Bayside resident Mark Metcalf is an actor who has worked in movies, TV and on the stage. He is best known for his work in "Animal House," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Seinfeld."

In addition to his work on screen, Metcalf is involved with the Milwaukee International Film Festival, First Stage Children's Theater and a number of other projects.

He also finds time to write about movies for OnMilwaukee.com. This week, Metcalf weighs in on "Z."

Z (1969)

I first saw "Z" when it came out in 1969. It was a time of revolution. Change was more than a word thrown out in a political campaign, and bell-bottom pants and long hair were only window dressing for what a lot of people had in their hearts and minds.

We saw economic injustice. We saw a war that served no just purpose; a war that only killed a lot of strangers and some of our friends in a country far away and messed up the minds of those it didn't kill.

We saw overt racism in the South and subtle, equally debilitating racism in the North. We saw white men of money and influence flexing their muscles over people of color throughout the world. We saw a social system focused on greed and the toys of progress rather than the joy of the children and the health of the aged. We saw a world of business that functioned in opposition to nature, which treated the rock we live on as if it was a commodity, one that could be easily replaced when we had used this one up. We saw willful, arrogant ignorance of humanity.

Even as we saw these things, we still loved rock & roll, loved to laugh with our friends and dance in the streets. We believed celebration would keep us free. And we believed the world could change.

So we were naïve. And here we are, 40 years later, in almost exactly the same place. There is a lot more apathy and a serious degree of complacency. Today, no one is standing in the street with candles to mourn the dead and ask for it all to stop.

"Z" is a fiction film that feels like a documentary the way "Battle of Algiers" feels like a documentary. When I first saw it I was convinced it was a true story. A man, labeled a leftist, a good man, a doctor, an athlete, and a Senator, in a country not unlike Greece, is running for higher office representing the people's needs against a militant repressive government.

He gives a speech after a good deal of difficulty, and he has his skull crushed by a man with a club as he walks back to his hotel with his comrades. A government judge takes up the investigation and discovers that the police and the military conspired to have the man assassinated and to cover up the brutal murder. He continues his investigation, in spite of threats by the military, and the truth is revealed, though nothing is done about it.

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