Cuba (1979)

The beginning of Destroyed Dreams

Sean Connery is one of our favorite stars, so we were surprised to find this movie about Cuba. The movie is set in Cuba, as the government of Fulgencio Batista is overthrown by the revolutionaries, led by Fidel Castro and the likes of Che Guevara.

Connery plays the part of a mercenary trying to profit from the situation. He becomes involved with an old flame, who is now a factory manager of a family business. Sean Connery and Brooke Adams do a great job at imparting the trauma people lived during the first years of the revolution, amidst the chaos, murder, and exhuberance of Cuba's revolution.

While the movie depicts Batista's government as brutal, it fails to deliver the reality lived in those days. As Cuban-Americans, we obtained the movie to review with young adults to surface historical facts about Cuba. Sean Connery as 007 is a favorite of ours, so that kept their attention on events and we were able to discuss the reasons behind the revolution and why millions of Cubans today are exiled.

A rare find. We highly recommend watching this film, as it shares the beginning of destroyed dreams for generations of Cubans who had no alternative but to abandon their families and possessions in search for political freedom. November 26, 2007

Lester reveals a likable if none too demanding talent for adventure and love...

Richard Nester's 'Cuba' is set in the 1950's just in the Civil war against Batista's government...

Sean Connery stars as a free British counter-terrorist whom Batista's associates hope will help them beat Castro's revolutionaries...

Connery quickly figures out, almost as soon as he landed in the exotic and dangerous island, that the revolution will succeed and replace one elite with another... He gets much more interest in following an old sweetheart, and when the two see each other, memories of his first love affair come flooding back...

Connery begins to remember when he was once deeply and ridiculously in love with her... The 'woman in red' that passed before his eyes in Havana's airport terminal was the most exotic, breath-stopping creature he had ever known... Now she is Alexandra Pulido (Brooke Adams), a highly ambitious woman who runs a cigar factory while her husband flirts with other women...

Chris Sarandon is the profligate son of one of Cuba's wealthiest men, and the charming playboy in the romantic triangle who knows everything about Havana, 'every casino, every table, and every bed in it!'

Martin Balsam is the general in the corrupt Batista regime, who intends to ask Castro to 'get rid of the Communists.'

Hector Elizondo is the junior officer who realizes late in life why few were sorry about the fall of Batista...

Jack Weston is the fat American businessman impressed by the cigar factory...

Lonette McKee is the ardent lover who rejects all the ways of behavior in Cuba...

Danny De la Paz is the very bad brother with a handgun license...

Alejandro Rey is a money-grubbing menace who puts his personal ambition over public safety...

Denholm Elliott is the soldier of fortune who buys an old airplane so quickly...

Walter Gotell is the unfeeling father who is quite separate from the businesses run by his daughter in law...

In 'Cuba', Richard Lester reveals a likable if none too demanding talent for adventure and love... His film lacks the detailed exposition of the many twists and turns of Michael Curtiz's 'Casablanca.' There is no club so well organized in his movie, no open arena of conspiracy, counterspies, secret plans, black market transactions, no true democrat with women, and no traditional woman enclosed by two rivals...

December 24, 2006

Riveting Film Without a Coherent Viewpoint

"Cuba" is a vastly engrossing film that doesn't fail to entertain. It is graced with superb acting, a witty script, and mesmerizing art direction. What it lacks is a coherent point of view. I wasn't sure what director Richard Lester was trying to say about the events surrounding the Cuban revolution. Also enigmatic is the film's main character, a British mercenary played by Sean Connery. It is no reflection on the performance by Connery but the way the character is written we are left puzzled throughout as to his motivations. In my book, though, the pluses outweigh the negatives. View "Cuba" as entertainment and not as history. June 15, 2006

Well shot, terrible ideas

First off, I found this movie finely played and edited. But I was truly shocked at Lester's pro-Castro ideology. We're en 1979 for Christ sakes ! Can't we have some true historical facts ? Didn't you hear about the trials, the political prisoners, the crowds of people trying to escape the totalitarian regime ? No, the bad guys here are Batista people, potrayed like mere pigs. I'm glad this movie didn't catch people's attention, it's nothing but propaganda. And like a previous reviewer said, it must be Castro's perefered movie, well done Lester, accomplice of the Castro's killings. May 18, 2006

A total mess - and not always in a good way

Richard Lester's Cuba was rushed into production with an unfinished script and more memorable for a troubled shoot that saw Sean Connery and Richard Lester at each others' throats than for anything that made it to the screen. Set in the last few days before Battista loses power, shown with such authentic period detail that no-one seems to remember it's supposed to be Christmas (the title card even gets the year wrong!), it's a plotless mosaic disinterestedly following Connery's mercenary supposedly advising the army but in fact doing nothing much in particular before falling in with old girlfriend Brooke Adams for a love story that doesn't really happen either before the revolution sort of happens because they've got to end the movie somehow. Then he goes home alone. Hector Elizondo's aide and Chris Sarandon's cheating husband are the closest the film gets to rounded characters but everyone else just phones it in. March 6, 2006

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