Missing (1982)

obsessed with the fact that the us state department released a three page statement denouncing this film. that’s worth more than any silly little award

The most conventional aspect of Missing is that Ed and Beth are on opposite sides of the political spectrum, and a number of their scenes together are him trying to reckon with her “kooky leftist views” that spit in the face of his conservative Christian Science. That Missing is helmed by one star from Old Hollywood (Lemmon) and one star from New Hollywood (Spacek) lends it an interesting air of legitimacy, so to speak. It’s not only that the horrible events of the film are happening, but they are happening to beloved Americans! The indignity! The injustice! The film goes so far to say as much just that near its conclusion, in which one of the sniveling U.S. diplomats says something to the effect that Lemmon’s Ed would not even care what the United States is doing in another country were he not personally involved.

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I wonder if Alex Garland watched this recently.

50 years since Allende's death & the military coup in Chile memorial programme

the filmic equivalent of talking an important discourse to death. the dialogues are suffocating everything that cinema is made of. I kept full attention - which is a tough thing to do when the screenplay doesn't allow anything else than their words taking over - but could detect only glimpses of cinematic moments here. remembering Z this seems to be a general trait of Costa-Gavras style.

a central problem of the film remains the US-centered view on a 'failed state' from the outside looking in, raising empathy only for American citizen while even having all the action happening there. not a single Chilean experienced the decency of getting…

Palme d’Or Winners Project, 1982

The strange thing about Costa-Gavras' Missing and its most damaging aspect, is the fact it only alludes to the regime colluding with the American government without ever committing to standing against it. The film is more critical of the machine behind the coup rather than the Chilean soldiers told to enforce it but that lack of conviction lessens the political aspect of the story.

Quite why Gavras chooses not to join those dots is a mystery. A more determined stance or look at the rebel forces acting as the Americans eyes and ears on the ground would have added to the great pairing of Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. Their complicated relationship is the films…

I saw Costa-Gavras’ Missing when first released in 1982. It had a big impact on me. I was in graduate school and that same year participated in the March on Washington Against US Involvement in El Salvador, another US-funded proxy war against Communism in Latin America.  A rewatch makes me still admire it greatly.  In many ways, a typical Costa-Gavras political thriller, it’s about government and individual complicity in state-sponsored terror and repression. 

A young idealistic American writer Charles Horman (John Shea) disappears during the 1973 Chilean  rightwing military coup. His wife Beth (Sissy Spacek) and friends are stonewalled by US  embassy officials and suspect their involvement. Charles’ politically conservative religious father Ed (Jack Lemmon) arrives, trusting American institutions to do the right thing.…

Un drama de grandes contrastes. Jack Lemmon, representante del antiguo Hollywood, y Sissy Spacek, del nuevo Hollywood, conforman un dúo que encarna un choque entre dos generaciones distintas.

la trama, aborda sin titubeos, la complicidad que tuvo los estados unidos de America en el Golpe de Estado en Chile de 1973 y la subsecuente dictadura, que se vio prolongada por unos 17 años

8 planes de 10

I dunno about you guys, but one thing that I loved that unfortunately don't too much these days was going fully blind into things like movies and book. Whether it was at the theaters, at a movie rent or book store, it was always such an amazing experience to discover something simply out of the blue. Sadly nowadays I don't get too much of that because of the over exposure or even the reviews here... til this day, when I went into this feature not knowing anything... and I was surprised.

First of all, bruh, if the experience by Chilean people during the Pinochet regime was anything close to this... I'm talking, this was simply Syria in South America. Wild!…

Week 20 of the 2024 edition of the 52 week film challenge: This week is a Cannes Palme d'Or winner . All criteria you will find in my list | 52 week film challenge |

An admittedly very slow, but equally very interesting political thriller that chronicles the real life experience of Ed Horman. A man who travels to Chile to investigate his son's sudden and mysterious disappearance during a military coup, and is met with lies, deceit and corruption mostly from his own government. It's both a fascinating and depressing true story. However, I think it's Ed's personal journey from judgemental, seemingly uncaring businessman convinced that the system will prevail, to distraught father learning to love his son, while…

I admire the existence of Missing, and the way it makes clear US involvement with murderous regimes in Latin America. The film is a scathing indictment of the willingness of the US to kill its own citizens when it becomes convenient to silence their views and knowledge. The US backed the end of democracy in Chile and supported Pinochet as a dictator. The lead character in Missing, a father, represents the oblivious American public, being initially apathetic to global politics, critical of youthful idealism, and doubting of US evil.

Missing is set in a Chile where bodies line the street and soldiers roam everywhere. It looks at the turmoil created by such a situation, through the eyes of a foreigner.…

With all the shit—an almost diluvian confluence of diarrhea gone flavescent after decennium of marination in the hot suns of Central and South America (and swaths of the Caribbean, parts of Southeast Asia, of course the Mashriq; plus the slightly cooler beams of Transcaucasia, Eastern Europe, etc etc etc, [I think you get the idea])—stuck to the shoe of America’s diabetic left foot, you really gotta wonder, not how one becomes radicalized, but rather, how one couldn’t.

Cinematic Time Capsule
1982 Marathon - Film #17

”The only thing we know for sure right now is where he isn’t”

Jack Lemmon stars as an American businessman who travels to Chile to investigate the sudden disappearance of his son after a military takeover. Along with his daughter-in-law, Sissy Spacek, they search for answers in a world of civil unrest that offers little more than constant danger and mounting frustrations.

The film’s thick with politcal intrigue, and at times it’s a bit hard to follow with all of it’s random flashbacks. But Lemmon’s Oscar nominated perfomance was easily my favorite, and your heart goes out to him as he’s constantly spun in these endless exasperating circles, all while being told, ‘We’re doing all we can…’

”What kind of world is this?”

The New York Times Book of Movies: The Essential 1,000 Films to See

Cinematic Time Capsule - 1982 Rankedc