Tropico de Sangre

This is the second Dominican film I've seen. The other one was Sanky Panky. I think in three years or so Dominican cinema has somewhat improved: I liked the photography and the music. Nothing to say about them, they were quite good.

Unfortunately, there was a huge amount of things I did not like: - Acting was very very bad. Trujillo looked more like a clown than a dictator. Soap Opera style acting indeed.

• Screenplay: Full of holes, unarticulated, slow as hell, too much into details of the initial situation, not enough of the really critical ones. The best friend of a good screenplay writer is the delete key. Delancer's computer may not have one.

• Details, details, details: Parties that does not feel like ones, body-building Minerva, lots of clichés that the Dominican directors tends to include in films just as promotion of the country: baile de palos, serenatas...

My general feeling was that the film did not present the real things but kind of a caricature of them.

An excellent movie about Mirabal Sisters.I found it a little bit crude and violent, but necessary to express the violence of Latin American dictatorship in the 50s. The cinematography by Ricardo de Angelis expresses the beauty of the Dominican Republic countryside and at the same time the sadness of the people under Trujillo's power. Editor Nelson Rodriguez made a good job as usual. We are not used to see actress Michelle Rodriguez in this type of character and we were surprised by its very fine and poetic Spanish. Cesar Evora as Antonio de La Maza is impressive as the macho that finally killed Trujillo. What I preferred of this movie is how the story is told and how the dramatic process fits the real historic facts.

The history of Dictator Rafael Leonides Trujillo's regime in the Dominican Republic is extremely compelling. It is a subject that shocked and captivated readers in Julia Alvarez's book, In the Time of the Butterflies, which was advertised as a fictionalized account of the Mirabal sisters' struggle against the evil dictator. Tropico de Sangre was advertised more as "based on the true story." However, it felt like I was watching a Lifetime movie or Univision soap opera. The focus seemed to be more on romanticizing a steadfast woman who wasn't going to let a powerful man push her around (constant proud references to how stubborn she was, and how she refused to do simple things like write an apology letter, even at the expense of members of her family), than telling the story of a brave and intelligent revolutionary who risked everything because she felt she had little choice. Rodriguez's character comes across like she likes to fight, and battles Trujillo just to show him he can't mess with her. There was not enough buildup in the beginning as to why Trujillo is so terrible, or why Minerva hates him so much in the beginning (although he certainly gives her good reason later). Also, it is a bit ridiculous how powerful the film makes her seem from the outset, defying Trujillo so openly that he spends years personally tracking her life and frustrated whenever she succeeds; if she was that much in the forefront in his mind, the real Trujillo would have had her eliminated/neutralized a long time ago, as he did with so many others who did less to him. I also disliked the poor, cheapy quality of the score/soundtrack.

On a final note, the actors did a good job overall. I don't know enough about Trujillo to gauge whether Fernandez accurately portrayed him, but he sure as hell made you hate him and his God complex. Ironically, I felt that the weakest performance came from the biggest name. At first, I thought that maybe Rodriguez seemed a bit awkward because she was doing a Spanish-language film (this can be a tough task for someone who is used to starring in English films, even if she is a native speaker). However, as the film progressed, and her character developed, I realized that I only like Rodriguez in tough-chick roles; it's like she only has one gear. As an innocent, happy girl with dream-filled eyes, Rodriguez's performance seemed forced, but as soon as Minerva's character had developed into a confident, hardened revolutionary, Rodriguez hit her full stride again, igniting the fire in her eyes and setting her jaw in a defiant way at just the right times.

I watched this for Michelle Rodriguez, and hope she had fun making it, because it was not fun watching. Production standards are lower than TV, giving the movie the feel of an after-school special or soap opera. I suppose that's normal for Latin America, but why anyone would watch this is mystifying, as it seems written for elementary schoolers, yet contains brutal torture scenes that are the only half-effective part of the film because of this naive and amateurish ambiance. We learn that heroic main characters will die, and the film proceeds to tell the story of how they do hardly anything, are pushed around, and finally do nothing as they are killed. Even if you are used to this poor quality and have a stake in the history, movie film is pointless. Worse than pointless because the myth of the Mirabals seems mostly to be fetishizing their sex rather than their revolutionary principles.

I first came upon the stories about Trujillo in The Galíndez File. There he conspired with an equally evil man, Francisco Franco, to eliminate the competition. In face they showed part of that story in this film.

All fascist dictators are basically the same. They rule by fear and eliminate any opposition. They take what they want, and, in this case, Trujillo wanted Minerva Mirabal (Michelle Rodriguez).

She wanted nothing to do with him, else we wouldn't have a story. Naturally, her life, and the life of her family, were at risk due to her obstinacy.

The pacing of the film was rather slow, and the performances were wooden. I came to see Michelle Rodriguez, and turned in a credible performance.