One of the most riveting films ever made is the 1969 French-Greco political thriller “Z.”  While it won best Foreign Film at the 1969 Oscars, it was also nominated for Best Picture that year, which it lost to “Midnight Cowboy.”  While I love “Midnight Cowboy,” “Z” is arguably the better film.  It’s intelligent, fast-paced, action-packed, and was a sizable hit back in the day (grossing the equivalent of $84 million in 2012 dollars), which is amazing for a foreign language film.   A big part of the film’s success is the awesome score by Mikis Theodorakis, which rivals the best scores by Ennio Morricone.

Some excerpts of the amazing score are below:

You can hear the influence on Giorgio Moroder’s classic score for “Midnight Express: