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Released by: Dark Sky Films
Released on: October 31, 2006.
Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: George Kennedy, John Mills, Raf Vallone, Barry Sullivan, Rita Tushingham
Year: 1975
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The Movie:
John Kinsdale (George Kennedy of The Gambler III and about a zillion other movies) leads a fairly comfortable life in Naples, Italy where he lives with his wife and kids. He works for NATO as a programmer and things are going pretty well for the guy. One night, he returns home from work a little bit later than usual to find that his home is swarming with cops and reporters. He assumes the worst and soon finds he was right to do so as his family have all been murdered by assailants unknown.
The police, of course, launch an investigation but Kinsdale doesn't feel that's quite enough. He wants to take matters into his own hands and he wants revenge. He uses the high tech computers that his job makes readily available to him and with the help of a sympathetic co-worker named Mike (John Mills) he soon starts to put a few pieces of the puzzle together. It looks like an Italian terrorist group is assassinating American citizens living in the country in hopes of making a very loud political statement. Kinsdale decides he's going to get his pistol and hunt down the killers on his own, rather than go to the police with what he knows. Unfortunately neither the local authorities or the killers are really all that hot on Kinsdale's idea, and they both end up making life rather difficult for our revenge driven hero.
While the storyline is rather by the books and formulaic, George Kennedy definitely makes the most of the material he has to work with here and he proves to be surprisingly believable in the part. He's intimidating enough when he needs to be and sombre enough when the story calls for it that his everyman persona fits the story quite well. You wouldn't necessarily look at the guy and think 'action hero' but he handles the violence in the film well and he ends up looking and acting the part far more effectively then most people would probably expect from him.
Directed in a fairly pedestrian manner by Edward Dmytryk The Human Factor does borrow elements from Death Wish while trying to mix in a few conspiracy theory elements that don't quite work and it also takes a little while to get going. That being said, the last half hour is pretty exciting even if we can figure out where it's heading and Kennedy's performance is good enough that he alone makes this movie worth a look for fans of seventies action/revenge movies.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen picture is good, though not great. The colors look a little on the flat side and there's some mild print damage appearing in the form of specks and debris from time to time. Film grain is constant though never overpowering. Thankfully very little, if any, fine detail is lost and the black levels stay pretty strong. Some mild aliasing is worth noting but aside from that there aren't any serious digital transfer problems like mpeg compression or edge enhancement to complain about. Not a perfect picture on this disc, but a decent enough one otherwise.
There aren't any major issues with the Dolby Digital 2.0 English language mono track that adorns this disc. A bit of background hiss and the occasional pop is there if you really want to listen for audible defects but for the most part things are clean, clear and concise. Levels are properly balanced and the score and dialogue are both very distinct sounding.
The only really substantial extra feature on this release is a decent twenty-five minute on camera interview with Kennedy entitled The Kennedy Factor. In this piece the actor talks about his work on the film after giving us some basic biographical information and talking about the genesis of his film career. He covers working with director Edward Dmytryk and his relationship with a few of his co-stars and he also covers shooting the film in Italy and what he thinks of the movie these many years later. Throughout this interview he comes across as a very nice, funny guy and if you were at all interested in the feature or are a George Kennedy fan in general you'd be doing yourself a disservice by not taking the time to check this featurette out.
Aside from that, Dark Sky has also provided an original TV spot for the film, a decent still gallery of promotional artwork and stills, menus and chapter stops for the feature.
The Final Word:
It takes a while to get moving but the last half an hour of The Human Factor makes the film completely worthwhile. Kennedy makes for an interesting lead and Morricone's score is quite nice. Dark Sky gives the film solid treatment on DVD, and revenge movie fans might want to seriously consider this one.