Cuba

Although a trivial matter in regards to the plot, the film opens and a date (1959) appears on the screen. Given that Castro entered Havana on New Year's Day, 1959 and Battista had already fled Cuba on December 31, 1958, the events that transpire in the movie could hardly have occurred in 1959.

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.

There's something about Cuba, just ninety minutes south of Key West in Florida, and its revolution at the end of the 1950s that has fascinated filmmakers and artists. Perhaps because it marked the end of an era for American interests in the country or how it set the stage for some of the major Cold War confrontations of the decade that followed, including the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs and the dramatic events of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Whatever the case, director Richard Lester would be one of those who brought their lens to bear exploring it with this 1979 film.

The film's focus, as much as it had one, would be on a former British army major turned mercenary, hired by the toppling Batista government to help deal with their guerilla insurgency. Who better to play Major Dapes than Sean Connery? Connery brings a sense of both presence and world-weariness to the part, a man who comes to do a job only to be surrounded by fools and a chance to rekindle an old flame. Wandering between exasperation, earnestness, and hope for love, it's arguably one of Connery's most underrated performances and one that deserves more attention.

Backing Connery was a large supporting cast, perhaps too large. Brooke Adams plays the old flame Alexandra that seemingly conflicted object of desire whose motives are as elusive to viewers as she is to Major Dapes. More understandable as a character, if far less sympathetic, is Chris Sarandon as her playboy and womanizing husband, blowing money and sleeping his way around. From there, the cast features character actors is ranging from Jack Weston's slimy American businessman to Martin Balsam as the corrupt blowhard of a Cuban general who hires Connery and Denholm Elliott as a fellow British ex-pat flying for anyone with money. There are some notable then up-and-comers in the cast from Hector Elizondo's as Connery's Cuban military escort to Roger Lloyd-Pack as a Cuban revolutionary. While the film is guilty of too much casting of white actors as Cubans, it's full of good actors in parts that too often aren't enough for them to use to the utmost of their talents and seem to wander in and out of the plot without reason.

Mentioning the way characters wander in and out of the film brings us to something that is both a strength and weakness of it. Under both Lester's direction and at the pen of screenwriter Charles Wood, this is a kaleidoscope of a film. One that takes us from the streets, hotels, and clubs of Havanna into the factories and plantations of the countryside. From the strip shows of Louisa Moritz's Miss Wonderly to a group of guerillas and the ex-pats taking advantage of it all, the various strata of Cuban society teetering on edge ready to fall are on display. Thanks to a mix of location filming in Spain, sets, and costumes, it's also vividly presented. Full of both borderline poverty and decay mixed with decadent excess and splendor, and ripe for a change that was perhaps inevitable.

The problem is that it also means the film never comes together. In an ideal world, or maybe with some slight editing, Cuba would flow together as a series of interconnected events, the tale of disparate people who wander in and out of each other's lives. Instead, and where the blame lies isn't clear, the film feels like the scripts for several different ones tossed together. Or like an anthology of short stories linked together without enough connective tissue. Combined with dialogue that can border the cliche at times and downright wooden in others, it knocks the whole work down a few rungs.

Cuba then remains an intriguing but flawed piece of work. So many of its elements, from Connery's performance to its location and kaleidoscope view, work so well. Yet it's scope is in some ways too wide, with no one and nothing well-defined enough to come entirely into focus. Nevertheless, as a portrait of a time and place, Lester's Cuba works far better than it does as a drama and remains watchable even with its flaws.

There are a number of links between this film and the James Bond movies.

As well as the obvious presence of Sean Connery, we have Walter Gotell who played Morzeny in "From Russia with Love" and then played General Anatol Gogol in 5 Bond films as well as the "James Bond Jr" TV series.

In addition, the Spanish city of Cadiz in Andalucia was used for much of the location shooting - a location which also doubled as Cuba in "Die Another Day".

Aside from that, the film creates a wonderfully atmospheric impression of a regime on its last legs, attempting the resist the seemingly inevitable regime change sought by the rebels.

Not a great film but perfectly watchable (even if I did find myself looking out for familiar Andalucian scenery as much as following the plot!).

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...