Tropican Film Fest - Home of the Pink Plastic Flamingo Trophy

[Coconut Kid]

My word, did I have to search for this 'starter' review of Lost City!

R for violence | 2 hours, 23 minutes | Period Drama | Directed by Andy Garcia (Cuban expatriate), written by Guillermo Cabrera Infante; starring Andy Garcia, Dustin Hoffman, Bill Murray, Ines Sastre and Nestor Carbonell.

It's fun to be rich, then the revolution hits.

"The Lost City" is a beautify but largely empty-headed tribute to pre-Fidel Havana, where the good guys wear pressed linen suits and the bad guys gave up shaving for La Revolucion.

Garcia stars as Federico "Fico" Fellove who runs El Tropico, the hottest nightclub in Havana, where the stunning women are pliant and the dictator's secret police drink for free.

Young Fico pitches his nightclub as a Caribbean Casablanca where the revolutionaries and the reactionaries  can come in peace as long as they buy lots of drinks.

It's not a bad set-up, and cinematographer Manu Kadosh captures the tropical lushness so evocatively you'll be booking an island vacation before the credits finish rolling. And Garcia, who also served as musical supervisor, intersperses the talking and action with mesmerizing Cuban dance numbers that range from his nightclub stage to the Santeria shrines of old Havana.

Each time Spanish actress and model Ines Sastre shows up in yet another shoulder-baring sundress, there's not a comrade in the room who could pass a pop quiz on Marxist ideology.

The movie is too campy, making the revolutionaries look ridiculous. Garcia is smart and versatile enough to look for political statements at least half as deep as his interest in music, dance and night life. It's too bad he did not do so in this time.

Extracted from a review by Michael Booth in last night's paper. He gave it two stars.

It sounds to me like something that all Tropico - the game fans should put on their "must see" list.

 

Now, let's add on other movies!
It appears that Andy Garcia actually wrote the script, wrote the music, directed, and starred.
Movie star Andy Garcia's controversial new movie The Lost City has been banned in parts of South America because it depicts romantic revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara in a terrible light. The Ocean's Twelve star spent years trying to get the project made, only for film festival bosses and cinema chains to shun the movie because it tells the truth about the Marxist guerilla leader and the Cubans slayed [slain] as he fought to revolutionize the country and hand Fidel Castro leadership.

[Coconut Kid]

Water (1985)

Farce about a British diplomat to a West Indian island nation who finds his idyllic existance thrown into chaos when a large American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.  

A tiny and impoverished Caribbean island is completely forgotten by its British colonial masters, until an abandoned oil well strikes mineral water. Suddenly the British, Americans, Cubans, French and an incompetent local rebel are struggling for control of the island.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090297/

Director: Dick Clement
Taglines: They're All In It - Up To Their Necks! ; Water Bursts All Over London! [UK] ; England wants the island dumped. France wants it bombed. America wants it wholesale. And Micahel Caine wants it . . . on the rocks. [USA theatrical] ; A lunatic comedy! [Australia theatrical].

Cast: Michael Caine as Governor Baxter Thwaites ; Valerie Perrine ; Brenda Vaccaro ; Leonard Rossiter ; Billy Connolly ; etc.

Quotes:
[Four men's feet are protruding from beneath a bed]
Baxter Thwaites: Are you two digging a hole, or committing an unnatural act?

Rob: This is the Governor's wife!
Deke Halliday: You mean she's not the hooker?
Baxter Thwaites: I told you not to wear those heels, darling.

Miguel: Under British law, singing badly is not a crime.

Baxter Thwaites: How can we maintain decorum if our spiritual leader is trying to put his hand up Miss Cascara's skirt?
Delores: You prefer he put his hand up my skirt?
Baxter Thwaites: At least you're used to it. You won't scream.

Delgardo: [singing] I don't care, I don't give a d**n! British justice is a farce and a sham!

From Canada: Water is one of those movies I'm grateful my Dad took me to see. Since it lasted, I believe, less than two weeks in theaters, I wasn't going to get another chance for a long time. Water does a wonderful job of skewering the Big Powers; the U.S.; Britain; Russia; and France. The colonial nature of these empires forms the basis for a hysterical skirmish over water rights on a barely survivable Caribbean island. The film's executive producer was none other than George Harrison. Not surprisingly, the music from the film is fantastic, although no soundtrack album is available that I am aware of. The luminaries drawn to the movie's witty script included musicians Ringo Starr, John Lord, Eric Clapton and others, and the cast includes Michael Caine, J.J. Walker, and Billy Connelly (the latter two in their best roles, I believe). Unfortunately, most of the humour requires knowledge of international and colonial politics, without which the film is (pardon the pun) dry.
So there you are. Everyone knows of Tropico ; they just can't get the name right.

