The Human Factor

1975 "...Every 24 hours an American family will be killed by radical assassins...if the CIA, FBI and police can't stop it...the human factor will!"
5.6| 1h35m| R| en| More Info
Released: 19 November 1975 Released
Producted By: Eton
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

After his family is brutally murdered for an unknown reason, a computer engineer sets out to find those responsible.

Genre

Action, Thriller

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Director

Edward Dmytryk

Production Companies

Eton

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The Human Factor Audience Reviews

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.
Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.
BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Coventry "The Human Factor" was made in 1975, which means it's turning 40 years old this year. And yet, the themes and several aspects that feature here are still painfully relevant nowadays as well. I'm writing this user-comment in January 2015, not even two weeks after the cowardly terrorist attack in Paris, France, and still during the aftermath of numerous terror alerts all across Europe. The film centers on American families being the unwary and innocent targets of ruthless Italian left-wing terrorists. Whether for political or religious reasons, embassies and authorities in various countries are still protecting their compatriots that work abroad out of fear for kidnapping or murder. It's truly sad to see that the world hasn't changed one bit and that humanity is still as selfish and extreme as it ever was. But hey, I'm just supposed to write a review… The final project of director Edward Dmytryk, who was particularly famous in the forties & fifties thanks to movies like "Crossfire" and "The Caine Mutiny", is a tense and engaging action/thriller with a handful of harshly violent sequences and a remarkable lead role for veteran actor George Kennedy. He stars as NATO computer specialist John Kingsdale, working in Naples and playing computer games with his friendly colleague most of the time. But when he returns home to his beloved wife and three children one night, they have been viciously massacred by unknown assailants for an unknown reason. After the funeral the deeply saddened John hesitates one moment to shoot himself through the head, but he shoots the TV-screen instead and vows to personally track down his family's killers. With the help of his colleague and their computer equipment, John discovers that he deals with a group of terrorists that invade the homes of American families through responding to newspaper ads. He prevents another massacre, but meanwhile John himself is also chased by the local authorities. "The Human Factor" is an overall very solid vigilante/revenge thriller. The script is occasionally tedious and confusing due to all the computer slang, especially during the first half of the film, but this is widely compensated during the explosive final act, with a furious battle in a Naples' backstreet alley and a gritty finale inside a crowded supermarket. Several people pointed out that George Kennedy was an odd choice to play the mad avenger, but he's a terrific all-around actor and brings more realism to the part. If, for example, Charles Bronson would have played John Kingsdale, "The Human Factor" would have been more stereotypical and a lot less persuasive. Recommended!
sol ***SPOILERS*** "Death Wish" like film with the big and as harmless as a Teddy Bear John Kingsdale, George Kennedy, going ballistic when his family is massacred by a gang of international terrorists in their home in Naples Italy. Working for NATO as an electronic expert Kingsdale with the help of his computer expert friend Mike McAllister, John Mills, uses NATO's most state of the art commuter equipment, the ironically named 9/11 computer system, to track down his family's murderers and exact brutal revenge, not justice, on them.Going against his good friend McAllister's advice in letting the law do the job of tracking his family's killers down Kingsdale with an 8% chance, according to he 9/11 computer system, of getting the job done and 92% chance of getting killed in trying goes all out in what seems like a kamikaze like attempt to finish the bloody job that he's about to start. A job that will leave a trail of corpses, terrorists and their victims, that is to end in a bloodbath at the NATO commissary in Naples!Big George Kennedy despite his menacing size seems so out of shape that there's times in many of the movie chase scenes that he looks like he'll collapse from sheer exhaustion in chasing terrorists 100 pounds lighter and 20 years younger then himself. Getting a hold of one of the terrorists leader's the American Taylor, Thomas Hunter, Kennedy or Kingsdale needed a car to catch up with him in that there's no way to convince the audience that he could have done that on his own with just shoe leather! Huffing and puffing his way through the movie where in some scenes it looked like he needed oxygen to stay on his feet the almost out of breath Kingsdale finally gets to the NATO commissary where the terrorist group headed by Palestinian born Kamal, Frank Alvance, is hold up with some 100 hostages. ***SPOILERS*** Going into action before help, the Italian police and NATO forces, can arrive at the NATO commissary by driving a stolen car through it's front entrance Kingsdale blasts away at anything in his gun sights taking out the entire terrorist crew with Kamel the only survivor making a mad dash to the commissary's exits. With the heavy footed, at well over 250 pounds, Kingsdale catching up with him he makes sure that Kamel never gets a chance to stand trial by pumping a full magazine, that he reloaded his 9.mm with, of slugs into him!
philip-evans I generally don't care for revenge films but this was a rare exception! I did not see it when it was first released, but a few years later while I was working as an American ex-patriot in Saudi Arabia. My family and children were with me in Saudi, and we lived on the local economy, as George Kennedy did in the movie. This movie really hit home with me and a lot of other ex-pats that were overseas at the time! It showed how vulnerable we really were living in a foreign country where we were quite often resented for even being there! I've always been a George Kennedy fan, even though he's probably not the greatest actor of all time. He's a very likable and believable actor that consistently does a good job! I give him and this film both of my thumbs up! I highly recommend this film to anyone that is even thinking about taking a job in a foreign country!
Jonathon Dabell Did Edward Dmytryck really once direct The Caine Mutiny? On the evidence of this totally uninvolving, blood stained revenge tale, it's hard to believe that Dmytryck ever possessed any directorial talent. The Human Factor is slow-moving, cynical and emotionless.Also difficult to smallow is the presence of several fine actors. George Kennedy looks suitably frantic throughout, but is unable to make his predicament convincing due to poor scripting. John Mills has a major supporting role but his performance is as cold and inexpressive as the tone of the whole film. Raf Vallone (an Italian Oliver Reed look-a-like) meanders in and out of the story pointlessly as a policeman out to solve a multiple murder.The story has Kennedy as a NATO war-game computer programmer who lives and works in Naples, Italy. He returns home one day to find his wife and children dead, clinically executed by a mystery gunman or gunmen. He uses his computer access to track down the killers, and figures out that those responsible are a terrorist gang intent on murdering American families that live in Europe. Instead of passing this information on to the police, he decides to turn vigilante, tracking down and killing the terrorists himself.By 1975, film-makers clearly understood that audiences were hungry for Death Wish style revenge stories. But here, they have left out the sensational aspects of films like Death Wish, and tried (unsuccessfully) to give their story a political subtext. All this does is to slow down the action and make the plot treacherously confusing. The unpleasant finale, in which the villains lay siege to a crowded supermarket, is the only sequence which comes close to being powerful but it is over so quickly that you might miss it if you blink. All things considered, The Human Factor is a pretty dismal movie experience.