Z (1969) - The only foreign movie (until 1999 with Life Is Beautiful) ever nominated for best picture by the Academy Awards. That rare distinction, considering the Hollywood insider nature of the Oscars (though admittedly, Hollywood does make the world's best movies), ought to tip you off to a movie of very high quality. And you know what? It should have won in 1969 (I think Midnight Cowboy did instead). The plot revolves around the assassination of a leftist politician running for the presidency of Greece, and the subsequent cover-up by the right-wing police and military establishment. A conscientious judge cracks the case open, which leads to a nationwide furor, and the leftists are sure to win big in the next election. However, before the right-wing establishment will allow that to happen, the military seizes power and installs a dictatorship. Since these events actually did occur in 1960s Greece, the film was made in France from the script of a Greek exile. As a political drama, it's a high-tension wire of explosive intensity; I didn't take my eyes off the screen for a second for fear of missing out on some crucial plot point. Director Costa-Gavras never lets the camera linger over one shot for more than fifteen seconds (literally), which gives the film a breathless pace. The only serious drawback is that, after two hours of intensive unraveling of the government cover-up, when the murder case does come to court, it's over too soon: the ending's a real letdown after such a build-up. Fans of action/crime dramas make this a must see, even if you can't stand flicks with subtitles; it even has a memorable car chase.
Grade: A
Zabrieskie Point (1970) - Nothing dates worse than a counterculture classic from the 60s, and director Michelangelo Antonioni makes Southwestern hippiedom as boring as he did the London mod scene in Blow-Up. It starts off pretty lively, as a group of radical students argue politics at some Cali university and quickly take over the campus for some reason or other (how and why aren't this movie's strong points). The boy (and let's just stick to calling him "boy") is about to shoot a cop who just shot some innocent black protesters, but someone else beats him to the bullet. However, the boy thinks that he might be in trouble, so he runs from the scene of the crime. The boy hijacks a biplane by telling a mechanic that he's "just going for a ride" (I said the damn movie didn't make no sense), and flies out to Arizona. There he spots a hot chick driving down the highway, and tries to get her attention by constantly flying around and harassing her car (hey, that trick's always gotten me lots of women!). The boy lands in the desert and the girl gets out of the car. They go to a canyon. They have sex. The sex is portrayed "psychedelic" style, which includes the pair turning into hundreds of couples fornicating all over the hills. The boy goes to return the aircraft and face the music, but he gets killed by a cop while he's trying to land. The girl hears about his death on the radio and gets pissed. The girl then blows up a hotel resort in the desert as a protest against the capitalist despoiling of nature. I would use the words "idiotic" and "pointless", but those words would probably be redundant to anyone parsing the aforesketched plot.
Grade: D+