[Coconut Kid]

The Magnificent Fraud (1939)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031604/

Also Known As:
Caviar for His Excellency (USA) (working title)
The World's Applause (USA) (working title)

Despite what we think to the contrary, silent-film actor Lon Chaney was not widely known as 'The Man of a Thousand Faces' during his lifetime. In fact, I can think of only one Chaney film (an obscure one: 'The Trap') which used the 'Thousand Faces' tagline in its advertising. When Paramount released 'The Magnificent Fraud' in 1939, less than a decade after Chaney's death, the posters for this film hailed its star Akim Tamiroff as 'The Man of a Thousand Faces' ...

Don Miguel Alvarado is the president of a politically unstable South American nation, in the process of negotiating an important business deal with United States interests. At a crucial moment, a bomb-throwing assassin kills Alvarado ... but visiting Yankee Sam Barr manages to keep the assassination hushed up. It's vital that the negotiations continue. If Alvarado's death becomes known, the government will be overthrown by revolutionaries. Barr persuades LeCroix to impersonate Alvarado until the deal goes through. Since LeCroix (beardless) and Alvarado (heavily bearded) are both played by Akim Tamiroff, it's no surprise that LeCroix is able to impersonate Alvarado perfectly!

Matters are not helped by the fact that the basic premise of this film is recycled from another Paramount film made only five years earlier: '30-Day Princess'. In both films, an American actor is persuaded to impersonate a foreign dignitary until an important deal goes through. 'Magnificent Fraud' takes that premise in rather a different direction from the earlier film, but with inferior results.

For all of its flaws, 'The Magnificent Fraud' is vastly superior to its 1988 remake 'Moon Over Parador', which tried to put its protagonist (Richard Dreyfuss) into suspenseful situations ... but framed those situations with a flashback structure which tipped us off that Dreyfuss would survive at the end. I'll (the reviewer) rate 'Magnificent Fraud' 5 out of 10 ... but there was only one true Man of a Thousand Faces, and his name was Lon Chaney.

[Coconut Kid]

Moon over Parador (1988)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Over_Parador

Directed by Paul Mazursky
Starring: Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga

The film follows the exploits of Jack Noah (Dreyfuss), who is filming in the small, fictional South American country of Parador when the Paradorian president-for-life suddenly dies of a heart attack. Not wanting to lose his position in power, the president's right-hand man, Roberto Strausmann (Raul Julia) forces Jack to take the 'role of a lifetime' - that of the dead president, as the two men look so much alike. Jack accepts, eventually winning over the people and even the dead president's mistress, Madonna (Sonia Braga). However, when paradise proves to be too boring, Jack needs to find a way to get out while keeping Roberto out of the loop.

The movie attempts to generate suspense by establishing that Jack Noah is in physical jeopardy so long as he remains in Parador. However, the film is told in flashback, with an opening scene establishing that Jack has returned to New York City.

The film, though a farce, does suggest several intriguing under currents about the use of propaganda in Mass Communication, as it applies to international relations in western theory. Parador, a fairly blatant characterization of Paraguay, is among those geographic locations that always seem to be frontiers of ideological indifference and as such seem to give way to their perpetual states of de-facto violence. There is always a feeling that revolution could break out at any moment. At the same time the film pokes fun at the democratic process with the use of rigged elections, the "red" and "blue" party, which are actually just different colored posters with the same candidates name written on them.

Also of course is the admission of Roberto Strausman (Raul Julia) that the proceeding dictator, of whom Jack Noah takes the place was actually an actor himself. Then there is the archetypal fat, loud mouthed, ex-military, CIA operative; an early installment from the Korean war days, no doubt, who reminds Strausman and his fellow aristocratic conspirators that it is and has always been the agenda of the United States that makes their parasitic existence possible in the first place.

The film also seems to reflect the attitude of the 1980's U.S administration (Reagan) policies concerning the all too frequent employment of western friendly puppet style, governments, as a necessary corollary to maintaining economic and political stability around the world.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095654/

Trivia: The previous Paradorian National Anthem, "O Parador" is sung to the tune of "O Christmas Tree." This is a reference to the mostly unknown and unnoticed fact that in some Latin American countries, the Knights of Columbus Anthem is sung to the tune of "O Christmas Tree."

[Coconut Kid]

The Lost City (2005)

3 September 2005 (Telluride Film Festival)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0343996/

I am surprised at the "red-hot" message board at this link. True, it has a lot of political BS unrelated to the movie - but it is really alive. Here is a post from it:

mzladymoon-1, Jul 5 2007:
Since I respect Andy Garcia's body of work, I was very interested to see this film. I am not Latina. I am also not a Communist nor a Che Gueverra groupie. I'm not pro Castro, but I'm also not anti-Castro either. He's at the end of his life and I hope the communist regime in Cuba will be replaced with Democracy.

