Early Kurosawa is so effortless, it seems a shame to watch any of his later works, which are hilariously earnest in being "Japanese," whatever the hell that means. This is the ultimate crime story: the story is clever, the mystery is logical if over-the-top, and it's got Toshiro Mifune in his prime daddy years. A fine film for the inquisitive. 11/00

A melodramatic but affecting docudrama based on the 1963 assassination of a pacifist Greek politico. Costa-Grava compresses and focuses the story of political corruption and fascism to keep the plot moving, relying on flash editing for character development (a similar technique is used in The Royal Tenenbaums, except they forgot to include the plot). My favorite moment in the film is the ending, which puts an appropriate exclamation point on the sad and ridiculous lengths fascist governments will go to in order to maintain order. DVD includes a new interview with Costa-Gravas and brief archival interviews with the actors. 9/02