Sweet Country

Michael Cacoyannis closely choreographs the movements of actors in his films and this, in conjunction with his script for this flabbily constructed work, sadly gives the piece a lightweight feel, inappropriately distanced from the genuine citizenry for whom he purportedly feels sympathy, the entire film therefore going down to artistic defeat, not aided by unsuitable casting. Based upon a novel by American Caroline Richards, the setting is Chile in 1973 directly following the assassination of Marxist president Salvador Allende, when General Augusto Pinochet's military cartel, with United States backing, took over from the elected government, the action following events in the lives of a married upper case American expatriate couple, the Willings, and their close friends the Arayas, a Chilean family from the class of moneyed interests. Although highly dramatic socio-political circumstances form a strong background for the storyline, numerous psychosexual relationships among the characters occupy most of the director's attention, and although humiliating treatment of some women at the hands of Pinochet troops provides melodramatic interest, a viewer might wonder at the lack of any attempt to develop insights into the background of a situation that tore the nation apart, impacting the working class native population largely ignored by Cacoyannis. Shot in Greece, the film benefits from able camera-work, but some wayward casting, notably that of Randy Quaid as a goatish army corporal whose risible attempt at speaking Hispanic flavoured English provides one of many elements of the affair that one will prefer not to remember; Franco Nero is the most effective player at handling the stilted dialogue. A harshly cut 120 minute version has been distributed and is best avoided, since it only serves to increase the incoherence rife within this unsatisfying venture.

It's a great shame that this historically significant film is so obscure - it currently has only two reviews, which, unfortunately, miss the point of the the story! This is a devastating and historically accurate tale about what happens when fascism violently comes to power by overthrowing a democratically elected government. And this film gets personal! Anyone who has ever been a political activist will have shivers going up their spine while watching this poignant masterpiece! What's more disturbing is that events happen so fast, it's very hard to process the experience! Disbelief and denial of the magnitude of what is happening interferes with one's ability to make the appropriate decisions. Keep in mind making the wrong decision may cost you your life, or that of a family member. What makes it even more alarming is the realization that given the right set of circumstances, no democracy, including the United States, is immune to a violent fascist overthrow!

While I did not experience the violent overthrow of Salvador Allende's government, I knew someone who was an eye-witness to General Pinochet's crimes while living in Santiago, Chile's capital. This person, who happened to be a Nun, was lucky. She was an American citizen, and a member of a religious order, and was allowed to evacuate to the United States. But before she left, she witnessed the death and destruction first hand! To her, and hundreds of thousands people like her, this was not an abstract experience of watching a movie in the safety of one's home!

Randy Quaid, as has been noted elsewhere, had not been cast as a Chilean military man. What the other reviewer didn't mention was that Quaid's acting coach must have been the Frito Bandito. His accent is right out of Central Casting, Latino Division. His whole performance took away any credibility this film might have had up to that point. In a film this serious, the last thing one expects is a character whose accent is so off-the-wall as to throw the whole film off track. From the time he first appears and starts talking, they could have changed the name of the film to "National Lampoon's Political Assassination Movie." Sometimes it really does take just one apple to spoil the whole bunch.