Missing (1981 rel 1982 Costa-Gavras & scr)

The country is unnamed - does it matter? It's South America (actually Mexico). And we know nothing about Jack Lemmon's relationship with his vanished son John Shea, nor why he's so antipathetic towards his wife Sissy Spacek. In the way of a good movie (written by the director and Donald Stewart *), these things come out slowly, as does the father's ultimate respect for the boy and his plucky wife (scene in which she makes it alone through the night is wonderfully tense - the image of a white horse being pursued by soldiers memorable).

Jack lost the Oscar to Ben Kingsley but won at Cannes where the film shared Best Film. According to the author, published in 'Some Like It Cool' (Michael Freedland), Wilder said: 'Missing was a very, very good picture in which he himself was very good. But I thought that he was too serious in that picture. If a comedian gets into one of those serious things, and this was a thrilling picture, he can do too much. It was a performance drenched with heaviness, and too depressing".

I'm not sure I agree.

* Based on the non-fiction 'The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice' by Thomas Hauser.