Better than Z

I don't know if anyone else got the impression, but Z was always a little disappointing to me. The villains were cartoonishly stupid, the characters were boring except the one buffonish goon, and the plot was pretty dull. It kind of fell in a weird area between satire and drama, but wasn't satirizing anything and wasn't a great drama.

This film is a bit of a slog, but the film allows a natural progression that lends us great peek into the meticulous stagecraft of the show trial--a great metaphor for Communism in general. The scene where the guy's pants fall down was brilliant. Again, completely turning us around 180 degrees, but managing to say something deep about the guards' and defendants' humanity, more effective than anything in Z. Coincidentally it's nice to see Gavras find fault with the left for once...he certainly had enough material to choose from.