Tropico de Sangre

An excellent movie about Mirabal Sisters.I found it a little bit crude and violent, but necessary to express the violence of Latin American dictatorship in the 50s. The cinematography by Ricardo de Angelis expresses the beauty of the Dominican Republic countryside and at the same time the sadness of the people under Trujillo's power. Editor Nelson Rodriguez made a good job as usual. We are not used to see actress Michelle Rodriguez in this type of character and we were surprised by its very fine and poetic Spanish. Cesar Evora as Antonio de La Maza is impressive as the macho that finally killed Trujillo. What I preferred of this movie is how the story is told and how the dramatic process fits the real historic facts.

I first came upon the stories about Trujillo in The Galíndez File. There he conspired with an equally evil man, Francisco Franco, to eliminate the competition. In face they showed part of that story in this film.

All fascist dictators are basically the same. They rule by fear and eliminate any opposition. They take what they want, and, in this case, Trujillo wanted Minerva Mirabal (Michelle Rodriguez).

She wanted nothing to do with him, else we wouldn't have a story. Naturally, her life, and the life of her family, were at risk due to her obstinacy.

The pacing of the film was rather slow, and the performances were wooden. I came to see Michelle Rodriguez, and turned in a credible performance.

I was very disappointed with this movie it has no quality at all in any aspect. Even actors such as Juan Fernandez and Michelle Rodriguez, did a bad job. I now realize that directing a movie has a great deal of what the final product is, and can make look bad good actors.

The history does not focus or follows a plot. It just splashes over some events without real depth into any of the characters. So you do not identify of fell any emotions. Not worth seeing it.

In some parts of the movies I really had to laugh of how bad they did it.

I would not recommend this film at all. I rate it -F

Is it true the some of the actors could have done it better, yes. I am not an expert, but at some point I did feel the acting could have been more honest and natural. But I personally liked Cesar Evora (this dude transmit everything with his expressions and voice), Juan Fernandez (his voice was a good try based of Trujillo's tone), Michelle (showing she is not only about action and such a beautiful smile) and Sergio Carlo. Overall the movie is a good and decent try. Normally in DR the movies are related to the comedy gender, so movies like this one and Yuniol related to drama and important aspects of the Dominican society it's a sign that Dominican theater has potential in terms of writing, film and also acting. I liked what Juan Delancer tried to do with the film, the scenario, taking you to that time with the clothing, cars, music, government institutions. The story of the Mirabal sisters and what the years of Trujillo's time meant for the Dominican history and the Latin American history in general is important to remember. Sometimes looking at the past we can try to avoid the mistakes in the future. Thanks for the film.

Tropico de Sangre is the movie of reference on dictators in Latin America in the 50s.It is definitely one of Michelle Rodriguez best role and a good biopic.

PROS: Photography of Ricardo De Angelis is great. The original Music by Manuel Tejada , in 5.1, sounds impressive and is wonderfully mixed with merengues of that era. Acting by Michelle and Cesar Evora playing with poetry and action gives a great performance.The story is wonderfully told and the presence of real survivor Dede Mirabla brings a realistic touch.

CONS: Editing is too slowly paced, at least on the first part.The second part is better. Juan Fernandez as Trujillo doest not convince me. A few supporting actors give a poor performance. As a whole, this movie should be seen by everybody who cares about violence against women and is a powerful testimony of a very sad era of the American history.