But this film clearly was intended to make us empathize with the elite class of Cubans who lost their wealth, possessions and their country. Unfortunately, the film didn't succeed in doing that. Among the reasons, a really poor script and it was edited dreadfully. The cinematography was lovely and the music, fantastic. I particularly enjoyed seeing REAL latin dancing, not the Hollywood-ized stuff we're normally forced to endure. It was a real treat to see an attempt to re-create the pre-Castro Cuba, something I wish I had been able to experience.

The focus on this particular family, excluded other realities that had to exist in Cuba at that time. We never saw poor people. It's hard for me to accept that Castro and Che could have gotten a foothold for their revolution without a sizeable amount of dissatisfaction from the masses people who felt that they were being exploited in some way. It was very shrewd of Garcia to not show any servants, for example. I find it hard to believe that Fico's family did not have servants. And if they didn't, it would have been nice to have scenes of the women cooking and doing domestic chores as a way of making us identify with them so that when the rebels began confiscating their lands and possessions, we would feel for them. If you are working-class, which I am, it's hard to feel sympathy for people who are wealthy at the expense of other people's hard labor. Also, why did the Cubans tolerate Batista and the deals he made with the mob? There was a lot of sexploitation by wealthy Americans who used to travel to Cuba at that time.

Also, the confusing plot point with Fico's sister-in-law becoming a fan of the new regime, especially after the death of the uncle. Were these people so clueless that they didn't realize what Castro's intentions were? And if they were so oblivious, maybe that was part of the problem and the reason Cuba succumbed to a revolution.

Bill Murray, whom I normally enjoy, his character was annoyance to the film. Again, this was a script choice and a poor one.

Unlike others, I enjoyed the movie and thought it was good on quite a few levels. I think it's important that Garcia made a movie from this point of view which can live on in posterity. Viewing it made me understand and appreciate Democracy and the importance of protecting it so that revolutionaries, who are never any better than the regime they are replacing and often worse, can't get a foothold for such radical change. George Orwell's Animal Farm is the definitive written work about how revolution and revolutionaries tend to become instruments of brutality and evil.
In another post, she says (in part):
... "In 1958 Cuba was undergoing a rebellion not a revolution. Cubans expected political change not a socio-economic cataclysm and catastrophe." I get it! Y'all got scrooewd. Fine. I'm with that. But the movie didn't show this. ...

[Coconut Kid]

Salvador (1986)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_(film)

Salvador is a 1986 film which tells the story of an American journalist in El Salvador covering the Salvadoran civil war. While trying to get footage, he becomes entangled with both leftist guerrillas and the right wing military. It stars James Woods, James Belushi, Michael Murphy, John Savage, Elpidia Carrillo, Tony Plana, Cynthia Gibb, Juan Fernandez and José Carlos Ruiz.

The film was written by Oliver Stone and Richard Boyle, and was directed by Stone. Stone's portrayal is sympathetic towards the left wing peasant revolutionaries, but deplores their killing of prisoners in a crucial scene. He is strongly critical towards the U.S.-supported right wing military and the allied death squads, focusing on their assassination of four American churchwomen, including Jean Donovan. Stone's portrayal of the Catholic Church as a force for justice reflects events of the time, exemplified in the political sermon of Archbishop Óscar Romero, which is based almost word-for-word on the speech Romero made before he was assassinated by a death squad.

Salvador was popular among critics, but relatively unsuccessful at the box office. The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Actor in a Leading Role (Woods) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Stone and Boyle).

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091886/

A journalist, down on his luck in the US, drives to El Salvador to chronicle the events of the 1980 military dictatorship, including the assasination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. He forms an uneasy alliance with both guerillas in the countryside who want him to get pictures out to the US press, and the right-wing military, who want him to bring them photographs of the rebels. Meanwhile he has to find a way of protecting his Salvadorean girlfriend and getting her out of the country.
Salvador is Oliver's Stone's best movie. This was a low budget movie and the last one Stone made before Platoon. This is a guerilla movie in the true sense of the work. A movie made about a guerilla revolt in El Salvador and one American journalist's story during that revolution; and made on in a guerilla style with a lot of hand-helded shots and local Mexican atmosphere and actors. James Wood and Jim Belushi are excellent. Except for the politics and an acid trip scene, this film is very gritty and real. Now it does have a frat boy road trip aspect, but that only adds a comic touch that is almost endearing at times. Set against the brutality of the civil war of El Salvador, the comedy helps keep the movie from being overly harsh and pedantic, which Mr. Stone tends to want to lean towards in portraying the politics of the time and place. Thankfully Mr. Stone is more interesting in entertaining then preaching in this movie, and with the excellent acting accomplishes this goal.

