The cost of exposing government crimes
Universal Pictures
“Missing,” tells the story of the search to find leftist journalist Charles Horman (John Shea), by his father (Jack Lemmon) and wife (Sissy Spacek), who was kidnapped and executed in Chile during the 1973 coup. The movie supposes the United States government not only knew about Horman’s killing but perhaps even approved of it, as the coup itself was backed by the US. Naturally, the government does not want to be associated with such heinous acts, and one such person was the US Ambassador to Chile at the time, Nathaniel Davis. In retaliation, Davis filed a lawsuit that accused writer/director Costa-Gavras, Universal Pictures, and Thomas Hauser, who wrote the book “The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice” that the film was based on, of libel.
Despite the fact that “Missing” changes Davis’ name, he believed that this was defamatory to his character and not the truth of what happened. Ultimately, the lawsuits went nowhere, either being dismissed by the courts or just the statute of limitations running out. As a surprise to no one, this actually was the true story of what happened to Charles Horman, though it took until 2016 for a Chilean court to finally implicate the US in the murder. Due to the lawsuit, Universal removed “Missing” from VHS circulation, as it could be seen as continuing to propagate the libel they were being sued for. It never returned. It would not be until the mid-2000s until “Missing” found its way to DVD, first from Universal and then the Criterion Collection. Both of those DVDs are now out of print, and if you want one, it’ll have to be secondhand. It’s unclear if the scarcity still connects to the lawsuits, but for the United States, “Missing” is an apt title.
The Best Picture Nominee You’ve Never Seen Because Of A Major Lawsuit
Universal Pictures
By Mike Shutt/Nov. 28, 2022 7:30 am EST
When I took a look back at the Best Picture nominees released in 1982, one of the five nominees was nowhere to be found digitally, the Costa-Gavras political corruption drama “Missing.” I couldn’t even find it illegally uploaded to YouTube, which occasionally happens with hard-to-find films. So, I took to physical media. In the United States, it has never been released on Blu-ray, and on DVD, it has been out of print for over a decade. This is a Best Picture nominee distributed by Universal Pictures that stars Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, but if you want to watch it, you have to import a Blu-ray from the Powerhouse Indicator label in the United Kingdom.
“Missing” being incredibly difficult to find in the U.S. is nothing new, but it wasn’t because of the usual problems with the rights to the film. No, “Missing” was tied up in a massive libel lawsuit that practically buried the film for two decades.
The cost of exposing government crimes
“Missing,” tells the story of the search to find leftist journalist Charles Horman (John Shea), by his father (Jack Lemmon) and wife (Sissy Spacek), who was kidnapped and executed in Chile during the 1973 coup. The movie supposes the United States government not only knew about Horman’s killing but perhaps even approved of it, as the coup itself was backed by the US. Naturally, the government does not want to be associated with such heinous acts, and one such person was the US Ambassador to Chile at the time, Nathaniel Davis. In retaliation, Davis filed a lawsuit that accused writer/director Costa-Gavras, Universal Pictures, and Thomas Hauser, who wrote the book “The Execution of Charles Horman: An American Sacrifice” that the film was based on, of libel.
Despite the fact that “Missing” changes Davis’ name, he believed that this was defamatory to his character and not the truth of what happened. Ultimately, the lawsuits went nowhere, either being dismissed by the courts or just the statute of limitations running out. As a surprise to no one, this actually was the true story of what happened to Charles Horman, though it took until 2016 for a Chilean court to finally implicate the US in the murder. Due to the lawsuit, Universal removed “Missing” from VHS circulation, as it could be seen as continuing to propagate the libel they were being sued for. It never returned. It would not be until the mid-2000s until “Missing” found its way to DVD, first from Universal and then the Criterion Collection. Both of those DVDs are now out of print, and if you want one, it’ll have to be secondhand. It’s unclear if the scarcity still connects to the lawsuits, but for the United States, “Missing” is an apt title.
Despite the fact that “Missing” changes Davis’ name, he believed that this was defamatory to his character and not the truth of what happened. Ultimately, the lawsuits went nowhere, either being dismissed by the courts or just the statute of limitations running out. As a surprise to no one, this actually was the true story of what happened to Charles Horman, though it took until 2016 for a Chilean court to finally implicate the US in the murder.
Due to the lawsuit, Universal removed “Missing” from VHS circulation, as it could be seen as continuing to propagate the libel they were being sued for. It never returned. It would not be until the mid-2000s until “Missing” found its way to DVD, first from Universal and then the Criterion Collection. Both of those DVDs are now out of print, and if you want one, it’ll have to be secondhand. It’s unclear if the scarcity still connects to the lawsuits, but for the United States, “Missing” is an apt title.
