Z 1969

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: It is a great film for many reasons, not the least of which is that it can be enjoyed as a political thriller as well as a political statement. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Fascism has been driven underground, but a dose of Costa-Gavra's electrifyingly brutal 1969 political thriller Z will rattle you all the same. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The usual excuse for films like this is that the crude melodrama helps communicate important political ideas and historical information, but Z doesn't communicate anything. Read more

Jonathan F. Richards, Film.com: It's hard to overstate the impact that this Oscar-winning procedural thriller had in 1969, on a world roiling in political activism, repression, and discord. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: In its slick cinematic urgency and its outrage, Z still has the power to shake you up. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: This movie is for those who prefer for there to be meat on a screenplay's skeleton and who don't demand far-fetched conspiracy theories that play fast and loose with the facts. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is a film of our time. It is about how even moral victories are corrupted. It will make you weep and will make you angry. It will tear your guts out. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: Z combines the intellectual heft of revolution-themed films like The Battle of Algiers with the drop-dead cool of mod touchstones like Blow Out or Le Samourai. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Time Out: The recreation of the murder and the subsequent investigation uses the techniques of an American thriller to gripping effect, though conspiracies are so commonplace nowadays that it's hard to imagine the impact it made at the time. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: A punchy political pic [from the novel by Vassilis Vassilikos] that mixes action, violence, and conspiracy on a robust, lavish scale. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, Village Voice: The military junta that ensued in Greece gave the film a sense of urgency approved by Cannes and Oscar alike. Read more