Missing (1982)

Thanks for the memories!

Perfect cast and a good story

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I watched this film when I was younger and loved it. Seeing it again after many years, it's still riveting, but it has flaws in it, mainly the motivations of Charles, the man who goes missing. Why was he killed so indiscriminately? It was a pretty well known fact that the CIA and the US were behind the 9/11/73 (yes, the Chilean coup happened on Sept. 11th), and as far as the movie goes, Charles was never threatening to expose what was happening. There's even a NY Times reporter in the movie covering the coup, and she's never messed with. Plus there was a coup attempt a few months prior to the September one, and it (obviously) failed. The country was also in turmoil during the Allende years (lots of strikes, some local, some manufactured by the Americans), so the portrayal of Charles as a naive idealist strikes as false. Plus 2 other men who write for a left wing publication that Charles does are arrested, one is executed, the other is set free. So why was Charles considered such a threat? The movie never really explains.Lemmon's character naivete works well (and it's one of his best performances). He's just a man who is looking for his son, and is outraged not only about his son and his son's fate, but of the sheer brutality (very well depicted in the movie) carried about by the coup leaders with backing from the US. Lemmon is a very proud American, so his beliefs are pretty much shot to hell by the end of the film, which shows the ugly side of US foreign policy. The official run around is in full swing and Lemmon's gets more and more infuriated at the lies and obfuscation of the US officials, and then it turns to fury as he discovers his son's fate.A flawed but still great movie. As a man looking for his son, the film works wonders thanks to Lemmon and Spacek. As a political thriller, it works less well.

Paranoia can create a lot of harm. This film is not really about anti-establishment paranoia (as being mentioned in the movie) but about American Post-Bay-of-Pigs paranoia and its disastrous consequences. In order to prevent a second Cuba in the Americas all means were regarded as justified including the death of US citizens that happened to be on the wrong spot at the wrong time. A young American writer disappears shortly after the 1973 Pinochet military coup in Chile only because he has stuck his nose 'too' deep into the affairs of the US supported coup although these affairs are quite often presented to him in a fishbowl. The fact that he was writing articles for a liberal paper surely did not do him any favour either. His father and his wife start a search for him, constantly impeded and misdirected in their search by the officials, only to find out in the end that their worst presumptions have come true. The hypocrisy of the embassy members is really quite unbelievable. The movie atmosphere is quite oppressive with the Police being present on every corner of the city and with a curfew ruling out all nightly gatherings. It gives a good impression on how insane it must feel living under a totalitarian regime. The insanity is best demonstrated by a squad of police hunting a white stallion through the streets of Santiago. The contrast to the liberal atmosphere presented in the flashbacks from before the coup could not be any bigger. Besides this political dimension, the movie also covers really well how two fairly diverse people can slowly create a bondage in their common, almost Kafkaesque fight against the injustice around them. One can see how the understanding for the other's point of view is opening up during the movie. This of course is only possible for someone who is ready to sacrifice his own values under the pressure of the undeniable facts. Jack Lemmon as the father and Sissy Spacek as his stepdaughter are really doing an excellent job by showing this humanity in a world in collapse. Some comments in this block suggest that it is a bit sad that the movie does not reveal in detail what has really happened. I do not agree because the remaining uncertainty is just part of the deliberate political confusion and hence puts us in the shoes of the people involved. Overall, a political thriller well worth seeing that presents an interesting and awful historical event wrapped up in a true! story full of suspense.

Terry Simon (Melanie Mayron) is trying to go home after the Chilean coup of 1973 but the airport is shut down. She and her writer friend Charlie Horman (John Shea) may have stumbled upon secret American involvement. Charlie goes missing. His wife Beth (Sissy Spacek) comes home to find it trashed. His father Ed (Jack Lemmon) is given the runaround in Washington and goes down to find his only son himself. Ed trusts his government implicitly, dislike his son's choices and dismisses Beth constantly.The ending is never really in doubt and that takes away from the drama. Ed could have been written slightly differently. He has issues with Charlie and Beth. His blind faith in the embassy feels wrong even in relations with his experience in Washington. His mantra should be anything to get his son home. Instead he concentrates more on fighting with Beth. It makes him naive at best but also different from his start. Beth can get a bit preachy too. This is a harrowing story and there are compelling scenes.

Imagine living in a country whose Socialist government is toppled in a US-backed military coup. Here is the based-on-truth story of Charles Holman, a somewhat naive New Yorker who, for unclear reasons, is living in Chile when a ruthless junta takes over. Suddenly anyone out on the streets after curfew is in danger of being shot. Probably Holman, who dabbled in writing, saw things that were threatening to the regime or its ties to the US. He winds up being one of thousands summarily executed under Pinochet's reign of terror, only to be buried in a wall. There is a convincing performance here from Jack Lemmon, who starts out being resentful about the inconvenience his only child has brought about. Gradually he comes to admire the feistiness of his cynical daughter-in-law, played a little tediously by Sissie Spacek, as they try to learn the fate of their loved one. Experiencing the horror of a society under siege is the most memorable thing about this film. =================================== From Wikipedia: "Missing," a film based on the life of U.S. journalist Charles Horman, who disappeared in the aftermath of the Pinochet coup.