dougdoepke
Leave it to French filmmakers to coddle pinkos. Never mind that the guy most interested in bringing about justice in the movie is a bland bureaucrat. If he has any political leanings, they sure don't affect his mechanical search for truth. Seems a bunch of pinko peaceniks are winning more hearts and minds than the right-wing government can allow. And since these elites stand for everything good, right, and godly—just ask them—they plot the assassination of a chief peacenik (Montand). Fortunately, they've got their street thugs to bust up pinko rallies and carry out their sneaky plot. And since they control the cops, they insist the peacenik's murder is really nothing more than an accident. Trouble is they're still honest doctors and attorneys who haven't yet been replaced. They're the ones who manage to uncover the right- wing shenanigans. So, all in all, the bad guys aren't danged peaceniks or commies. Instead they're right-wing nationalists who'll even seize all of government if they don't get their way. And so much for what's left of the democracy. And, yes, a military coup under such circumstances really did happen in Greece in 1963. So the in's and out's dramatized here are not really just the over-heated figment of some pinko filmmaker.And, oh yes, thank you Mr. Costa-Gravas for your steady-stream spotlight. It's engrossing as heck.
leplatypus
The minus is only because for a « Greek » movie, having Algeria for location and cast hasn't the flavor of the real Greece ! But Gavras hasn't the choice either because at the time, it was still the dictatorship there and at least, Theodorakis' score helps to feel this culture.In all cases, this movie is just amazing. In our dark time in which democracy is stomped, this committed production is just a needy breath of air. For one time, political power isn't told as courageous, bold, historic but rather as corrupted, authoritarian. In short, the movie doesn't depict them as how they would like to appear but rather as how they really are. It's also a excellent lesson in constitutional law as it illustrates the meaning of the separation of powers : a real democracy is where each power is independent. Thus here, you can conclude it isn't one as the administration is vehement to tell the judiciary what it must does. At last, it's a extraordinary story about courage and conviction. A bit like « Schindler's list », this movie demonstrates that the psychopathic state relies on individual and as soon as one says « no », he can become the little grain of stand that blocks the machine. Here, Trintignant is a young judge who stays truth to his function and it's all the more funny and powerful that he's highly clever : he doesn't look up much but he knows exactly what to do to put the culprits in his web !In conclusion, this movie is just an oasis in film history and it should inspire newcomers to do the same instead of serving propaganda !
blanche-2
Do read the review of lhwilliams on this site, as he had a personal experience involving this film that is thoroughly believable given the times and fascinating as well.Z deals with the real-life assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis, an athlete turned doctor turned politician who believed in peace and humanity and lost his life as a result.Costas Gavras takes us to 1963, and though Greece isn't mentioned, we are in Greece and shows us the events surrounding the death of Lambrakis -- what led up to it, and what followed it.Yves Montand and Irene Pappas took roles in this -- Montand's role is not large, as he's the murdered man. And as you'll read from lhwilliams, making this film caused him plenty of problems. Costa-Gravas himself said that Irene Pappas really couldn't be touched as she didn't care, and she wanted to be in the film. Jean-Louis Trintignant was brilliant as the Examining Magistrate, who doesn't give away his decision on whether or not to carry on with the case. He's under a great deal of pressure not to prosecute the police, who stood by and let the violence happen. You really don't know what he's going to do until the last minute. The commentary at the end of the film is sad indeed, as we see that there was just no fighting the power of the state.The murder did make a difference, at least briefly, as far as the government of Greece.A very impressive film, with some marvelous acting, that has an important message.
