Cuba

According to the Citadel Film series book on Sean Connery, Sean violated a rule that both he and Charlton Heston normally follow, never take an assignment on an unfinished script. The cameras were rolling on the players before the final script was done and the results clearly show it.

Cuba as a film certainly had potential, but it's not realized in this story. Sean Connery plays a British mercenary who is going to go to work for the tottering Batista regime. He's being hired on the strength of good work he did in Malaya where the British did successfully quell a Communist insurgency in the Fifties.

Connery's got a lot of reservations when he sees the quality of the troops that Batista has. But that's not what's totally occupying his mind. He's found an old flame in Brooke Adams who is married to wealthy Cuban cigar factory owner Chris Sarandon.

As a film Cuba veers back and forth between an action adventure, a political tract, and a romance novel, never really settling in any one category. Best performance in the film is that of Jack Weston who plays the archetypal ugly American.

It's a sad film Cuba, because it had the potential to be a whole lot better.

This drama/love story could have been excellent. Played out against the last months of the corrupt and US/UK-supported Batista regime, the collapse of the old society as Castro's fidelistas begin to take over is shown compellingly. The point is well made that a revolution will only succeed if the people are behind it which, in this instance, they clearly were.

It's a shame that the movie couldn't have been filmed in Cuba, as of course all the famous landmarks of Havana are missing, but its real problems are threefold.

Firstly the storyline is confusing, complicated and unconvincing, with none of the characters being allowed to hold one's attention.

Secondly, the acting is poor. Even Sean Connery - who is normally excellent - seems to have had his mind on other things the whole time.

And thirdly, for some inexplicable reason, the chanting of 'Fidel' as Castro enters Havana in triumph morphs into a Nazi crowd chanting 'Sieg Heil'. Whatever was this trying to say? When Castro actually came into power, one of the first things he did was to open all the 'whites-only' clubs to black people, and to make it clear in an early speech that there was no such thing as a superior race. To liken Castro to Hitler is a travesty of the facts.

So, ultimately a flawed film. Watch it not for the story or the 'message' but for what is going on in the background.

An enjoyable thriller, which although filmed in Spain, manages to capture the atmosphere and lunacy of the last days of Batista's dictatorship perfectly. Probably a contractual purposes project on the behalf of director Lester, he manages to inject just enough of his own idiosyncratic style to lift this adventure flick out of the run of the mill. Connery is totally convincing in his role as Brit counter-insurgency advisor/mercenary. Brook Adams is stunning. Good anglo-american supporting cast. Plot begins to lose its impetus about a reel before the end, and at a running time of nearly two hours, is overlong. But well worth renting the video. Socialists will not find its political interpetation of events offensive, but may be puzzled or angered by the soundtrack over the final titles - as a victorious Fidel approaches the podium, chants of 'Fidel! Fidel!' are over dubbed with a Nuremberg chorus of 'Sieg Heil!'. Discuss.

The film is not as bad as I have read, of course it is not to great either. The main reasons to watch the film are of course Connery and Cuba (with good/historic landmarks). However, niether the story, nor other acting is memorable. The film deals with something about a love interest that brings Connery deeper into the Cuban crime/vigilante world. Bottle factories are broken along with peoples dealths. Anyway, more recent movies have done similar stories better, of course they don't have the CUBA

There have been many stories of people going to countries on the eve of a revolution and finding out why there's a revolution. "Cuba" is kept afloat by strong performances. Sean Connery plays Maj. Robert Dapes, sent to Havana to help Batista fight the revolutionary army, but he soon figures out that the revolution is clearly going to succeed. In the process, he meets Alexandra (Brooke Adams), an old flame now married to a philandering cigar factory owner.

I guess that overall, there's nothing here that we haven't seen before. But the way that they filmed it gives one the feeling of a society about to explode. Also starring Jack Weston, Hector Elizondo, Denholm Elliott, Martin Balsam, Chris Sarandon, Lonette McKee, and Alejandro Rey (aka Carlos Ramirez on "The Flying Nun"). Worth seeing.

One more thing that I have to ask is whether or not Sydney Pollack remade this as "Havana". The two movies don't have the exact same plots, but they're certainly pretty close.