Marcadas para Morrer: A História de Sandra e Tammi Chase

It's another in the "Americans are never guilty" parade of films. The notion that US citizens are always duped victims in drug smuggling cases is naive at best. While they may not deliberately smuggle drugs in all cases, having worked in travel for many years I can declare that US citizens can be extremely gullible when abroad and equally gullible that "I'm a US citizen" immunizes them from local laws. This is a quite nicely predictable "US citizen unjustly imprisoned" film, and all the predictable people are evil and in league against the poor US citizen. That Americans are naive does not mean they are immune to legal consequences. "I was suckered" is too frequently heard abroad to serve as a defense. And being familiar with Ecuadorian government and law, I can say that they are not exactly the rampant fascists portrayed in this film

This film begins with a middle-aged woman named "Sandra Chase" (Barbara Hershey) being convinced by her adult daughter "Tammi Chase" (Rachael Leigh Cook) to take a vacation to Ecuador with her male companion "Nick Sakeris" (Vincent Irizarry). Having never been overseas, Sandra eventually acquiesces to her boyfriend, and they fly to Ecuador. Unfortunately, as they prepare to board their return flight, two bags of cocaine are found in Sandra's luggage and the two of them are imprisoned pending a trial for drug trafficking. The problem, however, is that the court system is quite slow in Ecuador and as a result Sandra soon finds herself alone in a foreign prison without any idea on whether she will ever be able to resume the life she once knew. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that whenever I see the words "based on a true story" applied to any American movie, I immediately begin to suspect that some key facts have been embellished out-of-proportion to the actual case at hand. It's what Hollywood does. That said, I have always tried to take everything with a grain of salt when watching movies of this sort. But that's just me. Even so, I still found the overall story to be quite riveting, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

I am Ecuadorian Citizen and I am very familiar, off course, with how towns look like, as well streets, people, jails, sceneries, laws, etc. The first fake things I watched like towns, music, people, the way people speaks Spanish, the horrendous inner jails world and legal system did move me to a scrutiny attitude; it's like watching a true history happened in the US and filmed in any other country. Americans would notice it immediately. I don't understand why, if the movie is related to a true history happened in Ecuador, why they had to film in a totally different locations? Everything in the "Ecuadorian" environment is Colombian. Perhaps someone could tell me that filming in Ecuador would be very dangerous, but that is not true once more. So it would be very smart and fair that the movie Productors made clear the year that this story happened, because right now at this very moment, Ecuador, a small country but one of the most beautiful in the whole world, is the home of thousands of retired Americans where they live happy. And I don't think they would stay there for 24 hours knowing the "inhumanity chaos" supposedly happening there. It's just to honor the people who suffered this terrible time, Ecuador and us, the spectators.

I am not from Ecuador, so cannot speak about its history, country or people, but I can tell you about this film and (US) films and programmes in general. If you want to a story and to get a feel of what happened to the Chase family, then it's worth the watch. This is a dramatisation of a story that actually happened, it will not be completely accurate if you want accuracy, but you get a good sense of what happened.

Sandra Chase was in a prison and if you know anything about prisons, most prisons are not pleasant places to be in no MATTER what country they are in. All prisons have their own rules. The warden and guards rules and then the prisoners' rules. I don't think she was in a minimum security prison either. She was not in the West as well and it was in the 1990s, where South American countries were seriously trying to reform the judicial system. So prisons were probably no bed of roses. Prisons are not supposed to be holiday camps after all.

I wrote a whole long list of programmes and films to explain this going back to Birth of a Nation (1915) to World Trade Center (2006) as examples of how film makers manipulated things and many films in between (this information was removed as it may have contained spoilers and makes this review even longer); but basically stories can be added to or characters added for dramatic effect and even changed; even though historians, focus groups, action groups, individuals and more object to the unrealistic portrayals. This has always been done and always will be done most likely, by American TV & film makers as well as others. As for things like the prison scenes, they were tame in my opinion from most other film and TV shows.

So, back to the story, here is where a previous poster did no one any favours by not watching the film till the end. Some of it addressing what was said in another review. At the end of the film are two important pieces of information including a history changing one which is probably why this film was made in the first place! One shows you exactly what the film has done with one of the actors (and the real people), if you look out for it, dramatic licence used in this case and another about an important fact. But the film makers are not there to tell the finer details, they are there to tell a story! If you want a true pure film and story, you best never watch a film or TV series again (as they will all have things added or taken away), unless it's a history programme, documentary or the news. This film told a story and you get to see it. It's a drama after all and if nothing else, it should teach everyone, to really know who they are travelling with and always keep an eye on your luggage!

I suggest you watch the film for yourself and, to the end, and then make up your own mind!

I am a divorced white male who can cook very well,like classical music, play the piano fairly well and am not an anti femi-nazi (ala Rush Limbaugh).

This film was engaging, especially since it was based upon a true story. Sandra Chase was the name of the lead character (portrayed by Barbara Hershey) in this film and, also, an X-rated film, 'Insatiable,' starring Marilyn Chambers. I prefer the latter.

Sandra explains to a nun that 'perhaps I am not a good person.' Perhaps she is just a person who cannot stand growing old. She ties up with a much younger, virile looking guy who speaks Spanish and takes off with him to Ecuador, hardly knowing him. The son and daughter think it's 'cool.' I knew a woman just like that, but she was only six months older than me. She wanted a pre-nup because her late husband left her with a $500K insurance policy and she didn't want to share the money with myself or her children, so I left her. Then, as she grew older, she felt lonely and married a much younger man who took her money. 'Vanity' is one of the seven capital sins and will come back to haunt one, although Sandra didn't deserve quite that much grief. Another reviewer, from Ecuador, stresses that the country is not as portrayed in the film. I believe her. No wonder other countries dislike the U.S.

Maybe, Sandra was right when she said '...perhaps I am not a good person.'