89 Days of Oscar Nominees – #37 – Z (1969)

In my attempt to have a more prolific repertoire of Oscar Nominated Films, I have taken it upon myself to watch 89 new Best Picture Nominees that I’ve never seen before between 1 Dec 2016 and The 89th Annual Oscars on 26 Feb 2017.

Here is my 37th review of the 89 chosen Films…

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“Always blame the USA, even if you are wrong! ” – Manuel

Number of Times Seen – 1 (4 Jan 2017)

Brief Synopsis – After a politically motivated assassination occurs during a rally, an investigator tries to piece together what really happened and who is directly responsible for the attack.

My Take on it – As many of you know, I am by no means a fan of Foreign Language films.

In the 88 year history of The Oscars, only 9 non-Engliah language films have been nominated for Best Picture.

This was only the second one to achieve that goal.

I have yet to see the very first one – Grand Illusion (1938) and have now seen a total of 8 of them.

In the last two weeks, I’ve seen two more of them (The Emigrants (1971) and Cries and Whispers (1972) which were both in Swedish) and hated them both.

Il Postino (1994), Life is Beautiful (1997), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Letters From Iwo Jima (2006) and Amour (2012) are the others.

Surprisingly, I actually love those 5 films despite the language issue and they all remain among my favorites of their subsequent years.

I can now add this film to that list (6 for 8 isn’t bad at all) 🙂

This film may have a strange title, but the story is superbly played out for us.

I loved the fact that the “star” of the film is the story itself and none of the characters actually stand out as being superior to any others.

The story and its message are quite powerful and resonate long after the credits roll.

You will constantly be thinking about what happened because the way it is presented to us begs us to mull it all over for a while.

What’s great about that is that we don’t only think about what really happened but also the how and why because so much of the story is presented from different perspectives which (claim) to have seen something else entirely.

This is a great thriller that works on numerous levels.

I am actually a firm believer that had this film been made in English, it might well have been able to take home the top award that year because the film is done so amazingly; it wouldn’t have had its chances hurt tho by the climate in America at the time following two prominent assassinations a year beforehand and the ongoing clashes dealing with America’s involvement in the war in Vietnam.

It should be noted that this film holds the record for the shortest film title to have ever been nominated for Best Picture.

Bottom Line – Really loved the way this film was presented.  It’s message resonates long after the credit have rolled and it will make you constantly think not only about what really happened but why and how.  Like other amazing films, the main character here is the story and none of the characters stand out separately since they all contribute equally to the final outcome.  Definitely deserving of winning Best Foreign language Film at the Oscars that year as well as Best Picture (which it might also have won had this film been in English).  Highly Recommended!!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – The first film to be nominated by the Academy for Best Film and Best Foreign Language Film. (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy

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