Missing (1982, Costa-Gavras)

Everyone wanted Vangelis the year after Chariots of Fire, and the two movies who landed him were Blade Runner and this downbeat drama. It’s a dialogue-heavy movie, light on the music, but whenever those classy synths kick in, you float for a little while. Missing Charles aka TV’s Lex Luthor, talks with his pet duck: Gavras was by now typecast as the guy who makes depressing movies about leftists getting destroyed by oppressive military governments, so the coup in Chile was right up his alley. Shot and cut like a standard prestige drama, without the nervy energy of Z. The physical action can be clunky too, but casting late-career Jack Lemmon and post-oscar Sissy Spacek as the leads really helps for authenticity. The most impressive thing here is the shifts in perspective, following one character then another, jumping through time, and rewriting history (showing different versions of a past event depending who’s telling it). Was there a rash of “parents’ worst nightmare” movies around…