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Missing [1982]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

The peril facing a lone American amid Third World political turmoil is elegantly communicated in this important film from Costa-Gavras (Z), adapted by the director and Donald Stewart from Thomas Hauser's nonfiction book. The key to its power onscreen stems from the decision not to center the action merely on the disappearance of Charles Horman (John Shea), but also on the search for him by his father Ed (Jack Lemmon)--and on Ed's discovery of a son he never knew. The Oscar-winning script flows freely between that search and Charles's earlier experiences in the unnamed country (in the true account, Chile). Providing a link between those two stories is Charles's wife Beth (Sissy Spacek), who follows her father-in-law around a country in chaos, teeming with reckless authority and disinterested American diplomats (epitomised by ace character actor David Clennon). The film, which was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar and won the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, is certainly manipulative, but it works because of its finely detailed human elements. Usually emotionally extroverted, Lemmon gives one of his finest performances playing against that type--here, he's a controlled, intellectual man who learns more about his son, and his country, than he ever dreamed he would. --Doug Thomas


COSTA GAVRAS FIRST AMERICAN FILM
Review date: 2008-11-18 Rating: 10 out of 10

Missing [1982]
The true, unsolved story of the disappearance of US journalist Charles Horman in Chile, gives Jack Lemmon the best role in his career. Lemmon plays Ed Horman whose son Charlie, was a somewhat radical writer living in Chile with his wife, Joyse, at the time of the 1973 coup when President Allende was butchered and his struggling government overthrown.
Young Horman was suspicious about the number of top-ranking American Military Officials staying in Chile at the time and could only assume the worst. Not long afterward Horman vanished, apparently another man who knew too much. This is COSTA GRAVAS FIRST AMERICAN MOVIE.

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Reviews


A fine work of cinema
Review date: 2008-05-10 Rating: 10 out of 10

"Missing" has to be one of the best films I've seen. Although the film couldn't be filmed in Chile due to the regime in place there at the time of filming, the architecture and scenery depicted in the film does indeed look strangely like Santiago. There are several features of the film that stand out - what is particularly effective is the use of 'flashbacks' which help the viewer to gradually gain a clearer picture of what is going on. However, unlike many films which either sanitise and glamorise violence - the violence of the coup is depicted as what it was really like - brutal, chaotic and extreme - you get a real sense of fear, and the constant gunshots in the background remind the viewer of the sickening level of violence that existed in the weeks after the coup. The film is a must-see for anyone with an interest in Chile.

Excellent
Review date: 2008-02-19 Rating: 10 out of 10

A compelling and thought-provoking movie with great characterisation and wonderful performances. One that I can watch over and over again.

compelling suspense story, don't "miss" it...
Review date: 2007-03-01 Rating: 10 out of 10

Undoubtedly Missing turns out to be a great piece of cinema, one of the brightest works of political film-maker Costa-Gavras. Based on true events, it successfully captures the chaotic atmosphere of Chile during the first weeks of Pinochet government. Crisp and compelling, the story is based on the vain struggle of an American businessman Ed Horman to recover his son, who vanished without a trace during the helter-skelter following the right-wing political coup.

The general mood of the movie fits the story and its backdrop well with a fine score by Vangelis. Acting two controversial characters, Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek both deliver dazzling performances. Costa-Gavras uses an ingenious technique of flashbacks to give the people more deep background and allows them to draw conclusions from what they may have missed. This is the reason that the movie lacked a bit of clarity to the end and it causes little ambiguity.

Contrary to the movie, that Universal DVD is such a "bare to bones" disc. There are no audio options (English mono only). The transfer is poor, pictures are grainy, and of course it lacks special features. What a shame!!! I think this is a kind of movie that really does deserve special edition treatment...

Costa-Gavras' enduring masterpiece
Review date: 2005-07-20 Rating: 10 out of 10

Costa-Gavras shot his controversial 'State of Siege' in Chile not long before the violent US-backed Allende coup. Maybe it's that familiarity with the locale that makes Costa-Gavras' 'Missing' seem so authentic.

More than just a startling vision of day-to-day life in the aftermath of a violent coup, there's much more of a feeling for the place and what ordinary people lost in the coup. There's a real sense of chaos in its imagery - dead bodies littering the streets as people try to go about their daily business or floating by in rivers, soldiers chasing and shooting at a white horse through deserted streets or diners on a rooftop garden leaving their means to watch a helicopter gunship shoot at unseen curfew violators. The sheer casual and irrational nature of violence ("You Americans always assume there has to be a reason") gives the film a palpable sense of terror and dread: this is a place where even an earthquake can't get people out onto the dangerous streets after curfew.

The fact that this time round Costa-Gavras had a Hollywood budget to play with helps immensely, but he also has a script based around people who aren't defined strictly by their politics - indeed, the movie is basically a search for `a political neophyte' by a gruff and unlikeable conservative (Jack Lemmon, on excellent form) and the missing man's wife (Sissy Spacek), a search that takes in embassies crowded with asylum seekers, morgues with hundreds of bodies piled almost haphazardly and the national football stadium that has been turned into a vast prison/torture chamber/place of execution. It's an outraged film but it's also one aware of its own impotence - this is a journey from hope to bitter and exhausted acceptance that there is nothing that an individual can do in the face of politically expedient mass murder.

It's easily Costa-Gavras' real enduring masterpiece, having lost none of its power more than a quarter of a century on, and its sobering to think that there was a time when movies like this weren't just mainstream releases, they were also big box-office. It's just a shame that Universal's DVD is such a shoddy disc - it doesn't even have a menu page! This is a film that really does deserve the Criterion treatment (which it will finally get in October 2008), or a special edition at the very least (there is a special edition in France with audio commentary by Costa-Gavras and interviews with the director and Joyce Horman). But buy it anyway for the film itself.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Sissy Spacek
John Shea
Melanie Mayron
Jack Lemmon

Creators:
Jack Lemmon (Primary Contributor)
Sissy Spacek (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer: Universal Pictures UK
EAN: 5050582198577
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2005-02-21
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 117 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1982
Language: English (Original Language)

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