Cabo Blanco

A big fan of j lee thompson and charles bronson i found this movie worth a watch. its very layed back and old school like a visit to your folks.its south American local and tropic feel was a real plus and Charley was in in good form.but thompson was slumming it a bit,maybe enjoying the sun to much.the pace was slow even for this sort of film.

i think i could of enjoyed it more if the copy i had was any good, but it is poor with only the widescreen formate save it from being unwatchable. it is such a rare movie that i was happy enough to see it at all.

if you enjoy 70's style movies and gumshoe movies give it a go its good late night fodder.

This is very slickly made film which sadly doesn't have a good reputation or a decent widescreen release. The camera-work on the film is excellent with much moving camera a great score and good locations.

The odd thing is the bursts of full frontal nudity and one really graphic death scene. These seem to be included for fans of Bronson's gritty films but seem totally out of place here.

Sondra is dull as usual. Bronson solid. Robards doesn't seem to want to be bothered by doing a German accent. It has real visual sweep. Odd rather forced voice over which seems to be trying to set this up for a sequel perhaps at the end.

Despite these forced elements--of violence, nudity,and nostalgia--the bulk of the film works as a mystery and intrigue--rather than say action. One of the few of director Thompson's later films that really hearken back to his early Hollywood career of sweeping location quasi epics.

The ending builds suspense only to pay it off in an offbeat--and perhaps off putting way for some. Jerry Goldsmith contributes a fantastic score too, btw.

Deserves more respect and proper restoration than it gets especially among the later career of Bronson. In fact, as a bit of an update a blu ray of the film does now exist, you can see and enjoy the widescreen phototgraphy to it's full impact. The blu ray also includes a well made making-of-film done at the time, by one of Gregory Peck's children, no less!

An inkeeper : Charles Bronson and an assortment of misfit characters are searching for a nazi treasure with unexpected consequences. This variety of other characters include an ex Nazi officer : Jason Robards , a mysterious French woman : Dominique Sanda , a suspect police chief : Fernando Rey , an adventurer : Simon MacCorkindale , among others .All of them assemble in Peru after WWII and everyone shares a common interest : to find a missing treasure of gold , lost in a ship wreck.

This is an adventure, thriller, suspense movie full of flaws and gaps , dealing with a motley group searching for a Nazi loot sunken off the coast of Peru. The plot sounds familiar as the film results to be a very inferior crossover between Casablanca and The treasure of Sierra Madre , taking parts here and there . Average screenplay by Victor Andres Catena and Jaime Comas Gil with plenty of twists and turns .The main and support cast is frankly excellent though really wasted , giving mediocre interpretations. Bronson plays in his usual wooden style a tough and two-fisted bartender who runs the local watering hole ; Dominique Sanda is a beautiful woman searching for his lover ; Jason Robards plays a nasty Nazi who controls the townsfolk and the police chief well performed by Fernando Rey . Here appears an important plethora of secondary actors as Gilbert Roland , Camila Sparv , Simon MacCorkindale , Clifton James , Anna De Sade and brief appearance by the Spanish Aldo Sambrell . Atmospheric cinematograhy by the Mexican Alex Phillips , being necessary a perfect remastering because of film copy is washed-out. Adequate and sunny scenarios by the expert production designer Jaime Perez Cubero. Evocative musical score by Jerry Goldsmith , but far from his great soundtracks.

The motion picture was regularly directed by J.Lee Thompson . Lee made various Charles Bronson vehicles , both of them got some successes , working in titles as St Ives, White Buffalo , Ten to midnight, Death Wish the crackdown , The evil that men do, Murphy Law , Messenger of death , Kinjite forbidden subjects and this Cabo Blanco . Thompson's greatest hit was Navarone guns as well as MacKenna gold . Rating : 4.5/10 . Mediocre , though the movie will appeal to Charles Bronson fans

