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My original mission on YouTube this morning was to find the main theme from “Missing,” by Vangelis, and post it as my song of the day. I found it, and you can listen to it below. In fact, you can listen to it while watching the final scene of the movie and the end credits. If you really want to be depressed and angry, you can watch the entire movie on YouTube, thanks to user trauld.

Of course, the fact that the story is sad, and infuriating, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch the film, which is well made and features terrific performances by Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, among others. I guess it’s the added dimension of knowing it’s a true story that really makes it so disturbing. Anyone who exhibits blind, naive trust in our government and can’t understand why people are bothered by things like the Patriot Act needs to watch this film and read the story of Charles Horman.

There has been an update to this story since Costa-Gavras’s film was made in 1982. In 1999, a State Department memo that admits US intelligence involvement in Horman’s death and its subsequent cover-up was finally declassified (read the censored and uncensored versions here).

Sorry about the downer on a Friday. On the other hand, just listen to this theme by Vangelis. It is, I think, some of the most tender, beautiful music he has ever composed. In a way, it fits perfectly at the end of a film about political unrest, murder, cover-up, and US government betrayal of its own citizens. In the course of the film, the victim’s father and widow have grown much closer, learned to appreciate each other, and learned more about Charles through each other than they knew before. They will survive, and tell his story, try to hold the perpetrators accountable, and never let him be forgotten. The music is a theme not of despair, but of their hope, faith, and love.