in Moscow several years prior The Passage. O lucky Man had left a deep impression on me and huge part of it was McDowell's performance as Mick Travis, the young naive man with the most charming smile who wanted to succeed in this world. Watching McDowell in The Passage playing the psychotic obsessed Nazi chasing the family of the anti-fascist scientist across the Pyrenees I was horrified and genuinely scared. Every time he would enter the screen, I felt physically sick anticipating some horror act to follow and McDowell never disappointed. I won't argue that the movie may not be a great or even a good one but I do remember McDowell's performance all too well, and I could not forget him in the movie for 28 years. Now, after I've seen so many movies and memorable performances, I realize that McDowell was over the top and judging by his own words, he knew it very well and did it on purpose:

"I played this real nasty Nazi who was chasing these people across the Pyrenees. We all knew real early on that the movie was not going to be any great work of art and so I was determined to have some fun with it. My attitude was that if I was going to play a Nazi, I was going to take it totally over the top and do it right. I ended up playing the character like a pantomime queen. What I was doing was so far out that James Mason turned to me one day and said, 'That's wonderful dear boy, but are you in our film? You seem to be doing something different from the rest of us'..."

If after so many years, one performance in a supposedly bad movie stands out and you can't get it out of your mind, and you remember the exact day when you saw that movie, who you saw it with and how you felt, for me it means that the movie was not bad at all.