Missing (Criterion)
The Criterion Collection
Missing is political filmmaker extraordinaire Costa-Gavras's compelling, controversial dramatization of the search for American filmmaker and journalist Charles Horman, who mysteriously disappeared during the 1973 coup in Chile. Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek give magnetic, emotionally commanding performances as Charles's father and wife, who are led by U.S. embassy and consulate officials through a series of bureaucratic dead-ends before eventually uncovering the terrifying facts about Charles’s fate and disillusioning truths about their government. Written and directed with clarity and conscience, the Academy Award–winning Missing is a testament to Costa-Gavras's daring.
Member Reviews
OK, But It Lacked The Necessary Context - revsdd
Surprisingly, for a movie that claims to be based on actual events, I found that in many ways there was a surprising lack of connection with reality. For one thing, we are never explicitly told what country the events depicted are taking place in. Yes, if you know your history well enough, you can figure it out. It's set during the Nixon administration, it's in a Spanish speaking country, there's been a coup that has brought an extreme right wing military junta to power, and those suspected of being on the left of the spectrum are either being killed or "disappearing" by the thousands. So it's Chile. But if you don't have a good grasp of that era of history you wouldn't know that. There's also no political context to the movie. It begins just as the coup has taken place, but there's no real discussion of the issues that led to the coup or the personalities involved (neither Allende or Pinochet are ever mentioned.) I found those things to be a major weakness.
Compensating for that was a pretty good performance by Jack Lemmon as the father of a young American man who worked for a leftist publication and has gone missing. He caught the proper emotional balance of the father, and showed a good evolution of the man who at first completely trusted the American Embassy and its officials to find his son and who gradually came to realize that they were not only screwing him around, but were probably even complicit in whatever happened. Sissy Spacek was less convincing, I thought, as the missing man's wife.
Where the movie did connect well with reality was in its depiction of everyday life under the junta. Everyone lives in fear, there's gunfire at all hours of the day and night, strict curfews that people are terrified of breaking, bodies in the street and arbitrary arrests. That was well portrayed, and yet, still, somehow this movie didn't connect fully with me.A must watch - SomeArt
For anyone interested in politics, especially the in getting a glimpse of how the superpowers machinate to install a puppet government in less powerful countries to do their dirty bidding, at the expense of their own citizens. Many examples include Saddam Hussein in Iraq, The Shah in Iran Noriega in Panama etc.
Member Reviews
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OK, But It Lacked The Necessary Context - revsdd
Surprisingly, for a movie that claims to be based on actual events, I found that in many ways there was a surprising lack of connection with reality. For one thing, we are never explicitly told what country the events depicted are taking place in. Yes, if ...A must watch - SomeArt
For anyone interested in politics, especially the in getting a glimpse of how the superpowers machinate to install a puppet government in less powerful countries to do their dirty bidding, at the expense of their own citizens. Many examples include Saddam ...