The Human Factor (1975) starring George Kennedy, Sir John Mills

When I think revenge-fueled vigilantes, George Kennedy (“Patroni” in the AIRPORT series) is not the first person who leaps to mind. But I’d always wondered about THE HUMAN FACTOR after stumbling upon the tie-in novel many years ago, so when I spotted it the DVD on a shelf at the local library, I knew I had to give it a holiday break spin.

Kennedy plays John Kinsdale, a NATO computer specialist who lives in Naples, Italy with his wife and two children. Unbeknownst to Kinsdale, terrorists have targeted Americans living in Italy and have vowed to kill them until the US President pays $10 million dollars and releases a group of political prisoners.

While at work on his son’s birthday, the Kinsdale clan is killed by the terrorists in a seemingly random attack, and Kinsdale contemplates suicide—until a television report about the crime snaps him out of it and ignites his rage. Working with his NATO pal McAllister (John Mills), the pair feed clues into their computer and track down the killers. THE HUMAN FACTOR is about as odd a vigilante thriller gets.

There’s a lot of talking and looking at old-school green computer terminal text with the added bonus of Kennedy playing the doughiest vigilante on record, and the whole thing climaxes in a shootout between Kinsdale and the terrorists in a commissary.

A weird but interesting slice of 70s cinema. – Dan Taylor