Missing (1982 film)



Missing is a film by Costa-Gavras released in 1982, starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. It depicts the overthrow of the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende by a far-right military junta in 1973.

Beth and Charlie Horman are a young American couple who have settled in Chile. They find themselves caught up in the violent overthrow of the regime but, confident in their status as expatriate US citizens, don't expect anything to happen to them. This hope turns out to be misplaced when Charlie goes missing. Beth attempts to find out what happened to him, and gets in touch with his father, who comes over to assist her. Although they initially find it difficult to get along due to generational and ideological differences, the investigation draws them closer, as they realize that Charlie has been "disappeared" by the military junta because he had accidentally overheard sensitive information about the CIA's involvement in the coup.

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 * Anachronic Order: The investigation is interspersed with flash-backs.
 * Banana Republic: It's never explicitly mentioned that the story takes place in Chile, but the references are obvious enough.
 * Bittersweet Ending
 * Cloudcuckoolander: Charlie is way too confident that being a US citizen makes him safe.
 * Eagle Land: The US government is implied to be complicit in the military coup.
 * Misplaced Accent: The Spanish in the movie sounds nothing like Rioplatense Spanish.
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: The personnel of the American embassy.
 * Unreliable Expositor: Beth and Charlie's father get several contradicting versions of the same events, and every time the recalled scene is altered accordingly.