Cheyenne, a retired rock star living off his royalties in Dublin, returns to New York City to find the man responsible for a humiliation suffered by his recently deceased father during W.W.II.
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Cheyenne, a wealthy former rock star (Penn), now bored and jaded in his retirement embarks on a quest to find his father's persecutor, an ex-Nazi war criminal now hiding out in the U.S. Learning his father is close to death, he travels to New York in the hope of being reconciled with him during his final hours, only to arrive too late. Having been estranged for over 30 years, it is only now in death that he learns the true extent of his father's humiliation in Auschwitz at the hands of former SS Officer Aloise Lange - an event he is determined to avenge. So begins a life-altering journey across the heartland of America to track down and confront his father's nemesis. As his quest unfolds, Cheyenne is reawakened by the people he encounters and his journey is transformed into one of reconciliation and self discovery. As his date with destiny arrives and he tracks down Lange, Cheyenne must finally decide if it is redemption he seeks ....or revenge. Starring two time Academy Award winner ...Written by
Anonymous
Robert Smith (lead vocalist for the Cure) was an inspiration for the character of Cheyenne. See more »
Goofs
Cheyenne refers to the band as "The Talking Heads". David Byrne and group went so far as to name an album "The Name of This Band is Talking Heads" to help people drop the "the". See more »
Quotes
Rachel:
No shit! Now I remember you. You sang with Mick Jagger once.
Cheyenne:
I know him. He's a good singer, I like the way he dances.
Rachel:
Listen your cheeseburger is a bit too well done. You don't mind do ya? Unfortunately, that's life!
Cheyenne:
You know what the problem is... Rachel?
Rachel:
What?
Cheyenne:
Without realizing it, we go from an age where we say: "My life will be that" to an age where we say: "That's life."
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Alternate Versions
The international version is approximately 7-minute shorter than the version screened at the Cannes Film Festival and released in Italy. See more »
The Passenger
Written by Ricky Gardiner (as R. Gardiner), Iggy Pop (as J. Osterberg)
Performed by Iggy Pop
(c) 1977 EMI Music Publishing Italia S.r.l.
EMI Virgin Music Publishing Italy
(p) 1977 Thousand Mile, Inc. Under Exclusive Licence to Virgin Records America Inc. See more »
I thought this would be a better movie. The premise is quite interesting and I usually like these artsy dramedies. This one on the other hand tries to be more artsy than it really is.
At first I didn't like how Sean Penn portrayed Cheyenne, but later on in the movie I completely forgot that I was watching Mr. Penn. So I guess the performance is good, and maybe I just didn't find the character to be a very interesting or likable.
This movie is slow, and I don't even mind slow movies. Hell I usually think the slower the better, but this just drags forever. The plot doesn't take off until half way thru and even then it feels like you've already watched this movie for hours.
There's an insane amount of camera trickery, almost every scene uses some camera dolly or crane thing, even if it serves no purpose other than moving the camera around in an "imaginative way". It was really distracting and I didn't find the camera work that fun to look at.
The script leaves a lot of stuff untold. There is talk about people who are seemingly important, but they are never explained who they are and while you have ideas, it's not something you'd like to spend any energy guessing. Some movies make these mind games fun, but here they're just annoying. I noticed myself thinking all the time if I had missed something, but reading at the forums here, I don't think I missed anything. This movie just doesn't inspire you to figure out those loose endings at all.
In the end I gather I just don't like the directors way of making movies. The story is quite interesting, but the way it's told just wasn't my cup of tea.
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I thought this would be a better movie. The premise is quite interesting and I usually like these artsy dramedies. This one on the other hand tries to be more artsy than it really is.
At first I didn't like how Sean Penn portrayed Cheyenne, but later on in the movie I completely forgot that I was watching Mr. Penn. So I guess the performance is good, and maybe I just didn't find the character to be a very interesting or likable.
This movie is slow, and I don't even mind slow movies. Hell I usually think the slower the better, but this just drags forever. The plot doesn't take off until half way thru and even then it feels like you've already watched this movie for hours.
There's an insane amount of camera trickery, almost every scene uses some camera dolly or crane thing, even if it serves no purpose other than moving the camera around in an "imaginative way". It was really distracting and I didn't find the camera work that fun to look at.
The script leaves a lot of stuff untold. There is talk about people who are seemingly important, but they are never explained who they are and while you have ideas, it's not something you'd like to spend any energy guessing. Some movies make these mind games fun, but here they're just annoying. I noticed myself thinking all the time if I had missed something, but reading at the forums here, I don't think I missed anything. This movie just doesn't inspire you to figure out those loose endings at all.
In the end I gather I just don't like the directors way of making movies. The story is quite interesting, but the way it's told just wasn't my cup of tea.