"Missing" is a moving and credible film about a young American's disappearance during a 1973 coup in Chile, and the attempts of his wife and father to locate him. The viewer quickly realizes that the son almost certainly has been killed, and that the U.S. military is behind the coup. After that, the film becomes repetitive, and is interesting mostly for Lemmon's outraged performance.
There are many scenes of soldiers occupying the streets, shooting people arbitrarily. These scenes are like some science fiction films set in the future, with the resisting "humans" on the wrong side of alien search and destroy missions. However, this presentation of a third world nation's military coup is believable.
After the son's disappearance, his wife (Sissy Spacek) remains in Chile. At some risk to her life, she tries to find him. She makes little progress with the disinterested American officials. The son's father (Jack Lemmon) arrives and also gets nowhere.
Lemmon, who considers his son to be a layabout radical, is the stereotype of a conservative, middle-aged American businessman. He has several generation gap arguments with Spacek, but gradually learns to respect her, and the even the son he never really knew. This respect may be due to his embracing their liberal political philosophies. His change of heart comes when he realizes that lying American officials were behind the coup, and care little about the life of his 'troublemaking' son.
Lemmon is fine, and his confrontations with American officials are the best scenes of the film. A bureaucrat tells Lemmon, "there are no such [covert military] operations", with a prominent portrait of Nixon in the background. Spacek is also good, although her character isn't as defined as it should be.
One problem I had with "Missing" is that Lemmon, the young Americans, and the journalists caught in the coup are all innocent and have perfect integrity. This is contrasted against the contemptible American officials and military personnel. Sometimes the action of the latter aren't credible: a U.S. military officer attempts to seduce Spacek, and an official presents Lemmon with a bill for $973.
The Academy Awards saw the film more favorably, however. "Missing" was the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay (Costa-Gavras, Donald Stewart). The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Lemmon), and Best Actress (Spacek). (56/100)
This political thriller has its origins in an actual event--the disappearance of a young American writer and filmmaker, Charles Horman (John Shea), du...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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