Movies That Melt Into Consciousness

I'm not a subscriber to the practice of ranking books or movies in terms of personal, global or artistic "importance." I'm not sure why people are so mesmerized by top five, ten, twenty, or top one hundred lists -- aren't there already more than enough of them in publishing, sports, finance, and everywhere else? Even so, when asked recently what my "favorite ten movies" were, I had to laugh. And then think. A flurry of titles popped to mind, names of movies that have melted in some way into my consciousness -- though ranking them still seems silly. Where would I place films first seen in early childhood like The Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind, and even Goldfinger? And how can I seriously rank things as diverse as Affliction, The Last Picture Show, Dr. Strangelove, Stardust Memories, The Good Girl, The Thin Man, Z, Gold Diggers of 1933 (soon to be released on DVD), Aguirre: the Wrath of God, Apocalypse Now!, or Boys Don't Cry, a film I can't forget but that I'm not sure I ever want to see again? Instead, I'll write a few things about movies that have stayed with me, with only one entry at a time. Movies are, after all, like music and other art forms, also good reasons to live, aren't they? Many thanks to the person who asked me the question and got me to thinking.

I first saw Z on tv when I was a kid in the very early 1970s. For some reason it was showing on a local station in Durham, North Carolina (where I then lived with my immediate family), maybe because it had won two Academy Awards even though it was an international film. For whatever reason, I lucked into it and loved it from beginning to end! The galloping pace, the conflict in every scene, the exotic music, the biting satire and camp (I'd also caught onto the Batman tv series for similar reasons) thrilled me -- and surprisingly, still does.

Tuesday night, I watched this film (directed by Constantin Costa-Gavras in 1968 and released in early 1969) yet again after several viewings over the years, and it "resonates" as loud and clear as ever. The ensemble acting blends well with the story line, the soundtrack, and the cinematography so that the whole is more important than any one element. The only thing I find unintentionally comical now is Irene Papas -- she is SO melodramatic as Helen, in an over the top way similar to her performances in Zorba the Greek and in (as Helen of Troy, naturally) The Trojan Women.

The plot centers around an "incident" at an anti-status quo political rally: events leading up to this incident, the incident itself, an investigation with flashbacks, and eventual fallout, with a blistering ending that rolls with the end credits. It's brilliant. And based on real events described in the now out-of-print novel of the same name by Greek author Vassilis Vassilikos originally published in 1966 (English language edition in 1968).

Z shows people and groups in conflict. Maybe because the U.S. was still ensnarled in the Vietnam War when I first saw this as a kid, with a military draft still in effect that ensured the engaged interest of youth in global events and political processes, I became enamored of the moderate socialists in the film (the good-looking, well-dressed heroes) and saw the people in right wing factions as figures of fun -- or acting out of class conciousness and economic desperation. But another part sticks with me, too, as the U.S. Government has bogged itself (and the rest of us) down in Iraq, in yet another elective war every bit as foolhardy and potentially as destructive as our "intervention" in Vietnam: that moderates can be contained or brushed aside by hardliners (of any ideology) who can and will spread death and mayhem and intimidation, censoring as they go. Z, like a good comedian, cuts to the quick and -- thirty plus years after first seeing it -- leaves me entertained but unsettled and thinking and as suspicious of "authority" as ever. Stubbornness also plays a key role in the story -- two maverick witnesses and "the Magistrate" (played to perfection by Jean-Louis Trintignant) drive the second half of the movie. Lastly, the news media has a role that feels contemporary. . . . .