[Coconut Kid]

La Hija del Puma

Release dates:
Sweden  30 September 1994  
Denmark  4 November 1994  
Spain  3 July 1995  
Mexico  16 August 1997  

In light of the atrocious acts of genocide that continue to plague our world, Latin America Society, UNICEF, Magdalen Film Society, and Aegis Society proudly present:
*La Hija del Puma*
Featured speaker Monika Zak (boundary-breaking author of the book that inspired the film)

Friday 18th May 2007
Time: 7.30 - 10.30pm
Venue: Magdalene Auditorium [Oxford University]

Set during Guatemala's bloody civil war, a courageous Mayan woman, having fled to the refugee camps of Mexico, returns to her native country. She returns at great risk to find her brother fighting as a Guerilla and her home village occupied and decimated by the violence. A victim of torture, racism, and a witness to the state-endorsed acts of genocide against the Mayan people, her brave struggle reveals the enduring strength of human dignity in the face of the darkest forms of human cruelty.
Mar 23, 1995 The 17th annual Latin American Film series starts Friday and runs through Wednesday, sponsored by Great Lakes Film & Video, the Center for Latin America and UWM Union Sociocultural Programming. Screenings begin at 7 nightly and are free to the public. Films are shown in their original languages with English subtitles.

Scheduled films are:

Friday: "The Other Side of the Tunnel" ("Al Otro Lado del Tunel"), Spanish director Jaime de Arminan's story of two scriptwriters wrangling over a screenplay set in 19th century Scotland. This is the last film made by actor Fernando Rey.

Saturday: "No Mercy" ("Sin Compasion"), the story of "Crime and Punishment" adapted to contemporary Peru. Directed by Francisco Lombardi.

Sunday: "I Don't Want to Talk About It" ("De Eso No Se Habla"), a black comedy about a woman in denial about her daughter's dwarfism. By Venezuelan director Maria Luisia Bemberg.

Monday: "Assassin for Hire" ("Sicario"), Venezuelan film about a man who becomes a hired killer to escape poverty. Directed by Jose Ramon Novoa. Actor Pedro Lander will be present at the screening.

Tuesday: "Century of Enlightenment" ("El Siglo de Las Luce"), political adventure epic set in 18th century Havana. From Cuban director Humberto Solas.

Wednesday: "Daughter of the Puma" ("La Hija del Puma"), based on the true story of a Guatemalan Mayan refugee who returns home to resolve her brother's disappearance and is confronted with her own nightmarish memories. Directors Ulf Hultberg and Asa Faringer will be at the screening.

The series will be shown at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union Theatre, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.

[Coconut Kid]

La Hija del Puma

Release dates:
Sweden  30 September 1994 
Denmark  4 November 1994 
Spain  3 July 1995 
Mexico  16 August 1997  

Also Known As (AKA)
Hija del Puma, La   Spain
Pumaens datter Denmark
Pumans dotter Sweden
Puuman tytär Finland
The Daughter of the Puma (undefined)
Tochter des Puma Germany

Production Companies
Domino Film (as Domino Film & TV-Produktion A/S)
Ulf Hultberg Film (in association with) (as Ulf Hultberg Film)
Det Danske Filminstitut
Red Barnet
Rädda barnen
Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA)

Directed by
Åsa Faringer    
Ulf Hultberg    
  
Writing credits
(in alphabetical order)  
Åsa Faringer   writer
Bob Foss   writer
Ulf Hultberg   writer
Monica Zak   novel
There seems to be an interesting problem in finding a biography of "Monica Zak" on the internet. There seems to be about eight [8] books credited to her. The book which is the basis of the movie is implied to be a real-life experience - probably first hand. However, Wikipedia has only a German language entry for a person born in 1939 in Dresden. Several of the books credited to Monica Zak seem to mention that the author is a Swede. It is also confusing that at least a couple of the books are predicated on telling the story of children or youth in the second-hand through close acquaintance and intimate friendship. But the youth is better known than the author. After some great hoaxes - including a Pulitizer Prize for reporting that turned out to be fiction which used the same format - one has to wonder why it is so hard to learn about "Monica Zak"!

Can anyone contribute any information?

[Coconut Kid]

Music & Film Soundtracks

Please note that this small sample is what I discovered from looking at ancient posts here at the Cafe.

You should also be alert that all of these films have musical soundtracks which I have not emphasized here. If you have interest in Latino music, you should follow-up -- especially on The Internet Movie Database which typically has music links for each movie.

http://www.imdb.com/

 

An example is "The Lost City" -- Andy Garcia is not only a well known actor, but also a well respected muscian. The musical soundtrack of the film is the most important part to some people.

[Coconut Kid]

Pattycake4554: It's kinda like when you buy a new car, you suddenly start seeing them all over the place...saw a movie last nite, For Love Or Country...true story of Arturo Sandoval (great Cuban/jazz trumpet player) and his defection from Cuba.
The cars, the streets, the houses/shacks, and above all, the music were definitely like Tropico!

