Director: Edward Dmytryk
Cast: George Kennedy, John Mills, Raf Vallone, Rita Tushingham

In one of my past jobs, I worked for The Rick Hansen Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for people with disabilities. My job there was to travel all around British Columbia, inspect buildings (publicly or privately owned), and make multimedia reports concerning how accessible they were for everybody, not just people with disabilities. One day I got a tricky assignment - I had to travel to the community of Valemount. The fact I had to inspect five buildings in three days was challenging enough, but my being from a city of substantial size and resources made me wonder how I would fare in a village that was not only small, but very isolated. But I bit the bullet, packed my bags, and made the long journey to Valemount. Though I had to work very hard while I was there, I found a lot of my experience there pleasant. It was peacefully quiet outside, the village was surrounded by spectacular scenery, there was a laid-back spirit that was quite frankly charming, and the local library had a robust DVD / Blu-Ray collection. All the same, there were some things about Valemount that did concern me a little. There was only one drug store, and there was just one smallish IGA supermarket. What would the residents do if one or both of those places closed for some reason? Also, there was not all that much when it came to medical care or police presence. I wondered what I would do if I suddenly became very ill there, or if some strong criminal element made its way into the village and became a really big threat.

Despite Valemount also having an A & W restaurant, a Tim Hortons, and a Subway, you might understand from what I wrote in the latter part of the first paragraph that to some degree I felt out of my element. I don't regret going to Valemount, but I was sure to get back home to my city where I had substantially more resources on hand for any problem I might encounter. While I am still thinking about my experience, it makes me ponder about movies that more or less have the same theme, albeit a bit darker - that being people suddenly thrust into a situation that is over their heads. I think that a lot of people like myself find this basic plot greatly appealing, because it has a lot of potential. First of all, the main characters in these sorts of movies tend to be regular people like ourselves. If we can identify with these particular protagonists, there is an increased chance that we will also like the movie as a whole. (There is also the increased chance of while watching these ordinary Joes, we in the audience in the back of our minds wonder what we would do if we were in the protagonist's shoes.) Second, these ordinary people often have to struggle more with achieving their goals. When characters struggle in a movie, there tends to be more excitement and suspense generated, and again, there's an increased chance of liking the movie as a whole. And even in a world where the majority of movies end happily for the protagonists, there is usually great satisfaction at the end of a movie concerning someone out of their element when that same person manages to succeed in his or her goal.

I've come across the whole "ordinary person thrust into a situation seemingly beyond their abilities" plotline many times, and I usually find something interesting about them that makes me glad I saw it. One of the more interesting examples I came across in my travels was from American author Robert Littell. What made it interesting was that he wrote the same kind of premise twice, first with writing the screenplay for the 1981 movie The Amateur, and the same year having published a novel with the same name of the movie. While both stories had the same basic story and character elements, there were some striking differences here and there, and it was interesting for me to see how Littell saw the story in two somewhat different ways... though keeping the theme of someone being out of his element while on the path to revenge. Although the movie wasn't by far the only cinematic take I had seen of this premise (including the 2025 remake, which I thought was kind of disappointing - Jason Statham destroys rooftop swimming pools better, for one thing), the premise still has interest for me. So when I got a chance to see The Human Factor's take on this premise, I took it. In this telling, the central character is a computer expert for the western military forces named John Kinsdale (George Kennedy, Death Ship), who lives in Naples with his wife and two children. One day after coming home from work, and he discovers that his wife and children have been brutally murdered. John is of course devastated, and the situation is made worse by the authorities, lead by police inspector Lupo (Raf Vallone, The Italian Job), don't seem to have much to work with regarding finding the killers. Somehow John eventually manages to drag himself out of his despair to focus on one pursuit - revenge. John's work colleague Mike (John Mills, When The Wind Blows) agrees to help John, providing data at his end while John goes all around Italy during his investigation. Evidence soon indicates that the killers of John's family were actually terrorists that the American government and the Italian authorities are pursuing - and both parties aren't taking kindly to John's investigation, since not only is John putting himself in danger, he may unintentionally bring innocent people into danger. But John is determined to personally kill the terrorists at any possible cost.

