Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012, April 14, 1982, Page 4, Image 12

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Textbooks 666-3520 • General Books 686-3510 • Supplies 886-4331
Real life 111 or docu-drama?
“Missing"
Jack Lemmon
Sissy Spacek
A- West 11th Cinemas
Machine guns pop tike fire
crackers in the distance, get
ting nearer Puddles of blood
bathe the street Piles of
corpses fill the plazas Beth
Horman searches for her
husband in the rubble of a
military coup
Beth (Spacek) is an American
whose husband, Charles (John
Shea), mysteriously disappears
following the 1973 coup in
Chile After weeks of official
double-talk and denials,
Charles' father Ed (Lemmon), a
New York businessman, comes
to straighten things out and
bring his son home
Director Costa-Gavras
( "State of Siege,” "Z”)
develops this real-life struggle
into a powerful docu-drama
highly critical of America's in
volvement in foreign political
uprisings The film makes its
point forcefully, and few in the
audience leave without anger at
their government for interfering
where it doesn't belong
The main question in my mind
is how much of the story is fic
tionalized and exaggerated for
the sake of the strength of the
film's message According to
the studio's press kit, Ed
Horman wasn't quite the un
derachieving radical the movie
painted him to be Horman
worked at summer jobs for CBS
Television and the New York
Times, and at KING-TV and
WNET after graduation from
Harvard
It's no sin to creatively
adjust" facts to better serve
the story, but this must be
remembered by the audience
Was pre-coup Chile as wonder
ful as the movie makes it out to
be? Just how involved was the
US, and why?
Regardless of the degree of
"adjustment'' Costa-Gavras
made, the final product is a
tight, convincing argument with
incredible power Much of this
power comes from the frighten
ingly realistic picture of a bloody
coup that acts as a backdrop for
the characters' actions
These characters are similarly
exaggerated Lemmon’s
character could be a commer
cial for the American way of life,
a staunch defender of capita
lism, free trade, business and
apple pie He feels that his son
must have done something to
deserve arrest He sees his son
- MB -*■». • ■» ■ ■
J
—
and daughter-in-law as undera
chieving hippies who moved to
Chile because they couldn't
make it in the States
We also get a few too many
shots of ‘what a great guy
Charles was " Although a few of
these are necessary to tie the
audience to the character,
Costa-Gavras goes a little over
board, and makes it painfully
clear that Charles was a Great
Guy
When it is finally revealed that
the U S government had
something to do with the coup,
the writers (Costa-Gavras and
Donald Stewart) hit us over the
head with the film's message,
point-blank: "If you hadn't been
personally involved.'' says a
U S official to Lemmon, you'd
be sitting complacently back in
your easy chair in the States "
He goes on to say that there are
many multinational corpora
tions doing business in the
country whose needs must be
protected (Just in case you
missed the point)
In spite of its simplifications,
stereotypes and blunt
statements, "Missing” is a
powerful indictment of U S in
tervention in foreign govern
ment activities, and a pretty
good film to boot
by matt meyer
Tomorrow
Thursday, April 15
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