The Passing

The Passing is a film without a plot, an experience with seemingly no end. The viewer is just as likely to be bombarded by documentary-style footage of two old men hanging around as he is to watch the grim torture of a rapist, or the psycho-tronic sounds and weird visions of medical instruments. To be honest, I really liked this movie, but I also found it pretty boring, so I would have to watch 15 minutes a day for about a week, watching it in small doses, like reading a chapter a day of a book. But I can't say I didn't find the whole experience mesmerizing. Not having any idea what this movie was about, I first thought it was going to be about demonology, or murder. The film takes its sweet time coming to any semblance of a plot, but even this aspect of the movie isn't handled in any obvious ways, but is rather interpreted by the viewer via sounds and feelings. Never is the plot really intelligible, but never is it really uninteresting either. I don't know what else to say about this movie but that the editing was excellent, the music excellent (both the contrasting 20's and 80's music samples and the scary-as-f88ck syntheziser song that drones through the whole thing) and the two old men were great actors. I really believed for the most part that they were just two old friends hanging out, and there was some documentary team following them around (and this movie was made far before the docudrama fad became cheesy). In fact, the only thing I didn't find so interesting about this movie was the plot, which seemed a little tagged on- but oh well. It's a shame that someone associated with this movie, the editor at least, didn't go on to greater recognition.

I am the Grandson of Welton B. Johnson and I am so proud of him and My Grandmother Gladys V. Johnson, they were poor people who happened upon the films maker, John Huckert while he was still a young film maker. This Movie won a Blue ribbon Award from the American Film Festival Awards in 1982. My grandfather was on hand at the festival to receive this award. The Actor who played my grandfather as a young Army Soldier was also the character "Choir Boy" in Robert Townsend's "The Five Heartbeats. I recommend this film highly because college professors still use it as a training aid in the case of elderly mental health issues. The movie was cut into a short film that has aired on PBS. CPL. Steven L.Jackson, USARNG, AKA "Slippery'son"

Astonishing, Spiritual, Compelling and full of humor and heart. Great performances by Welton Benjamin Johnson and James Plaster. Special thanks to Gladys Vivian Johnson beloved mother and wife. The great Matriarch, mother to all children and excellent homemaker.

*****************SPOILERS******************* Weird movie about two elderly army buddies who, after living together and looking after each other for years, come to the realization that the end is near and how their getting too old and sick to look after and help each other as the thought of death or suicide starts enter their minds.

The movie then cuts to an unnamed big city where we see a brutal murder and the man who committed the murder is later brought to justice. It then strikes me that the movie plot takes place in the future when it turns that one of the men in the beginning of the movie, Ernie, James Plaster, has submitted his name to a state program that takes the soul of a terminally ill or dying person and somehow puts it into the body of a healthy executed convict.

Ernie is worried about his friend Leviticus, Walton Benjamin, who's already tried to commit suicide and because of Ernie's failing health he feels that if he's not around to take care of Leviticus the worst would happen to him. It seems that during WWII Leviticus saved Ernie's life in Europe an Ernie feels that he owes Leviticus at least that much.

Ernie gets his "Body change" but when he returns back home to Leviticus as a different and much younger person he finds that what Ernie thought it, the body change, would do wasn't exactly what he expected or hoped for.

Very good story about a subject that's been done before with bigger budgets and top actors about dying and coming back as someone else, but not under the same conditions as the movie "The Passing" has with a more realistic outcome. Too bad this movie is almost impossible to find in the video stores and I doubt we'll ever see it on TV because it's a lot better then most movies about the same subject are.

Ernie and Rose are two elderly men sharing a home. Friends for 40 years, they bicker, laugh, reminisce and discuss death. Wade is a young man arrested on a murder charge and facing execution. One day Ernie's and Wade's paths cross, leading to an extraordinary outcome...

This is a curious film, and quite an unlikely candidate for DVD release. Released in 1983, and apparently made on a very limited budget, the print quality is poor, and much of the secondary character acting is unimpressive, yet it's not without charm and fascination. Johnson and Plaster deliver quite captivating performances as the elderly friends - their suicide attempt scene is hilarious - and the overall ensemble has a strange, almost improvised quality.

Ultimately an uneasy mix of quirky character study, cheap production values and dated sci-fi, yet it's also rather sweet.