A Estratégia do Caracol

I think it's a great movie. Sergio Cabrera shows another perspective of poverty while showing a funny point of view of a group of poor people fighting against a mafia man. Sergio shows that when people join they may get a relief from normal life and that's very important when you live in a poor country like colombia. Besides, The movie shows the whole thinking of poor people in many distinct areas like religion, loyalty, love, etc.

Well I enjoyed this movie is one of the best Colombian movies I saw, I dont agree with the guy from Canada, the important thing in this movie is the people and feelings, the characters are real, no special effects. Everything comes together at the end, its a good movie that shows the great courage of normal people, not Hollywood heroes with big guns.

I'm a foreigner who watched this movie to learn Spanish. I was specifically interested in a Colombian film because I've heard that the Colombian accent is very neutral and nice-sounding in Spanish, so I should try to learn speaking it like the Colombians.

-> The plot: not very interesting, but definitely revealed various problems that are a part of Latin American society.

-> Colombian culture: this movie taught me a lot about Colombian culture: what's right, what's wrong, how people live, what the govt.'s like, etc.

-> Spanish: I watched this movie with English subtitles, so I didn't learn many (if any) individual Spanish words, but I did learn about how it's generally spoken, the rhythm, the styles, and a lot of other stuff.

In short, this movie will not be very interesting to watch (especially if you're a foreigner), but it taught me a lot about the culture and was worth it.

HOWEVER, if you're interested in Colombian culture you need to remember that this movie was released more than two decades ago! Colombian culture and society has obviously changed a lot since then. So, remember that while watching it, obviously! Bon voyage!

'La estrategia del caracol' had an unexpected success in Colombia. The movie was on release at the end of december of 1994 and, suddenly, like a miracle, the film connected with the viewers, the critics and collected some money, something unusual in that country where Hollywood rubbish-films are box-office kings (sadly). Certainly, Cabrera's creation deserved that incredible viewer's support. His movie is a good polaroid of colombian people and their way of living. It shows us the efforts of a group of 'neighbours' trying to keep the only thing that they have got in their lives: their house, something that belongs to them but, legally, doesn't. They will have to work together, despite they don't like each other, in order to solve that problem. And they, as usually colombians do, will find a creative solution to keep that precious 'treasure'. That's what I think the movie is about. By using the intelligence, cooperation and a good dose of sacarsm poor people can defeat the rich-powerful guys. In this case, this modest colombian film defeated the Hollywood empire for several weeks. Of course the dream was so short...!

An excellent movie with a realistic magical story and great humor. It could well be the representation of a Gabriel Garcia Marquez story. I really recommend watching this movie. Sergio Cabrera does ana amazing job directing it and the cast is very good.