ritacavell49 I saw this many years ago. Micael Longsdale deserved an Academy Award for the scene in a kitchen with the Nazis. Being tortured without showing the graphic details only the outcome made me feel sick to my stomach. Sometimes what you imagine is far more scary than what you see. The rest of the film was memorable by the fact that Mason didn't seem to grasp the need to be saved. I personally would have left him in the mountains for being annoying. It seems the premise was good even if the script was not that good. The film flopped at the box office for some reason. In the day we weren't given trailers that tell the whole story so it must have been word of mouth that doomed the film. Mason and Quinn should have been a sellout, but perhaps more was wanted from the audiences in 1979.

Tony Bush The acclaimed director of THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (J. Lee Thompson) churned out this lurid late seventies pot-boiler at a time when his best days were probably behind him. Ostensibly, a WWII adventure yarn about a Basque shepherd (Anthony Quinn) guiding a scientist (James Mason) his wife (Patricia Neal) and kids (Kay Lenz and Paul Clemens) across the Pyrenees and out of the clutches of the Nazis. Sounds a reasonable set-up on the surface of it, right?Throw into the mix Malcolm McDowell as Von Berkow, a Gestapo captain in hot pursuit and, yes, still sounds reasonable. I mean, bang in some tunes and the hills could be alive with the sound of them.However... At sixty-four Quinn's action man days were pretty much over. Yet out of the cast, he manages to be the most convincing character and at least seems the most physically capable. Mason looks frail and doddery at seventy. Patricia Neal looks like she's already died but someone's forgotten to tell her. There is as much chance of any of these people climbing mountains through deep snow and freezing temperatures as there is of me French-kissing Jessica Biel on top of an iceberg in the middle of the Sahara desert. Neal, especially, has difficulty managing a flight of steps (she was seriously ill in real life). It's ludicrous.Then to Malcolm McDowell. Not an actor renowned for subtlety, here he seems to have been completely let off the leash. His performance transcends all known boundaries of thespian restraint and spins off into a whole other far distant galaxy of pantomime excess. He is jaw-dropping. This is the most astonishing comedy caricature Gestapo-Nazi madman portrayal ever committed to film. By comparison, it makes his work in CALIGULA seem like John Gielgud whispering the poetry of Betjeman in Winchester Cathedral to an audience of the moral majority. If you have no other reason for watching this film, then I urge you to do so to marvel at McDowell and his interpretation of Nazi villainy. It'll mess with your head. Especially the sight of his underpants with the swastika motif. He later described it as "some of the best work I've ever done." Hopefully he was being satirical.Throw in some violent action, throat-slittings, finger amputations, burnings, explosions (anything resembling a structure that gets shot at blows up), rape, sodomy, a completely histrionic Captain Oates scene, avalanches and consistently brain-freezing dialogue and there you have it.It's not a good film, but it is a film that provides a good laugh if you're in the right frame of mind - and providing you can stand the mania and sadism.

randal-chalmers This film was viewed by myself on TV about 20 years back, I caught it again one night, & it was more dull than bad quality. The main failure behind it is a stodgy script, which, in hands other than the original author, had much potential, it was as if the filmmakers had started out with the priority of getting the right cast & movie makers, and expecting the rest would fall into place. Many years ago, my daily paper ran a story, this was that the producers behind it created the film as a tax loss, and it never had been intended to be a financial success, but to save the producers, who are experienced and many fold, on their tax bill at year's end. That would certainly explain the dreadful script.An original New York Times Online film review hints clearly at the suspicion of the tax break allegation: quote: "The Passage" is so awful you must suspect it was designed to be someone's tax write-off. As such it should be a smashing success. and later on: "In addition no less than six companies are involved in the film's production, "presentation" and release.'The film has minor compensations, the acting is not as bad as some reviewers allege, & it moves along fast enough to avoid the journey slowing one down too much. Not a good film in any respect however.

William 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!