Thanks to Pattycake4554 we have another entry:

For Love or Country
The Arturo Sandoval Story

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0236285/


Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com
For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story chronicles the life of a man torn between his home and his devotion to his music. In a Golden Globe-nominated performance, Andy Garcia portrays the gregarious, passionate, and obstinate Arturo Sandoval, the Grammy-winning Cuban trumpet player.
This HBO film shows how Sandoval's life in revolutionary Cuba is affected--beginning in the early 1970s--by his zeal for his music and by the limits placed on him by his homeland. Representing his torn loyalties are Dizzy Gillespie (the enigmatic jazz musician played by Charles S. Dutton) and Sandoval's wife, Marianela (played by the beautiful Mia Maestro). Gillespie embodies the freedom to follow one's dream, while Marianela represents family loyalty and the ideals of the Castro revolution. Yet, the same regime his wife embraces forces Arturo to play government-imposed music instead of the jazz that he loves. Sandoval travels the world, and while the Cuban government profits from his success, he is exposed to a freedom that eventually draws him to the difficult and life-changing decision he and his family feel compelled to make.

Against a backdrop of beautiful scenery and exceptional music, For Love or Country provides a harsh depiction of revolutionary Cuba, its outmoded lifestyle, and the restrictions placed on its people.
Made for TV and released in 2000, I think.

[Coconut Kid]

Bananas

(1971)

This is one of Woody Allen's earliest movies, and I'd rank it probably 2nd out of his pre-Annie Hall movies, only behind Love and Death. It's certainly one of his funniest. The plot is pretty ridiculous (a neurotic product tester goes to the fictional San Marcos and ends up joining the rebels and eventually becoming president), but it's really secondary, and only serves to provide transitions from one comedy skit to another.

It's pretty much a hit and miss movie, but when he hits (which is more often than not), it's very funny. There are plenty of hilarious one liners throughout. The music is very cheesy as well, but it fits in well with the silly humor. Obviously, this isn't like Woody's later movies, just take it for what it is -- a silly comedy -- and I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Also of note, the opening credits are very funny and rivals Monty Python and the Holy Grail for best opening credits sequence.

The majority of the scenes in the film were improvised. When Allen felt he had captured the right shot, he would move on to the next one.

Plot summary: Fielding Mellish (a consumer products tester) becomes infatuated with Nancy (a political activist). He attends demonstrations and tries in other ways to convince her that he is worthy of her love, but Nancy wants someone with greater leadership potential. Fielding runs off to San Marcos where he joins the rebels and eventually becomes President of the country. While on a trip to the states, he meets Nancy again and she falls for him now that he is a political leader.
First line quotes: Good afternoon. Wide World of Sports is in the little republic of San Marcos where we're going to bring you a live, on the spot assassination. They're going to kill the president of this lovely Latin American country and replace him with a military dictatorship...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066808/

Nominated for TWO Gold Flamingos

[Coconut Kid]

The Ghost Breakers (1940)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Breakers

The Ghost Breakers (1940) is a comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. The movie was adapted by Walter DeLeon from the play The Ghost Breaker by Paul Dickey and Charles W. Goddard.

Plot: The film opens in a Manhattan radio studio during a broadcast by crime reporter Lawrence Lawrence (Bob Hope) -- “Larry” to his friends, as well as his enemies, who are many in number among the local underworld.

Listening in on the broadcast is pretty brunette Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard), whose high-rise apartment goes dark as a violent thunderstorm causes a city-wide blackout. In the near darkness, a knock comes at her door. It is Mr. Parada (Paul Lukas), a suave, vaguely sinister solicitor attached to the Cuban consulate. He informs her that she has inherited a plantation and mansion, “Castillo Maldito,” on a small island off the coast of Cuba. Despite Parada’s discouragement, she impulsively decides to travel to Cuba by ship to inspect her new property.

Shortly after Parada’s departure, Mary receives another visitor-- Mr. Mederes (Anthony Quinn), an even more sinister gent who extends an offer to purchase the newly inherited property. Despite his insistence, Mary declines.

Meanwhile, after Larry Lawrence has finished broadcasting the evening’s exposé of a local crime boss, ...

Upon reaching port in Havana, Mary, Larry, Alex and Geoff are ferried to the island. En route they find a shack occupied by an old woman (Virginia Brissac) and her catatonic son (Noble Johnson), who she explains is a zombie. Despite Geoff’s skepticism, the group is unnerved by the cadaverous appearance of the “zombie.”

The imposing plantation manor proves to be a spooky edifice indeed. The quartet begins to explore the long-abandoned, cobweb-ridden mansion, and discover a large portrait of a woman who is nearly an exact likeness of Mary-- most certainly an ancestor.

Soon the quartet is terrorized by the appearance of a ghost, and the reappearance of the zombie. Are these real, or are they a ruse to frighten Mary away from her inheritance?


The Dickey and Goddard play The Ghost Breaker was filmed twice previously by Paramount. It was first made in 1914 by Cecil B. DeMille, with stars H. B. Warner and Rita Stanwood, and again in 1922 by director Alfred E. Green, with Wallace Reid and Lila Lee starring. Both these silent films are presumed lost.

