The 'Human' Factor (1975)

Director: Edward Dmytryk

Writers: Thomas Hunter, Peter Powell

Composer: Ennio Morricone

Starring: George Kennedy, John Mills, Raf Vallone, Barry Sullivan, Rita Tushingham, Shane Rimmer, Thomas Hunter, Frank Avianca, Haydee Politoff, Arthur Franz, Fiamma Verges


More info: IMDb

Tagline: 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!

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

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? I could.

#266 on Drive-In Delirium Volume 1 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

The tagline is off a couple of days.  In the film it's clearly stated that every 3 days an American family will be killed.  It's a minor point but it helps the poster make it more thrilling, doesn't it? I'm a big fan of George Kennedy and I think the guy's a good actor.  Hell, he's had lots of practice having 181 credits on IMDb.  It's been a couple of years since his last film gig but he's almost 90.  I say keep going.  FACTOR was really fun.  The computer science behind it is way ahead of its time (and maybe ahead of ours with some of the stuff they did) but you have to overlook stuff like that if you're going to enjoy the picture.  There's nothing like technology that dates a movie.

Kinsdale's (Kennedy) family gets whacked in the first few minutes (look for a young Danny Huston as Kinsdale's son) and the build up made for an emotional impact once Kinsdale discovers it.  After that it's ON, baby!  He slowly uncovers the players behind it all. Yeah, it's far fetched and there's probably no way he would have realistically found out through the methods he employed but it's a movie and sometimes you just have to suspend your disbelief.

The ending is off the fucking charts fun.  He's already brutally killed one of the killers and now he's going to kill the rest of the flies with one swipe.  He's unstoppable and it's fucking awesome. Good score by Ennio Morricone and it's worth noting that this was director Edward "THE CAINE MUTINY (1954) Dmytryk's last picture.