Z

First and foremost, it is a true story. It's the story of the assassination of Grigoris Lambrakis, that eventually led to the military junta. Every time I see it, it gives me the chills. Since Z was released while the junta was still in power, it was banned in Greece for several years. After the fall of the military junta, Z was worshiped, although we saw it on TV much later in order to avoid stirring passions. In terms of the plot, if you're not Greek, it's quite possible you might be left with many unanswered questions, but, in general, it is an accurate description of Greece during that era.

While Vassilikos' novel (written in 1966) has driven him to exile from 1967, Theodorakis was still in Greece under surveillance and managed to write his excellent score secretly.

Costa-Gavras gives us a top-class fast paced direction which hasn't aged even today, although I'm sure the Oscar was as much a political decision as a purely artistic one. What is truly spot-on is the casting. Both Montand and Trintignant excel, but even minor roles like Vago and Yago are portrayed in an extremely realistic way. My small objection would be Irene Papas staying near-silent throughout the movie. Although her talent allows her to pull it off with class, I really didn't understand why she was not supposed to talk.

This is not a review.All that is need to be written about this masterpiece of a film has already been written.

However there are 1-2 things worth mentioning that might interest some folks that are not from Greece: Jean Louis Trintignant's character "The Examining Magistrate" was in reality Christos Sargetakis who became the president of Greece for 5 years(1985-1990).

The film ends with the rise of the military dictatorship and it is suggested that the upposition didn't really capitalise on Lambrakis' assassination.That's not what happened in reality.

In reality the Lambrakis assassination caused the resignation of prime minister Karamanlis(the right wing P.M of Greece at that time) and the triumph of the upposition(something like the democrats in the U.S,the G.Papandreou party,NOT Lambrakis' left wing party) in the elections of 1963 with a whooping 54% which becomes even bigger when taking into account the situation in Greece at that time,with right-wing police controlling everything and manipulating the citizens.

Of course the film was made after the democratic-elected government had fallen and junta had taken over.(in fact the democratic government had fallen 2 years*in 1965* before the junta took over and we had a false semi-democratic government that consisted right wing members of parliament and defected members of the G.Papandreou party)

So in reality the Lambrakis assassination DID make a difference in Greece,if only for 2 years(1963-1965) while on the film nothing changed.I guess with the ultimate rise of the junta that was reigning at the time the film was made it was proper to make the film bleaker than the true events.

The film '' Z '' is based upon the same-titled book written by Vassilikos and referring to a real-life event: the assassination of one of the most honorable Greek politicians ( his real name was Grigoris Lambrakis ), who sacrificed his life in the name of peace and human dignity. Costas Gavras did his best to present the prevailing atmosphere and the political situation in Greece ( although Greece is at no point straightly mentioned, but implied ) during May of the year 1963, which is the year when the real events took place. Choosing an adventurous, thrilling or hilarious style according to the facts and scenes presenting at each part of the story, he made an '' all time interesting and provocative '' film. Great acting was also put in by everybody and particularly by Jean-Louis Trintignant, who was great as the Examining Magistrate. As long as the script is concerned, the plot builds up very satisfactorily and carefully, thus not leaving any holes. Great respect should also be paid to Mikis Theodorakis who wrote the original score for the movie, helping it gain the marvelous rythm it retained right until the very end of it. As a concluding remark I would like to mention that anybody who's interested in late Greek history ( from post World War II era to date ) should watch it carefully. The whole result is very rewarding.

Each occasion who I saw this remarkable film, I discovered new virtue of it. First - the cast . Impressive at whole under the art of Costas Gavras. Second, the slice of Greece contemporary story. Not the last, the universal message. A great film about dictatorship and justice, values and idealism. Powerful message about fragility and mistakes of democacy, splendid hommage to the truth.

I have to start by getting slightly off topic. I've wanted to see this film for thirty years. Not because I've read or heard anything about it, but entirely because of the trailer I saw when it was first released, back when I was 14. Although I now remember more the feelings the trailer inspired than the trailer itself, it still reminds me how awful trailers almost always are. The trailer for "Z" was some the most intense, exciting few seconds of film I had ever seen, and I wanted to see more. A brilliant ultra-short film production. And it did it without revealing and spoiling the movie's story. So when I finally did see "Z" I was able to enjoy something fresh and new.

It wasn't what I expected, but turned out to be one of the best political thrillers I've ever seen. You don't really have to know Greek history to see it, in part because the movie never explicitly mentions Greece. Better to do it the other way around, by getting swept up in the gritty often tawdry intrigues you will be learning Greek history without realizing it. Or if you are into conspiracies and cover-ups in general you'll learn how they really aren't the brilliantly crafted master-plans of distant omnipotent figures that most movies show, but are usually the creation of dull mediocrities, full of flaws, stupidities, and ham-fisted improvisations. That they often succeed is more because of brute force than any innate cleverness. This is a powerful and effective movie, which is almost certainly due to its being based closely on reality and the passions that inspired it's making, and from it not being a recycled and denatured Hollywood product. I highly recommend it.