Missing (1982) - film review

An American free-lance journalist, Charles Hormann, is living in a South American state with his wife Beth when a military coup erupts.  A night curfew is imposed, trouble-makers are arrested and foreigners are hassled, even shot.  When Charles goes missing, Beth notifies her father-in-law, Ed, who arrives to investigate his son’s disappearance.  Being a level-headed conservative American, Ed initially rejects Beth’s claims that her husband has been abducted for political reasons.  But, as he probes further, it becomes clear that Charles may indeed have been the victim of a political intrigue – and that American officials may have played in his disappearance...

In the 1970s, Greek director Costa-Gavras built on the success of his Oscar-winning film, Z (1969), with a series of widely acclaimed political thrillers, including L’Aveu (1970) and État de siège (1973).  Missing was to continue this trend and was Costa-Gavras’ first English language film, and also his first film to be made in America.

As with most of Costa-Gavras’ earlier films, Missing proved to be well-received by the critics, a surprising commercial success and also hugely controversial.  It won an Oscar for the best screenplay and was joint winner of the covered Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1982 (sharing the prize with Yilmaz Güney’s film Yon).

Whilst Missing is more accessible and closer to the conventional American political thriller than Costa-Gavras’ previous films, it is just as uncompromising, intense and disturbing as these earlier films.   Some of the images in the film are shocking and leave a lasting impression, particularly the harrowing night curfew and the horrific scene in the mortuary. These images have a suppressed terrifying resonance, bleached of any artificial theatrical drama and rendered more effective by the effect such sights appear to have on the film’s main characters, Ed and Beth, brilliantly portrayed by Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek.

Although Costa-Gavras clearly has a political point to make (namely that the American way of life stinks) he does so with great restraint, without alienating his audience in the way that he does in some of his other films.  One important factor in the film’s success is Jack Lemmon’s remarkable performance as Ed Hormon, a trump card which gives the film great humanity and impact.

The film is based on the controversial novel by Thomas Hauser, recounting the real-life story of Charles Horman, who was alleged to have been the victim of United States intervention in the coup which took place in Chile in 1973.  Such was the public interest in the case following the release of the film that the US secretary state at the time was forced to issue an official denial of the allegations made by the film.

Whatever the truth of otherwise of the actual events on which the film is based (watch and make up your own mind), Missing is a compelling and thought-provoking drama, which features some sublime acting performances and makes a chilling morality tale.  In the decades since Costa-Gavras made Missing, American foreign policy has been shown to be culpable of even greater hypocrisies and injustices than those which are alleged in this film.  Perhaps what is most shocking about this film now is how easy it is for us to accept the film’s rather damning conclusion.

© James Travers 2002

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