The Human Factor

In an interview he did for the special features The Human Factor DVD, George Kennedy says that growing up watching movies his favorite stars were not even stars. As a youngster, Kennedy chose the character actors as his favorites. It's only fitting then that the long-time actor -- still chugging along at 84 -- is a prime example of how good a character actor can be. Rarely given starring roles, the character actor was always given 4th or 5th billing but often enough stole the show. Actors like Ben Johnson, Victor McLaglen, and Warren Oates made careers out of those supporting roles.

So with a supporting actor Oscar to his name for his role as Dragline in Cool Hand Luke, Kennedy became one of the most dependable Hollywood character actors in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s including a close association with a long list of disaster movies. But having seen enough of those supporting parts, it's always nice to see those actors get a shot with a starring role. In one of his few lead parts, Kennedy steps into vigilante mode in 1975's The Human Factor.

Working for NATO in Italy, electronics expert John Kinsdale (Kennedy) returns home one night to find police ringing his house. His wife and three children have been brutally murdered execution-style and there's very little in the way of evidence or clues to point to the murderers. With some help from the somewhat dimwitted Italian police chief (Raf Vallone), Kinsdale goes about using what little evidence the police do have to track down the killers. His co-worker, Mike McAllister (John Mills), agrees to help out so the duo uses their state of the art computer technology to get readouts on the killers.

As Kinsdale and McAllister continue to use all the facilities at their disposal, quite illegally as well, the evidence points to an extremist group (led by Thomas Hunter and producer Frank Avianca) demanding prisoners be released from prisons all over Western Europe. If the prisoners aren't released, more and more American families living in Europe will be brutally murdered. McAllister thinks they should go to the police with all the information they've obtained, but Kinsdale has other plans. He's not going to settle for a lifetime jail sentence for the terrorists, he's going to go after them himself.

In the vein of Death Wish or the Dirty Harry movies, 'Human' relies heavily on the idea of your average citizen being pushed far enough where his only option is vigilantism. At 6'5 and 250 lbs., Kennedy is quite a presence in the Paul Kersey/Harry Callahan role. His Kinsdale has one motive in life; kill the group who killed his family. If he gets killed in the process, so be it. Kennedy pulls off the scenes that require a ton of intensity nicely, but also nails the quiet scenes, like when he finds one of his daughter's dolls in the terrorists' hideout. Mills is more than solid in his own right as Kinsdale's sidekick, and Vallone is all right as the clueless Italian cop.

Critiques around the movie deal with its use of technology which at the times must have seemed pretty innovative. We're talking computer-to-computer hookup, probability software, programs that analyze evidence quicker than ever before. So watching this now in 2009, we're basically talking your average, run of the mill CSI episode -- feel free to pick which city. I'm betting this wasn't the intent when director Edward Dmytryk made the movie, but 'Human' is quite a time capsule for an early representation of technology.

While those technological segments can drag some, the movie really picks up speed once Kennedy goes vigilante. An otherwise mild-mannered guy, Kinsdale does anything and everything if it will help him get his family's murderers. One interesting scene that Dmytryk apparently winged on-location was a car chase through Naples with Kennedy manning a boat of a station wagon. In its ridiculousness it becomes an exciting chase scene. By far though, the best is saved for last in a hostage situation that is visually reminiscent of the Munich hostage situation. Fed up with formalities and negotiating, Kinsdale takes matters into his own hands in a bloody shootout with an ending that allows the viewer to make up his/her own mind on what happens.

A pretty mindless Italian crime movie that benefits from a strong performance from George Kennedy in the lead and John Mills in an underused supporting part. Slow moving at times, but the final 30 minutes make up for it, especially the finale. Here's a short TV spot if the trailer below doesn't convince you.

The Human Factor <---- (1975): ***/****