Z [VHS]

Arguably the best political film ever made, and Costa-Gavras's best film...
Z is one of the best political films ever made, and in fact, may be the best political film ever made. It is the best film Costa-Gavras ever made, and while he's made some excellent films since (most notably Missing and State of Siege), this one tops them all. While most political films date immediately and become time capsules, Z avoids this trap. The film makes no bones about where its sympathies lie. The opening credits say that "any resemblance to persons living or dead isn't coincidental. It is intentional". Yves Montland is definitely a left wing politician. The generals are right wing. But Costa-Gavras wisely concentrates on the actual story and the detective work of the magistrate. He doesn't go into didatic, long winded political propaganda here. The film unfolds meticulously as a investigation would. The magistrate keeps going deeper and deeper into the case without a political axe to grind, which makes the conclusion of the film all the more devastating. The acting is first rate. Yves Montland as the deputy gives the character an innate sense of dignity. There are many famous French actors here, including Jacques Perrin (an occasional actor and famous producer), Irene Papas (who hardly says any dialogue but says so much with those eyes), Charles Denner (who was in Truffault's The Man Who Loved Women), Francois Perier (who was in Melville's Le Samourai), Marcel Bouzzuffi (who played one of most memorable bad guys in The French Connection), Bernard Fresson (who was in Polanski's underrated The Tenant and in the unjustly forgotten about French Connection II), and the great Renato Salvatori, who was so memorable in Visconti's Rocco and His Brothers. They are all superb here. Gavras masters cinema here. The direction is taut, suspenseful, and there are some really great chase scenes here. The best one is where the deputy, Yves Montland, is "hit", and a passerby jumps on the assailants' truck. It is still nervewracking to watch today. The film is told a lot in flashback and through recollections by witnesses, and it is absolutely riveting. The flashback structure is not a gimmick; it is essential to the film. The editing in Z is superb. Raoul Contard's cinemtography has a really grainy look, and he also uses hand held cameras very effectively, enhancing the realism of the film. The score by Mikis Theodorakis is wonderful, one of the most memorable scores in movie history. Even the English dubbed version of the film was pretty damn good. You should still see the French version, but the English dub is pretty awesome for a dub job. Usually they're abominable. Z is a masterful film, one that can be watched over and over again, and Gavras shows a complete mastery of cinematic technique here. It's one of the most memorable political films ever made, and it stands the test of time.

A murder coverup..???......They won't get away with it..!!
French language and subtitled in English.....this was cutting edge cinema when it was first released in the late 60's and it has not lost any of it's impact. A leftist activist is murdered during a demonstration and the prosecutor is not going to allow a cover up by the military. Filmed in a sort of pseudo-documentary style it is none the less riveting in its portrayal of events. Criterion is the best when it restores these masterpieces.

Great classic ppolitical film
A classic about political corruption both before and after a political assassination. However, be careful about the quality of used VHS versions of this film

4 stars out of 4
The Bottom Line: One of the few foreign films to get a Best Picture nomination, this timeless thriller about a political assassination and subsequent cover-up keeps getting more and more interesting before culminating in an ending that can only be called perfect; the more I think about it the more I think it's a truly great motion picture, so watch it and start thinking along with me.

Pretensious propaganda
I viewed the French language version. This film may or may not follow the history of the event fairly closely but I do not know the history. Since I do not know the historical details, I will not address its historical accuracy but I am very skeptical of its objectivity. There appears to be a fabricated leftist slant in the film. The characters are all stereotypical of leftist propaganda. The left are portrayed as being peace loving and only driven to violence by a wildly violent, conspiratorial, right wing, christian, conservative, nationalist and organized conspiracy. Any media that renders an implied truth as being black and white, causes me to immediately suspect deception on the part of the artist. The acting was good and I enjoyed the cinematography but the film seems to be nothing more than propaganda to push the nonsense of communism or at least a leftist socialist agenda. It may or may employ out of context historical information (it undeniably employed biased character portrayals). In spite of its propaganda failings it was at least entertaining. Very refreshing compared with the cotton candy, sticky, gooey make you want to vomit, crap films made here in the US today. In all I rate it low not because it is a bad film but because it is propaganda. If it did not attempt to pimp what should have been a long dead leftist rhetoric (even in that time) I would have enjoyed it more.