George Marshall, director of the 1940 version, remade The Ghost Breakers in 1953 as Scared Stiff, featuring Martin and Lewis (Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis).

The Ghost Breakers was a sequel of sorts to Paramount’s 1939 hit The Cat and the Canary, also starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard. Paramount teamed the pair again, along with costar Willie Best, in Nothing But the Truth (1941).

The Ghost Breakers, along with The Cat and the Canary, was an inspiration to Walt Disney for his Haunted Mansion attraction at Disneyland.

[Coconut Kid]

Zapata:
El sueño de un héroe (2004)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapata:_The_Dream_of_a_Hero

Zapata: El sueño del héroe, (in English: Zapata: The dream of a hero) also titled simply Zapata, is a Mexican motion picture first released in 2004.

This fictionalized portrayal of Emiliano Zapata as an Indigenous Mexican shaman, directed by Alfonso Arau, was reportedly the most expensive Mexican movie ever produced, with a massive ad campaign, and the largest ever opening in the nation's history. Unusual in the Mexican film industry, Zapata was financed independently.

Infested with nonsense script lines such as, "Un soldado sin rifle, es como un taco sin tortilla" or "A soldier without a rifle is like a taco without a tortilla", this movie was panned by the critics and audiences alike. The movie was panned by critics due to continuity issues, as well as concerns about the portrayal of Zapata, along with some rumors that he was homosexual, plus semi-nudes of historical figures. Although many of the marketing and promotional ideas utilised in the release of the film are "revolutionary" in Mexico, after its opening day, the movie performed poorly in movie theatres, far below expectations, and, as of 28 May 2004, had yet to find any distributors outside of Latin America.

Zapata made its U.S. debut at the Santa Fe Film Festival on December 3, 2004 at the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. There were some rumors that Zapata's set design and some of its props were also used for "Amor Real", a major Mexican soap opera project (since they are both in the same style), however these rumors were proved false, since the props from Zapata were ruins and computer generated graphics.

The film happens in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first nineteen years of the twentieth, during the dictatorship of Porfirio Díaz (Justo Martínez), the presidency of Francisco I. Madero, the military revolt of Victoriano Huerta (Jesús Ochoa), the Convention of Generals and, finally, the death of Emiliano Zapata (Alejandro Fernández), already in the constitutionalist stage of Venustiano Carranza. The film does not try to be a chair of history but a fable that obtains the identification of the spectators with the hero, through the successive confrontation of the protagonist with the power, represented in the antagonistic figure of Victoriano Huerta.
As a mexican, it pains me terribly to see dead and gone the prestige acquired by Arau with "Como agua para chocolate", but it pains me even more to see this awful and disrespectful portrayal of a national hero in the hands of Arau. Terrible actors, worse screenplay, unforgivable historical lies and a total waste of ten million dollars.

Lame high-school-level effects, and so many ridiculous supposedly mystic references (all mixed up and wrong) that make this movie an involuntary comedy, promising to turn a macarena-dancing nahuatl old witch character into a sad, sad stain in a previously good Arau's resumé.

I would have preferred Arau to publicize his movie as a satire. That might have (and I repeat, MIGHT HAVE) saved his reputation, but it is unadmissible to let him play with the image of a national hero, and make a long, very bad videoclip for Alejandro Fernández out of this "movie", and make us mexicans be sorry for it to be seen overseas.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0307692/

 

[Coconut Kid]

I just finish watching "Moon Over Parador", a 1988 movie by Universal Pictures, and I have to say that it reminded me of Tropico so much. Within the first five minutes of the movie I started thinking of Tropico, and what was really the nail in the coffin was the cathedral in the film. The cathedral is the spitting image of the one in the game, the only difference is the color of it. I'm beginning to think that the developers of T1 got a lot of ideas from the movie. If anyone is interested in this film it will be on HBOSE Friday at 12:30 pm. EST.      

Too bad the King didn't look at this thread.

Reply #3!

[Coconut Kid]

The Dictator (2012)
In Theaters: May 11, 2012

From:  http://www.imdb.com/movies-coming-soon/2012-05/

Comedy
The heroic story of a dictator who risks his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.

The Buzz:
On paper, Sacha Baron Cohen's first non-"Ali G. Show" creation reads better than Borat and Brüno combined. I like that there's no prior character map, no set expectation for Cohen to surpass except, well, the sophomore slump that was, arguably, his foray into the world of international fashion.

[Coconut Kid]

The Lost City (2005)
A Cuban Adventure.

The information made clearer from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

144 min  -  Drama   -   released 16 June 2006 (Canada)

In Havana, Cuba in the late 1950's, a wealthy family, one of whose sons is a prominent nightclub owner, is caught in the violent transition from the oppressive regime of Batista to the Marxist government of Fidel Castro. Castro's regime ultimately leads the nightclub owner to flee to New York.

