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No consensus yet.
All Critics (10) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (0) | DVD (1)
The Official Story is part polemic, part thriller, part tragedy. It belongs on the list with films like Z, Missing and El Norte, which examine the human aspects of political unrest. Oct 23, 2004 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…
The Official Story is part polemic, part thriller, part tragedy. It belongs on the list with films like Z, Missing and El Norte, which examine the human aspects of political unrest.
Roger Ebert
From the legacy of anguish left by Argentina's military juntas, Luis Puenzo has created a glowing film. Aug 30, 2004 | Full Review…
From the legacy of anguish left by Argentina's military juntas, Luis Puenzo has created a glowing film.
Walter Goodman
Simultaneous serves as a crackling political thriller and a deeply moving family drama. Oct 23, 2018 | Rating: 3.5/4 | Full Review…
Simultaneous serves as a crackling political thriller and a deeply moving family drama.
Matt Brunson
A rare film, which makes a powerful political statement while telling a touching personal story. In his feature debut, Puenzo shows commitment to human rights without imposing explicit political doctrine. Dec 23, 2006 | Rating: A- | Full Review…
A rare film, which makes a powerful political statement while telling a touching personal story. In his feature debut, Puenzo shows commitment to human rights without imposing explicit political doctrine.
Emanuel Levy
An almost textbook example of how to use a personal story to tell and illuminate a much larger one (are you listening, Oliver Stone?). Aug 23, 2006 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…
An almost textbook example of how to use a personal story to tell and illuminate a much larger one (are you listening, Oliver Stone?).
Ken Hanke
A wrenching and painful drama that crystallizes the horror and the obscenity of political activities that annihilate family solidarity in the name of ideology. Mar 16, 2002 | Full Review…
A wrenching and painful drama that crystallizes the horror and the obscenity of political activities that annihilate family solidarity in the name of ideology.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
Even though the changes undergone by the protagonist seem rushed (not even her hair seems to follow an entirely consistent evolution), this is a deeply disturbing and painful drama that poses hard questions and examines the terrifying truth about a horrific moment in History.
Super Reviewer
A schoolteacher searches for her adopted daughter's origins. Beginning as a film about how teachers teach/indoctrinate the state's dominant paradigm, the film quickly shifts focus to the teacher's family life. We learn that it is likely that her daughter was procured by illegal or immoral means by her government official husband. Bourgeois versus "common man" sympathies becomes the main conflict for the family and the film. Thus, The Official Story is a heady drama, one that ultimately condemns the upper classes by revealing violence hidden beneath the veneer of respectability. I don't think I could appreciate the film as much as a native Argentinian because of my limited knowledge of their history; I've seen Evita and paid attention during World History in high school, but that's about it, and many of the oblique references to past military leaders was lost on me. The drama also unfolds slowly. There are long zooms and pans and numerous shots of the main character looking pensive. Overall, I think there's a lot to like about The Official Story, but it's not for all audiences, especially my classmates who fell asleep during World History and failed to see Evita.
It takes a very intimate story and allows us to see through a small crack all the horror and tragedy suffered by a whole nation. Overwhelming.
After much consideration, I finally decided to go for it paying respect to its IMDb ratings. The fact that it has historical background also played its part in luring me towards it. However, the story turned out to be extremely different than what I'd expected. Content-wise, not quality-wise. Neither delighted nor disappointed by it, I guess that knowing the relevant history (yeah, blindly jumped into it with the info that it has historical background; didn't dig even a wee-bit further about it at that time) might have helped more and made it more engaging. Unfortunately, I'd never heard about the historical "Dirty War" tragedy before watching this movie. I didn't find the movie that great. It had emotions, it had thrills, the acting was good, the music was good, the dialogues were excellent, but yet I won't call it a heart-wrenching drama. The overall outcome wasn't so incredible. This Oscar winning flick is undoubtedly watchable and shouldn't be a PITA. Although it might be painful in some other parts to some.
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