The Human Factor was one of many 1970s action-thrillers that had an international pedigree. One producer was British, another producer was Italian, and the director and headlining star were Americans. (Well... director Edward Dmytryk was born in Canada, but ultimately became American.) As you probably know, three of those aforementioned countries are able to make real movies on their own, but since each country has its own work attitude and culture, all them working together made a movie that probably wouldn't appeal to anyone in any country. The screenplay, credited only to two individuals who are listed as "original" screenwriters (suggesting that there were a lot of uncredited rewrites by others) certainly does a lot to hold the movie back. Before listing the major faults, I will admit that the writing does have a few blips of merit and interest. For a change of a film of this sort, John's coworkers are immediately gung-ho with helping him track down his family's killers, at least for a while. When they help John, the process they use to narrow the list of suspects manages to be both interesting and easy to follow. Also, during the course of the movie, the movie brings up an interesting argument that John's relentless pursuit to track down and kill the assassins may in fact be making things even worse for many potential victims. This would be something very interesting to explore further, but for some reason, as soon as this argument is brought up to John, the movie abruptly cuts to the next scene and the issue is never brought up again. In fact, there are several more sequences in the movie where there is an important or pressing plot element, but then the movie abruptly goes to the next scene without any thought of dealing with the consequences of what just happened.

There are other problems with the screenplay for The Human Factor, such as some really stupid things like when John at one point calls his long time colleague Mike and has to identify himself to Mike with his full name. The biggest problem with the screenplay, however, is how by itself it makes almost all of the movie a really long and slow slog. For the first 57.89% of the movie, there is essentially nothing that could be considered "action" or "suspenseful". (The movie was so boring that I could take the time to determine the exact percentage). Up to that point of time, it's just talk, talk, and more talk, almost none of it the least bit engaging. The few moments of action that happen afterwards are, I admit, sometimes engaging enough to temporarily perk up the audience's interest until they have concluded. But moments that are designed to just be suspenseful, like when John cons his way into a travel agency business to do some computer hacking, are presented by director Dmytryk in a matter-of-fact fashion that results in the audience thinking, "So what?" The computer hacking sequence, by the way, reveals another problem burdening most of the movie, that being a very dated feeling. The computer hacking, the sets, the costumes, and anything else to do with culture is 1970s at its worse, instead of being an interesting look back at a past era such as movies like WarGames (not a 1970s movie, but you know what I mean.) Dmytryk can't even get some help from music composer Ennio Morricone (Windows), whose music here is uncharacteristically ordinary. Without anyone to help him, Dmytryk stumbles far more than he succeeds here. His direction just makes flaws of the movie much more obvious, the most notable one being the use of a stunt double for George Kennedy that is obviously much skinnier than the real Kennedy.

And what about poor George Kennedy, how does he fare? Well, quite frankly, his performance is all over the map. Some of the time he does show a somewhat amiable everyman feeling. There are a few scenes where he's passable at showing his character's grief, and in a few action moments he does give the air of someone who hasn't shot or beat up a person before in his life... though in the final sequence he suddenly becomes almost as skilled as a commando. But most of the time, Kennedy doesn't seem very interested, seldom showing a relentlessness or cold-bloodedness that many people in his character's shoes would be showing constantly. It's also hard to care for Kennedy because the movie does next to nothing for the actors who play the killers of the family of Kennedy's character. They make almost no appearances until near the very end of the movie, and even then, they don't do or say anything that would make us want to hate them or see their perspective. For that matter, the character of police inspector Lupo in the end doesn't seem to contribute much (if anything) to the story as well. Of the remaining players, there is some life with actor John Mills as Mike, as well as Rita Tushingham (The Bed Sitting Room), who also plays a co-worker of Kennedy's character. They manage to show their characters' concern for Kennedy and their willingness to break the rules in ways that are both likable and believable. The movie gets a brief heartbeat whenever they show up, fortunately more times than all the many product plugs for Pepsi that are placed in the movie. In fact, they are the only fully capable touch to be found in the entire movie, the touch being, well, human. The only way you'll be touched by The Human Factor is when you feel the "stop" button on your DVD machine remote control under your finger.

(Posted April 13, 2026)