Director: Andy Garcia
Writer: Guillermo Cabrera Infante, and D. Daniel Vujic (uncredited) 
Stars: Andy Garcia, Inés Sastre and Bill Murray

Also Known As (AKA)
La ciudad perdida    Peru / Spain
Потерянный город   Russia
A Cidade Perdida     Brazil
Adieu Cuba             France
Avana, hameni poli   Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
El Tropico               Hungary (imdb display title)
En nombre del odio   Argentina (DVD title)

http://www.thelostcitythemovie.com/

The Lost City Poker Movie

Andy Garcia’s The Lost City is an ambitious period piece. It is set in 1950s Havana at the height of the political turmoil of that era. The title alludes to an idyllic past in a country lost to upheaval and revolution. At the opening of the film, Fico Fellove, played by Garcia, has it all: a country that he loves; two loyal brothers, Ricardo and Luis, played by Enrique Murciano and Nestor Carbonell; a popular Havana nightclub; and a caring father, played by Tomas Milian. By the end of the film, Fico will have lost all of these things to the chaos that is slowly choking Cuba to death.

The problems begin when Ricardo is arrested because of his communist sentiments. Fico pulls some strings with the local government to release his brother. Ricardo, furious with his being detained, joins with communist revolutionary Che Guevera to plot a coup to overthrow the dictator Batista. Meanwhile, the democratic Luis takes part in an invasion of the presidential palace. It fails, and Luis is assassinated by Batista’s secret police. Fico is devastated by the death of his brother. He goes to comfort his brother’s widow, Aurora, played by Ines Sastre. Fico and Aurora soon start a romantic relationship and fall deeply in love.

It is around this time that Batista flees Cuba and Fidel Castro and his communists seize control of the government. Ricardo is given a high-ranking office in the new regime. One of Ricardo’s responsibilities is oversight of the seizure of lands for the state. He goes to take control of his Uncle Donoso’s land. Donoso is upset by the news, has a heart attack due to the stress, and dies. Ricardo is wracked with guilt and commits suicide. Fico, having once again lost a brother, is distraught to the point of depression. Fico’s personal life takes a hit with the ascension of the communist party. His club is placed in stasis when the Castro controlled musician’s union strikes. It is firmly opposed to the use of the saxophone, an instrument that it sees as an imperialist instrument of oppression. All union musicians refuse to play at Fico’s club. Also, Aurora is chosen to be the Revolutionary Widow. She goes to work for the state and leaves Fico. At this point, Fico cannot go any lower.

Fico’s parents take this opportunity to advise their son. They realize that there is nothing left for him in Cuba. They persuade him to travel to America so that he may have a chance at a future of happiness and security. Fico comes around to the idea, even though he loves Cuba. He approaches Aurora and begs her to come along, but she refuses. When he reaches America, Fico gets a job as a dishwasher. He resolves to rebuild his life and to one day return to the land that he loves.

Fico Fellove’s story is the opposite of the American dream. He starts off as an affluent businessman, but, even though he works hard, he soon loses everything. Fortunately, the film ends with a positive message of hope and perseverance. Fico, finally in the land of opportunity, can now work towards creating his ideal life and finding his lost city.

[Coconut Kid]

The first post in this thread contains this:

Movie star Andy Garcia's controversial new movie The Lost City [2005] has been banned in parts of South America because it depicts romantic revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara in a terrible light. The Ocean's Twelve star spent years trying to get the project made, only for film festival bosses and cinema chains to shun the movie because it tells the truth about the Marxist guerilla leader and the Cubans slayed [slain] as he fought to revolutionize the country and hand Fidel Castro leadership.

It is apparently a quote from some discussion board for which I carelessly lost the reference.

Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs, and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle, and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives; he has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist-inspired movements.

But what of those who revile him? What is their basis? Here are a couple of paragraphs from Wikipedia about that:

As the only other ranked Comandante besides Fidel Castro, Guevara was a harsh disciplinarian who sometimes shot defectors. Deserters were punished as traitors, and Guevara was known to send squads to track those seeking to go AWOL. As a result, Guevara became feared for his brutality and ruthlessness. During the guerrilla campaign, Guevara was also responsible for the sometimes summary execution of a number of men accused of being informers, deserters or spies. In his diaries, Guevara described the first such execution of Eutimio Guerra, a peasant army guide who admitted treason when it was discovered he accepted the promise of ten thousand pesos for repeatedly giving away the rebel's position for attack by the Cuban air force. Such information also allowed Batista's army to burn the homes of rebel-friendly peasants. Upon Guerra's request that they "end his life quickly", Che stepped forward and shot him in the head, writing "The situation was uncomfortable for the people and for Eutimio so I ended the problem giving him a shot with a .32 pistol in the right side of the brain, with exit orifice in the right temporal [lobe]." His scientific notations and matter-of-fact description, suggested to one biographer a "remarkable detachment to violence" by that point in the war. Later, Guevara published a literary account of the incident entitled "Death of a Traitor", where he transfigured Eutimio's betrayal and pre-execution request that the revolution "take care of his children", into a "revolutionary parable about redemption through sacrifice.

