Then there are highlights of a 2002 dinner honoring the film. Again, standard fare. Interestingly, whereas Criterion often has mediocre written works about their films included in booklets, this film’s booklet has some of the best extras: a good essay by film critic Michael Wood, a letter from the Horman clan, an interview with Costa-Gavras, and the U.S. State Department’s official response to the Horman execution. Overall, a solid package, but the lack of audio commentary is a glaringly HUGE omission.
Perhaps the best aspect of the film is that it does not dwell on gore and violence, instead letting the aftermath paint pictures of what occurred within the viewer’s mind, for the imagination is almost always more powerful, disturbing, and graphic than special effects, something this modestly budgeted film conspicuously lacks.
The worst moment is likely when a couple of the American flacks at the U.S. Consulate are caught in a lie by Ed, who knows his son has been killed, and they tell him his son is likely still "in hiding." The duo so brazenly mock Ed, by telling him that his son should have expected to get burned, just as if he had gone snooping around into the New York Mafia’s business. Now, no doubt this claim is a true one, and Charles’ naïvete certainly aided his demise, but no government officials would be that brazen and stupid to taunt an American citizen grieving his child’s death, much less one like Horman, who obviously had some connections in the government. While this is in keeping with the film’s whole portrayal of arrogant Yankee cowboys, it does not square with the obsessive nature of the CIA in covering up their crimes around the world. Yes, it manifests the arc and direction of the film, but it does so at the cost of any realism.
Still, Missing is a film worth seeing, both for its technical quality and its historical mise-en-scene. Just don’t expect a film that will last for years in your memory; but do expect to not have that sinking feeling of another unrecoverable two hours of your life. And, given all the shit that Hollywood produces for the Lowest Common Denominator masses today, that’s more than just faint praise.
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