My Little Assassin

Lorenz, the supposed mistress of Cuba's Castro tells the story of her affair with the Dictator. While this is interesting stuff, what occurred to Lorenz later in her life is more so: She is quite often referred to in JFK assassination lore as confidante to Frank Sturges and acquaintance of soldier of fortune Gerry Hemmings. This movie moves along at a good pace without falling into the "soap-opera-box." and of course the rollicking song "Lawyers, Guns and Money" by Warren Zevon over the closing credits really seem to set this one apart from the usual.

Marita Lorenz later years were chaotic, including an abortion she blamed on the CIA. Overall history is a little murky, but it seems written for dark entertainmant rather than history. Consider for one example, the depiction of pictures, posters, signs, etc. of Mantegna/Castro everywhere, including in her hotel room. There are no likenesses of Castro to be seen anywhere in Cuba, no statues, certainly no airport named after him.

That silly crap wherein the alleged Castro line goes, "..the Communists fought with us in the sierras". Horse-pucky! The truth, for which the producers had no regard, is that the Communist Party of Cuba opposed revolution -whether Castro's or anyone elses. Nor was there any "my wife" Castro refers to at one point. Castro's ignoring of the pleas of a woman imploring him about her son, with "I don't even know her" was more crap possibly written by Republicans, as was the depiction of Castro's personality. Such is not why Cuba had a popular revolution from within, lead by the most popular politician in Cuba before Batista's coup d'etat of 1952. Castro sued Batista for illegal succession before turning to revolution... a movement so popular with Cubans that a mere 18 revolutionaries who survived their landing grew so popular that that they overthrew a widely despised government, doing so without Communist support. This movie attempted to distort history.

Often times, TV movies come across as watered-down life. So I was very pleasantly surprised at some of the intensity of "My Little Assassin." Anwar is stunning both as a teen and as her aged self later. The real star, however, was Joe Mantegne as Fidel Castro. For a recognizable character actor, his suspension of disbelief was very good. The movie was predictable a lot of the time, and some of the writing was too cut and dry, but overall the movie was enjoyable.

This movie was good overall with a well written script despite some mistakes and changes as it is based on true story plus the actors did an excellent job in their roles. The cinematography was also excellent along with the special effects.