The unlikely pairing up of Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon as lead players in this based-on-fact film as they endeavour to trace John Shea, husband and son respectively, who has disappeared in the turmoil of the Pinochet takeover in Chile, is surprisingly successful. Without overdramatizing muchly the film succeeds in showing up the confusion and panic reigning during the overthrow of the Allende government as well as the rather ambivalent official stance adopted by US ambassador dignitaries as they intervene in helping US citizens but without risking stepping on anybody's Chilean toes: the US has lots of lovely, juicy investments to look after
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Costa-Gavras pulled off quite a good job directing this film, giving it a rather good authentic feel, despite the fact that it was not made anywhere near Chile!
Rather surprisingly the music of Vangelis did not play a very prominent part, as we are used to in such films as `Chariots of Fire', `Blade Runner' (also 1982) and `1492: Conquest of Paradise', not to mention his excellent works in various French TV series.
I can thoroughly recommend Isabel Allende's novel `La Casa de los Espíritus' (The House of the Spirits) published coincidentally in 1982. I have not seen the film directed by Bille August and starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas and Vanessa Redgrave and made eleven years later.
Costa-Gavras pulled off quite a good job directing this film, giving it a rather good authentic feel, despite the fact that it was not made anywhere near Chile!
Rather surprisingly the music of Vangelis did not play a very prominent part, as we are used to in such films as `Chariots of Fire', `Blade Runner' (also 1982) and `1492: Conquest of Paradise', not to mention his excellent works in various French TV series.
I can thoroughly recommend Isabel Allende's novel `La Casa de los Espíritus' (The House of the Spirits) published coincidentally in 1982. I have not seen the film directed by Bille August and starring Meryl Streep, Jeremy Irons, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas and Vanessa Redgrave and made eleven years later.