La fiesta del Chivo

For Dominicans who lived Trujillo's oppressive tyranny, the film, as well as the novel, depicts thoroughly the essence of the regime's cruelty and the human degradation of the period. It is a MUST for Dominicans younger generations. Aside of these historical items, I consider the film well achieved, a thriller in the best sense of the expression, well acted,mainly by supporting cast. I understand thou, that because of the nature of the theme, it could no be not well understood by audiences outside Latin America, especially by moviegoers that prefer another kind of trendy violence, sex and special effects film-making. I am sorry to disagree with voters that give this picture such a low 5 punctuation

"La Fiesta del Chivo" is a startling look at the long-running dictatorship of Leonidas Trujillo (1930-1961)in Republica Dominicana, seen through the eyes of one of his youngest victims. The delightful Isabella Rosselini plays Uranita, the long lost child that wanders back home thirty years after fleeing. In a series of flashbacks we see the country where she spent her early days, the dangers and horrors of a tyranny she couldn't possibly understand and the haunting reasons why she fled. Tomas Milian convincingly plays the lewd dictator with all his whims, coarseness and vanity. Paul Freeman is at his best playing Uranita's widowed father, Agustín Cabral, lifelong aide to the strongman and a staunch prop of the regime. A street scene depicts a lighted "ad" placed outdoors which reads "Dios y Trujillo", ominously summing up all the terror of a Third World tyranny.

I think The Feast of The Goat is a very good film, of course always taking into account that it is an adaptation of the novel by Mario Vargas Llosa, it is not a documentary, which means that not all the facts presented in the movie are real, some come from the imagination of the author. It you want to know what is real and what is not, then investigate about the Dominican history. This movie is a sad and interesting story of a woman that went through the same that many other women did in that time where the Dominican Republic belonged to Rafael Trujillo the Dictator for 30 years, they also show the atmosphere of fear and lack of respect for the human rights. The movie is located in the last years of the period so we can see the conspiracy to kill him, and the facts that leaded those people to do it. The performances of Tomas Milian as Trujillo and Stephanie Leonidas as young Urania were very convincing. The costumes were good but some of the ones Tomas Millian wears are big for him and it is very obvious. Isabella Rosellini is OK nothing to be remembered, she just does the job.

I am a Dominican, and it's always good to see movies that are about facts from my country. I was waiting for this movie, everybody knows the book it's already a classic, Trujillo's era it's one of the bloodiest of all the dictators-ships that Latin America has suffer. Well, this movie is based on the book of the same name, but it's very difficult to top the book's magic in a two hours film. It's not a bad movie, but it's not what should have been. Nice cinematography in some scenes but the director fails in portray to us the strongest side of the characters. I give the movie a 6 out of 10, cause anyways, it's a good approach to the book, and the people that doesn't know about this story, i recommend this movie as the best out there about Trujillo and his "nasty" regime.

Don't believe that because I am Peruvian as Luis LLosa or Mario Vargas Llosa I am going to clap their work without criticism. Other movies of the first and some books of the second are not likable to me. In this case I have to say this is for me, a great book adaptation (ok, maybe some characters and scenes where eliminated, but imagine how much should have last the movie if not). And also the cast was well elected. The movie is a political history thriller, that refers to a Latin American real era, and has to photograph it as perfect as can. The other part, Urania's history is a psychological drama history, and it can be shocking, but the idea is that it has to be; it is the history of a trauma post raping, and it's consequences in family and personal life. I think the movie is well guided and the two parallel histories are well related. But I have to say that sometimes it was a little difficult to follow context, most in the scenes of the car.