ADDITION: SONY - Region 1,3,4 - NTSC (April 06') - Regarding the image - I don't know that there is much more that I can add from simply looking at the screen captures. The new Sony is anamorphic, darker, a bit saturated, I believe the colors to be more accurate and it has some of the top frame (and left and right) slightly cropped. It is cleaner and doesn't show the damage visible on the washed-out Imagica release. Most importantly to many of us the new Sony has the international version, including the seven extra minutes that are deleted from the 'American edition'. On a tube or projection the Sony image is a vast improvement.

On Jack's commentary: Part of Jack Nicholson's strong off-camera appeal is his total lack of pretence. He never comes across as trying to impress or gloat. In this commentary, his voice is very hoarse and quite gravely. I really enjoyed his anecdotes, relating stories about production, cast, crew and the maestro. He catches himself a couple of times simply narrating the story. It was nice to hear him be so respectful of Antonioni after the spectacle that occurred late last year on stage (in L.A.?). From a technical standpoint the commentary is a bit weak. There are a few short gaps where Jack is obviously just watching the film. Overall it really helped me further my appreciation of this masterpiece, but I think he simply should have let the final scene run instead of breaking in with 'one shot' every 20 seconds or so. 

On Aurora Irvine and Mark Peploe commentary: Of the two commentaries Jack's is far better. Mr. Peploe talks quite slowly in a very mundane tone relating more information about himself than the film. I suppose his influences may be of some interest as it related to his development of the story but he can't relay anywhere near the anecdotal musings that Jack did. I was expecting much more. Aurora Irvine hardly speaks at all occasionally asking a question or giving her $.02 worth. This is one of the least satisfying commentaries I can recall but it does tend to improve as he moves along. I suggest that a more technical individual (or an Antonioni expert) would have been a good counter-commentary to Jack's.  

****

NOTE: Antonioni in Il Messaggero 31. August 1983:
"There has not been a film of mine that has completely satisfied me. Well, The Passenger would have completely satisfied me if I had been able to include all of the parts I was forced to cut out because of its length. And lets not talk of the final version for the English-speaking market which I can not accept, and would have removed my name from, if I could have. But the even the European edition- which is the one I signed, and which I consider the acceptable version of the film- even that version, I believe, is mutilated because the story is not well explained. For example, a sequence is omitted that explains the relationship between the protagonist and his wife, thus making it possible to understand how the failure of their marriage has an impact. If I could have included that sequence, the narrative would have been much better Another example might be the brothers who produced The Eclipse and cut the films ending without letting me know. The ending might have seemed a little long, but it actually worked because it left the viewer certain feelings, a lingering sense of the whole story that has just been told."

******

NOTE: The phasing problem on THE PASSENGER Japanese DVD is there. Never did figure out what it is, but yes, something is goofed up for the first 10 minutes or so and there's some sort of inadvertent doubling of the mono channels in the master. There's no way to correct it via a "mono" button or anything, either. (Thanks Peter!)

****

This Japanese DVD is both NTSC and Region 0 making it playable with normal US/Canada players. Perhaps this is the reason that it is Out-of-print, but being a DVD5 (single layered job) copies are floating around everywhere from EBay to pirate websites.

The non-anamorphic image isn't exceptionally poor. There is a black border around the frame inhibiting full horizontal resolution and there are some scratches and damage marks, but neither are catastrophic in terms of view-ablity. It is agreeably sharp enough.  I didn't find any fatal manipulations and colors appear accurate if somewhat dull.