Re: [FairfieldLife] Andy Garcia's Cuba movie
In a message dated 5/2/06 1:26:53 A.M. Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I don't presume to the exalted position of a film critic. So I don't comment on the dramatic and cinematic criticisms made by these august critics. I'm not saying, or even implying, that The Lost City is a better movie than the Godfather II. I'm simply criticizing the critics on their criticism of The Lost City's historical accuracy. In these reviews we see – in all it's classic splendor – the Mainstream Media's thundering and apparently incurable stupidity on matters Cuban. I remember when I was a kid about 6, my father took our family and the family car on a boat trip to Cuba, around 1957. We stayed in the Havana Hilton, complete with bullet holes in the exterior. We had a wonderful time and were even able to drive through the countryside completely safe. I do remember a few police barricades that we occasionally had to drive through. As I recall Havana was a beautiful city and the people very friendly. I made friends with the hotel wait staff who used to bring me cherry cokes all the time. Unfortunately I was too young to fully appreciate such a trip, especially with the fate that Cuba suffered later. To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' SPONSORED LINKS Maharishi university of management Maharishi mahesh yogi Ramana maharshi YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS Visit your group "FairfieldLife" on the web. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Re: [FairfieldLife] Andy Garcia's Cuba movie
Having lived in south florida for 13 years and having gone to graduate school with many second generation Cubans who fled Fidel's revolution and having professors who taught in cuba before and after the revolution I have learned quite a bit about Che and Fidel and their revolution. I am in full agreement with Mr. Fontova. Fidel ruined that country. --- shempmcgurk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Movie Critics Aghast at Andy Garcia's The Lost City > by Humberto Fontova > > > Andy Garcia blew it big-time with his movie The Lost > City. He blew > it with the mainstream critics that is. Almost > unanimously, they're > ripping a movie 16 years in the making. In this > engaging drama of a > middle-class Cuban family crumbling during free > Havana's last days, > in which he both directs and stars, Garcia insisted > on depicting > some historical truth about Cuba � a grotesque and > unforgivable > blunder in his industry. He's now paying the price. > > Earlier, many film festivals refused to screen it. > Now many Latin > American countries refuse to show it. The film's > offenses are many > and varied. Most unforgivable of all, Che Guevara is > shown killing > people in cold blood. Who ever heard of such > nonsense? And just > where does this uppity Andy Garcia get the > effrontery to portray > such things? The man obviously doesn't know his > place. > > And just where did Garcia get this preposterous > notion of pre-Castro > Cuba as a relatively prosperous but politically > troubled place, they > ask? All the Cubans he portrays seem middle class? > Where in his > movie is the tsunami of stooped and starving > peasants that carried > Fidel and Che into Havana on it's crest, they ask? > Where's all those > diseased and illiterate laborers and peasants my > professors, Dan > Rather, CNN and Oliver Stone told me about, ask the > critics? > > Garcia � that cinematic bomb-thrower � has seriously > jolted the > Mainstream Media's fantasies and hallucinations of > pre-Castro Cuba, > of Che, of Fidel, and of Cubans in general. In > consequence, the > critics are unnerved and disoriented. Their > annoyance and scorn is > spewing forth in review after review. > > Garcia blew it. If only his characters had spoken > with accents like > John Belushi's as a Saturday Night Live Killer Bee! > If only they'd > dressed like The Three Amigos! If only they'd > behaved like Cheech > and Chong! If only they'd mimicked the mannerisms > and gait of > Freddie Prinze in Chico and the Man! If only the > women had piled a > roadside fruit stand on their head like Carmen > Miranda in Road to > Rio! If only the cast had looked like the little guy > who handles my > luggage when I visit Cancun! Or the guys who do my > lawn! Everybody > knows that's what Hispanics look like! > > If only masses of Cubans had been shown toiling in > salt mines like > Spartacus, or picking crops like Tom Joad or getting > lashed by a > vicious landlord like Kunta Kinte, or hustling for a > living like > Ratso Rizzo! > > "In a movie about the Cuban revolution, we almost > never see any of > the working poor for whom the revolution was > supposedly > fought,"sniffs Peter Reiner in The Christian Science > Monitor. The > Lost City misses historical complexity." > > Actually what's missing is Mr. Reiner's historical > knowledge. Andy > Garcia and screenwriter Guillermo Cabrera Infante > knew full well > that "the working poor" had no role in the stage of > the Cuban > Revolution shown in the movie. The Anti-Batista > rebellion was led > and staffed overwhelmingly by Cuba's middle � and > especially, upper � > class. To wit: in August of 1957 Castro's rebel > movement called for > a "National Strike" against the Batista dictatorship > � and > threatened to shoot workers who reported to work. > The "National > Strike" was completely ignored. > > Another was called for April 9, 1958. And again > Cuban workers blew a > loud and collective raspberry at their "liberators," > reporting to > work en masse. > > "Garcia's tale bemoans the loss of easy wealth for a > precious few," > harrumphs Michael Atkinson in The Village Voice. > "Poor people are > absolutely absent; Garcia and Infante seem to have > thought that > peasant revolutions happen for no particular > reason�or at least no > reason the moneyed 1 percent should have to worry > about." > > What's "absolutely absent" is Mr Atkinson's > knowledge about the Cuba > Garcia depicts in his movie. His crack about that > "moneyed 1 per > cent," and especially his "peasant revolution" > epitomize the clich�d > idiocies still parroted by the chattering classes > about Cuba. > > "The impoverished masses of Cubans who embraced > Castro as a > liberator appear only in grainy, black-and-white > news clips," snorts > Stephen Holden in The New York Times. "Political > dialogue in the > film is strictly of the junior high school variety.