Director J. Lee Thompson and actor Charles Bronson always made an interesting team, and this particular effort was the last one I needed to see. Compared with most of their collaborations in the 80s, this is a diamond in the rough and quite an off-kilter, old-fashion adventure / mystery story that sets out to be intriguing and creates a nice feel of the times, than anything relying on Bronson handing out nasty punishment. Well on that point, the violence when it does eventuate is surprisingly brutal, if quick and too the point. When it happens, it comes from nowhere. However Bronson is given a chance to spread his wings, and act with confidence and stalwart appeal. It's a terrifically surly, down-played performance by Chuck in a suitable heroine role. Working off Bronson is a tremendously solid cast. Jason Robards' is subtly powerful in a fine turn and Fernando Rey's sly style always amuses. Dominique Sanda displays a potently classy presence. The support cast rounding it off are just as good with Simon Mac Corkindale, Dennis Millar, Clifton James and Camilla Sparv.

Looming from the presentation is a film-noir tone, and I don't really get the 'Casablanca' references (from it being a rip-off to an unfunny spoof) made about it. There's no denying it's rather talky though, but the script is involving and smartly weaved together. This works due to the screenplay having a busy (if muddled) plot and still keeping a breezy (almost brooding) air to it. Some contrived, and convenient actions occur, and the drama can seem a little uncertain. But it never becomes a worry. Also how they used the breathtakingly erotic Mexican backdrop in the action was accordingly staged and well-framed. Talk about nice sight seeing. The swirling, wide-screen camera-work had that ability to capture that organic sense of place, although the underwater shots came off terribly murky. Thompson's direction is undoubtedly workman-like, slow and effective on a much larger scale, despite the dreary look to its visual styling. Jerry Goldsmith's rousing melancholic score is picture-perfect. Everything boils up to an thrilling climax, as the calmness makes way for a stormy (literally) confrontations of two men, who share something in common, but how they go about things are entirely different. They have a past they like to forget, and this is their chance for that to happen and put away that lingering fear of something catching up.

One of Bronson's interestingly obscure oddities, which unjustly flopped and deserves an audience.

p.s I would love to see a good DVD print of this film, because the grainy VHS copy I rented doesn't do it any justice.

Cabo Blanco (1980)

** (out of 4)

Peru, 1948 is the setting for this adventure film about a group of criminals living in Cabo Blanco. A bar owner (Charles Bronson) finds himself caught up in a mystery dealing with missing gold, which includes a beautiful woman (Dominique Sanda) searching for her husband, a Nazi war criminal (Jason Robards) and a crooked police chief (Fernando Rey).

CABO BLANCO is often laughed at because it's considered a rip-off of CASABLANCA. While this film does borrow heavily from that classic picture, the overall movie isn't nearly as bad as its reputation. At the same time, I really have to scratch my head as to why the producers would call the film CABO BLANCO because with that title you just know people were going to compare it to a much better film. It didn't really matter how this movie turned out, the odds of it being better than that Humphrey Bogart classic was very slim so why put your film in a bad position from the word go?

As for the film itself, it's slight entertainment, although there's no question that there are plenty of flaws throughout. I think the biggest problem is the actual screenplay, which has way too much story and at times it gets rather bogged down in dialogue. The story itself could have been more interesting had there simply not be so many characters talking about so many different things. I know the film had some production issues so perhaps this might explain some of this but at just 87 minutes it seems like there's way too much story here than is needed.

The film has some terrific visuals and especially if you view the film in its original 2.35:1 ratio. The locations are certainly beautiful and adds a lot to the story. The performances really aren't that bad either. Robards is entertaining as always and I thought Rey was extremely good in the role of the police chief. I thought Sanda made for a good femme fetale as well. As for Bronson, this isn't his typical tough guy role. This character is a lot more of a "normal" person so to speak and I thought the actor did a fine job with it.

CABO BLANCO also suffers from some weird issues in regards to content. There's really no profanity and the violence is never too graphic or brutal. These elements are certain PG worthy yet there is all sorts of nudity that pushes it pass the family friendly rating. I'm not sure why they added on the nudity but nothing else but oh well. In the end CABO BLANCO is neither good nor bad but just pointless.