SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Benas Mcloughlin Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Phillipa Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

bkoganbing Edward Dmytryk ended his feature directorial career with this rather routine action film which is a little sluggish. The Human Factor was hardly the kind of film that a celebrated director should have gone out on. After all, Dmytryk has such classics as Murder My Sweet, Crossfire, and The Caine Mutiny to his credit.George Kennedy is our hero/protagonist who has his wife and three children executed by terrorists who made his the first targeted family of an extortion plan to kill an American family every three days if the USA does not pony up some large coin of the realm.As Kennedy is a computer programmer working and living in Rome he has access to some real intelligence gathering machinery. Colleagues like John Mills and Rita Tushingham help. Kennedy upsets Italian police inspector Raf Vallone with his pro-active approach and doing his own investigation.The Human Factor is a slow paced film, but it does have a nice action packed climax where Kennedy takes care of business the way Dirty Harry Callahn would. You'll enjoy if you can wait that long.

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!

glockenspiel Although it surely didn't wow me, I think this movie had an interesting and somewhat suspenseful storyline. George Kennedy was practically a superhero here: running up flights of stairs and jumping rooftops without pausing for breath, nailing every target with his trusty handgun, and fighting the bad guys despite knife and bullet wounds. How did he do it? Anyway, it was an extremely serious film without a joke or gag in there (hard to believe from this that George went on to be in the Naked Gun trilogy), so don't put it on if you're almost out of anti-depressants. You can have a bit of fun by counting Pepsi references, though. I counted 3.

stump69 Having just finished reading Maltin's one line summary of this film, I have to assume that he didn't see it, or has forgotten it if he did. "A violent, bloody chronicle..." he opines. Any man who truly loved his family would become violent and would spill the blood of those who took away his most cherished things on earth, his wife and children. I saw this film during it's initial release in Europe in 1975 and it gave me an enhanced appreciation for my family. I highly recommend it and will purchase it on DVD if it's available. The only reason I don't already own this film is I'd forgotten the title over the years. Thanks to the staff of IMDb for the excellent filmographies that allow searches of this type.