[FairfieldLife] Andy Garcia's Cuba movie
Movie Critics Aghast at Andy Garcia's The Lost City by Humberto Fontova Andy Garcia blew it big-time with his movie The Lost City. He blew it with the mainstream critics that is. Almost unanimously, they're ripping a movie 16 years in the making. In this engaging drama of a middle-class Cuban family crumbling during free Havana's last days, in which he both directs and stars, Garcia insisted on depicting some historical truth about Cuba a grotesque and unforgivable blunder in his industry. He's now paying the price. Earlier, many film festivals refused to screen it. Now many Latin American countries refuse to show it. The film's offenses are many and varied. Most unforgivable of all, Che Guevara is shown killing people in cold blood. Who ever heard of such nonsense? And just where does this uppity Andy Garcia get the effrontery to portray such things? The man obviously doesn't know his place. And just where did Garcia get this preposterous notion of pre-Castro Cuba as a relatively prosperous but politically troubled place, they ask? All the Cubans he portrays seem middle class? Where in his movie is the tsunami of stooped and starving peasants that carried Fidel and Che into Havana on it's crest, they ask? Where's all those diseased and illiterate laborers and peasants my professors, Dan Rather, CNN and Oliver Stone told me about, ask the critics? Garcia that cinematic bomb-thrower has seriously jolted the Mainstream Media's fantasies and hallucinations of pre-Castro Cuba, of Che, of Fidel, and of Cubans in general. In consequence, the critics are unnerved and disoriented. Their annoyance and scorn is spewing forth in review after review. Garcia blew it. If only his characters had spoken with accents like John Belushi's as a Saturday Night Live Killer Bee! If only they'd dressed like The Three Amigos! If only they'd behaved like Cheech and Chong! If only they'd mimicked the mannerisms and gait of Freddie Prinze in Chico and the Man! If only the women had piled a roadside fruit stand on their head like Carmen Miranda in Road to Rio! If only the cast had looked like the little guy who handles my luggage when I visit Cancun! Or the guys who do my lawn! Everybody knows that's what Hispanics look like! If only masses of Cubans had been shown toiling in salt mines like Spartacus, or picking crops like Tom Joad or getting lashed by a vicious landlord like Kunta Kinte, or hustling for a living like Ratso Rizzo! "In a movie about the Cuban revolution, we almost never see any of the working poor for whom the revolution was supposedly fought,"sniffs Peter Reiner in The Christian Science Monitor. The Lost City misses historical complexity." Actually what's missing is Mr. Reiner's historical knowledge. Andy Garcia and screenwriter Guillermo Cabrera Infante knew full well that "the working poor" had no role in the stage of the Cuban Revolution shown in the movie. The Anti-Batista rebellion was led and staffed overwhelmingly by Cuba's middle and especially, upper class. To wit: in August of 1957 Castro's rebel movement called for a "National Strike" against the Batista dictatorship and threatened to shoot workers who reported to work. The "National Strike" was completely ignored. Another was called for April 9, 1958. And again Cuban workers blew a loud and collective raspberry at their "liberators," reporting to work en masse. "Garcia's tale bemoans the loss of easy wealth for a precious few," harrumphs Michael Atkinson in The Village Voice. "Poor people are absolutely absent; Garcia and Infante seem to have thought that peasant revolutions happen for no particular reasonor at least no reason the moneyed 1 percent should have to worry about." What's "absolutely absent" is Mr Atkinson's knowledge about the Cuba Garcia depicts in his movie. His crack about that "moneyed 1 per cent," and especially his "peasant revolution" epitomize the clichéd idiocies still parroted by the chattering classes about Cuba. "The impoverished masses of Cubans who embraced Castro as a liberator appear only in grainy, black-and-white news clips," snorts Stephen Holden in The New York Times. "Political dialogue in the film is strictly of the junior high school variety." It's Holden's education on the Cuban Revolution that's of the "junior high school variety." Actually it's Harvard Graduate School variety. Many more imbecilities about Cuba are heard in Ivy league classrooms than in any rural junior high school. "It fails to focus on the poverty-stricken workers whose plight lit the fires of revolution," complains Rex Reed in the New York Observer. You're better off attempting rational discourse with the Flat-Earth Society but nonetheless I'll try to dispel the fantasies of pre- Castro Cuba still cherished by America's most prestigious academics and its most learned film critics. I'll even stay away from those "crackpots" and "hotheads"