ElMaruecan82
"Z" opens with an amazing statement from the writers Jorge Semprun and Costa-Gavras: any similarity with real events, dead or living persons, is not fortuitous, it is deliberate. Indeed, more than a gauzy fictionalized dramatization of the events that surrounded the assassination of a political activist in Greece in 1963, "Z" is a powerful denunciation. Though most of us are not familiar with these events, it hardly matters because the film is beyond any geopolitical consideration, although the military officers' opening speech leaves a bizarre taste. And since only justice can be the measure of a good society, it's appropriate that the film's main protagonist is a magistrate. Jean-Louis Trintignant, behind his horn-rimmed glasses and zombie-like strictness, incarnates a legitimate form of authority, because only a zealous judge can carry the hopes of a population eager to see one of his most admirable heroes be avenged, Yves Montand, a physician, an ex-athlete and the major opponent to the country's right-wing military-dominated government. The ill-fated deputy is killed twice: first by a club hit on his head after a chaotic meeting, the second time by the corrupted system that concluded to a hazardous accident. Meaning 'he lives' in ancient Greek, "Z" becomes the protest slogan following his death, as his spirit, courage and hopes for the country still inhabited the hearts of his supporters. And served by a dizzying editing, the film deconstruct the conspiracy lying behind the murder. Preventing the meeting from being held, bribing some thugs to razz the supporters, the heads of state all conveniently attend an opera event while the assassination takes place, as a perfect alibi. In the the middle of a populous fizz, the Deputy is surprised by the arrival of an azure delivery-truck zigzagging as driven by a 'drunken' man, Yago (Renato Salvtaori), while Vago gives the lethal shot. Marcel Bozuffi, the brutal hit-man from "The French Connection", incarnates, through his cunning grin, the system's evil craziness. And on their sides, his bosses, from the General (Pierre Dux) to the Chief of Security (Julien Giuomar), and the tacit complicity of a smooth-talking François Périer as the Public Prosecutor, spare no efforts to silence the witnesses, and raze the traces of conspiracy. But the magistrate can also count a young photojournalist, played by Jacques Perrin, who seizes the opportunity to get through the infuriating procedural maze. "Z" carries the mark of a great political thriller, with a score from Mikis Theodorakis that brilliantly conveys the quest for democratic light in the tyrannic haze. But each country has a "Z", a shameful secret of state. The sight of Montand holding his head after being hit is the ultimate representation of disbelief and a desperate pray for the nightmare to end. But the nightmare only begins through the cat-and-mouse chase while the road to truth is paved by hints, false declarations or too conveniently similar statements. Yet unless the conspiracy is proved, the magistrate still refers to it as an 'accident', which makes even more significant the pivotal slip of tongue when he inadvertently refers to the act as a 'murder', entering at this point a very dangerous zone. We know we're coming close to a happy ending, and it's almost a blessing not to be familiar with the real events, because it makes the conclusion even more impacting.The irony of "Z" is to be much more cinematically efficient for foreigners, hence the film's universal acclaim, Golden Palm, Oscar for Best Foreign picture, nomination for Best Picture, most acclaimed French movie. No one can expect the ending, after the whole climactic sequence with the grizzly officers finally being interrogated in an almost zany way. Their triumph, the way they razed all the efforts, is as upsetting as the previous five minutes were zesty and enthralling. When Irene Papas, the Deputy's widow, is told about the victory but she looks at the sea, wondering if it isn't too good to be true, somewhat, her face betrays the look of a real Greek woman who knows what happened, and when the image of the young journalist freezes, the following monologue is the last smack in our faces before the score fills our heats with puzzlement and anger. Still, beyond the shock, we can relate to it, because as foreigners, "Z" reveals our own country's ugly side, like "JFK" did to Americans with the Kennedy's assassination, except that "Z" is a gutsy as if "JFK" was made in the 60's. Theodorakis was imprisoned at "Z" release; that tells you how the film was still impregnated by the cruel reality it denounces."Z" is about the zero level of governments, political practice at its most abject, at its most cynical, where it's better to blame the Americans, the systems in -isms, where the leaders have control on the slightest elements and treat education like plantation, oozing the most disgusting signs of fascism…. where the general, magnificently played by Pierre Dux, shouts that he can't compare himself to Dreyfus because "Dreyfus was guilty", a line so amoral it's better to take it with laughs."Z" is the dazing and dazzling recollection of such notions taken for granted as freedom, truth and justice, disguised in a thrilling political jigsaw puzzle; "Z" is a rally cry full of hopes and anger, "Z" is probably the only iconic title of movie history, speaking so many universal verities behind a simple letter.It is also the most significant political film ever made.