The first major political crisis arose over what to do with the captured Batista officials who had been responsible for the worst of the repression. During the rebellion against Batista's dictatorship, the general command of the rebel army, led by Fidel Castro, introduced into the liberated territories the 19th century penal law commonly known as the Ley de la Sierra (Law of the Sierra). This law included the death penalty for extremely serious crimes, whether perpetrated by the Batista regime or by supporters of the revolution. In 1959, the revolutionary government extended its application to the whole of the republic and to those it considered war criminals, captured and tried after the revolution. According to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, this latter extension was supported by the majority of the population, and followed the same procedure as those in the Nuremberg Trials held by the Allies after World War II.

To implement a portion of this plan, Castro named Guevara commander of the La Cabaña Fortress prison, for a five-month tenure (January 2 through June 12, 1959). Guevara was charged with purging the Batista army and consolidating victory by exacting "revolutionary justice" against those considered to be traitors, chivatos (informants) or war criminals. Serving in the post as commander of La Cabaña, Guevara reviewed the appeals of those convicted during the revolutionary tribunal process. On some occasions the penalty delivered by the tribunal was death by firing squad. Raúl Gómez Treto, senior legal advisor to the Cuban Ministry of Justice, has argued that the death penalty was justified in order to prevent citizens themselves from taking justice into their own hands, as happened twenty years earlier in the anti-Machado rebellion. Biographers note that in January 1959, the Cuban public was in a "lynching mood", and point to a survey at the time showing 93% public approval for the tribunal process. Moreover, a January 22, 1959, Universal Newsreel broadcast in the U.S. and narrated by Ed Herlihy, featured Fidel Castro asking an estimated one million Cubans whether they approved of the executions, and was met with a roaring "¡Si!" (yes). With 20,000 Cubans estimated to have been killed at the hands of Batista's collaborators, and many of the war criminals sentenced to death were accused of torture and physical atrocities, the newly empowered government carried out executions, punctuated by cries from the crowds of "¡paredón!" (to the wall), which biographer Jorge Castañeda describes as "without respect for due process."

Although there are differences between different accounts, it is estimated that several hundred people were executed nationwide during this time, with estimates for Guevara's jurisdictional death total at La Cabaña ranging from 55 to 164. Conflicting views exist of Guevara's attitude towards the executions at La Cabaña. Some exiled opposition biographers report that he relished the rituals of the firing squad, and organized them with gusto, while others relate that Guevara pardoned as many prisoners as he could. What is acknowledged by all sides is that Guevara had become a "hardened" man, who had no qualms about the death penalty or summary and collective trials. If the only way to "defend the revolution was to execute its enemies, he would not be swayed by humanitarian or political arguments." This is further confirmed by a February 5, 1959, letter to Luis Paredes López in Buenos Aires where Guevara states unequivocally "The executions by firing squads are not only a necessity for the people of Cuba, but also an imposition of the people."

There you have a "thumb-nail" of the controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernesto_%27Che%27_Guevara

[Coconut Kid]

under fire

Release Date:  21 October 1983 (USA)
Also Known As:  Bajo Fuego
Filming Locations:  Chiapas, Mexico

Nicaragua 1979: Star photographer Russel Price covers the civil war against president Somoza. Facing the cruel fighting - people versus army - it's often hard for him to stay neutral. When the Guerillas have him take a picture of the leader Rafael, who's believed to be dead, he gets drawn into the happenings. Together with his reporter friends Claire and Alex he has to hide from the army.

Directed by:  Roger Spottiswoode   
Writing credits:  Clayton Frohman   screenplay ;  Clayton Frohman   story  ;  Ron Shelton   writer

Stars:  Nick Nolte (Russell Price), Ed Harris (Oates) and Gene Hackman (Alex Grazier)

Review: This movie really hits the mark in many ways. It's the best movie of its genre. In the opening scene in some unspecified African civil war Nick Nolte, war journalist, discovers Ed Harris, mercenary, riding in the wrong truck surrounded by his enemies. Harris hasn't realized that after the confusion of the battle he climbed in a truck of soldiers from the opposite side. They in turn haven't realized that Harris isn't their mercenary. Harris says, `I guess they'd really be p***ed if they knew.' This scene sets the theme for the movie perfectly. Not only doesn't the mercenary care which side he is on, but it is implied that the sides are pretty much interchangeable and it doesn't much matter who's truck we climb in. This is pretty much Nolte's attitude as he travels from one war to another. We begin to suspect he isn't that different from Harris. But affairs in Nicaragua make his neutrality seem immoral and he is forced to choose between his journalistic ethics and his humanitarian ones.

Great writing is matched by great acting from Hackman, Harris and Nolte and Johanna Cassidy.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086510/