Noriega : L'Élu de Dieu

It is hard to find a person who is both extremely evil and at the same time funny. Well Noriega was it. He was basically a walking-parody of every dictator the world has ever known. He was so mad many of the things he said and did were funny (in a black comedy sort of way). He was so evil anyone could write a book out of all the horrors he committed during the years he ruled over Panama. And strangely, his luck ended only after he was finally apprehended.

Usually, movies based in real-life events often fail to be accurate. Well, in this movie, even the uniforms worn by the military were exact replicas of the real thing. And Noriega did have a picture of Hitler in his office. And he did have a statue of the Virgin Mary next to it. And he was a vegetarian. Also a voodoo priest. And the people who tried to overthrow him made the mistake of leaving him alone in his office as the movie shows. Everything you see in this movie happened more or less. The real Noriega said some of the crazy things you can hear in this film. He did the horrors you see in this movie and even more. He survived two coups, Colombian cartels and an American invasion of Panama.

This movie basically has it all. It is a black comedy, a violent drama, and it gives you the chance to get a glimpse of a part of history most people have forgotten. Excellent performance by Bob Hoskins. Lawrence Wright did an excellent job with the script. This movie never fails to entertain, educate and at the same time bring to life a very enigmatic and dark person: Tony Noriega.

Those expecting "Noriega: God's Favorite" to be a serious docudrama, biopic, or history lesson will likely be disappointed to find its representation of the reign of Noriega as Panama's evil thug dictator to be an embellished and peculiar mix of tongue-in-cheek drama and dark comedy which is surprisingly sympathetic to the title character. With the Philippines standing in for Panama much better than Hoskins standing in for the squat, pockmarked Noriega, the film goes off tangentially with seemingly little purpose save entertaining. The latter it appears to accomplish well in spite of it's made-for-tv low-budgetness and theatrical execution. Worth a look for those who don't mind filmdom playing with serious matters of history. (B-)

this movie here about Noriega i have to say is very good, I was born and raised in Panama, and I believe that this movie does not portray the life of Noriega like it really should be, I think that they needed to do a bit more research in order have made a better movie.

The truth is, I have not seen this movie. But I wanted to write something because all the reviews I've seen of this movie so far seem to miss an extremely critical point. This movie is based on a book, which was a fictionalized account of the fall of Noriega, titled "God's Favorite." That book is one of my best-loved reads. It's not at all supposed to be a truthful recounting of the actual events, it's a dark comedy loosely based on fact. If you watch this movie thinking it's serious, I have no doubt you will be disappointed. If you approach this movie knowing it's a comedy, maybe you'll have better luck. Then again, if you still don't like it, maybe try looking up the book sometime. Based on my great experience with the book, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie sometime soon. (I didn't even know there was a movie made until I went hunting for a review of the book to share with friends.)

The best of the film is the performance of Hoskins as Noriega although the life of the dictator shown here is partially an invention, particularly in the scenes where Noriega does things brutally. The success is that this movies clearly showed who created Noriega, dictator, his links with the Irangate and antisandinistas in Nicaragua, his deal with the drug cartels, and others. The film also tries to indicate some involvement of Noriega in the assassination of Torrijos.