100
TV Guide Magazine
A chilling, manipulative rollercoaster ride.
Z
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- France,
- Algeria
- 1969
- · 127m
Director
Costa-Gavras
Cast
Yves Montand,
Irene Papas,
Jean-Louis Trintignant,
Jacques Perrin,
Charles Denner,
Bernard Fresson
Genre
Drama,
History,
Thriller
Repression is the rule of the day in this film that skewers Greek governance of the 1960s. Z, a leftist rabble rouser, is killed in what appears to be a traffic accident. But given the political climate, the death of such a prominent activist raises troubling questions. Though it's too late to save Z's life, a postmortem examination suggests that the ruling party was behind his death. As the facts leak out, those who tell the truth pay the price for their honesty.
What are critics saying?
100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
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.
100
TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)
A chilling, manipulative rollercoaster ride.
100
Entertainment Weekly by Chris Nashawaty
A pulse-pounding procedural that pieces together the murder of a left-wing youth leader (Yves Montand). A baroque government cover-up is foiled by a tenacious inspector (Jean-?Louis Trintignant) whose rat-a-tat interrogations are like machine-gun fire. This is an amazing film.
100
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
An immensely entertaining movie -- a topical melodrama that manipulates our emotional responses and appeals to our best prejudices in such satisfying ways that it is likely to be mistaken as a work of fine -- rather than popular -- movie art.
100
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
A '60s landmark. [31 Oct 2003, p.C6]
91
The A.V. Club by Scott Tobias
Like its spiritual predecessor The Battle Of Algiers, Z is as much a mini-revolution as it is a movie, actively engaging in a political battle as it was unfolding.
90
Slate by Dana Stevens
Z makes political intelligence seem chicer than skinny neckties.
90
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
The story of the "accidental" death of a peacenik politician (Yves Montand) and the investigator (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who unravels a right-wing conspiracy remains as fresh as a head wound.
90
The New Yorker by Pauline Kael
One of the fastest, most exciting melodramas ever made.
88
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Z is disquieting not only because the events actually happened, but because we sense they could happen again, closer to home.
88
Boston Globe by Ty Burr
Hollywood political thrillers have absorbed this movie's you-are-there filmmaking grammar. Rarely have they re-created its fire.
83
Portland Oregonian by Marc Mohan
Avoiding the hyperbole and condescension that sometimes make it easy for ideological foes to dismiss the likes of Oliver Stone or Michael Moore, Costa-Gavras relies on the sterling performances of his actors (including Irene Papas as Montand's widow), and was rewarded with a pair of Oscar nominations.
80
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.
63
Slant Magazine by Bill Weber
Forty years on, it’s still an eye-catching, fast-paced watch, but the plaudits it won as an uncompromising thriller and landmark cinema seem as shaky as the film’s villainous military officers’ insistence that its central murder was an accident.
40
Chicago Reader by Dave Kehr
Z doesn't communicate anything—except for the doubtful propositions that pacifists are more threatening to right-wingers than communists and that fascist terrorism and homosexuality go hand in hand.
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