Cuba
Tags: satire

Plot synopsis:
The film's sense of historical accuracy is marred by the opening scene which shows an airliner landing in Havana with the wrong date ("1959") superimposed on the screen. It should read "1958", the last year of the revolution. Cuban President Batista fled the capital on New Year's Day 1959, one week before Fidel Castro and his guerrillas entered Havana.
Former British Major Robert Dapes (Sean Connery) arrives in Cuba under General Bello's (Martin Balsam) orders to train the Cuban army to resist Fidel Castro's revolt. Before he even begins his task, he encounters an old flame, Alexandra Lopez de Pulido (Brooke Adams), whom he repeatedly pursues. The plot winds around the tremendous wealth of the Cuban leaders, the mainly American tourists with their seemingly endless money, the poverty-stricken and ex-urban slums where many Cubans live, and the rum and cigar factory owned by Alexandra's selfish husband Juan Pulido (Chris Sarandon) and managed by Alexandra.
When Alexandra's husband takes her out and expects her to drink with a potential (factory) investor and his prostitute, she leaves the restaurant and encounters Robert. Furious with her husband, she spends time with Robert, reminiscing about their affair in North Africa (when she was 15 and he was 30). They go to a motel and make love. They care for one another, but Robert will not stay in Cuba.
The following day the Cuban workers strike, including those in Alex's factory. Robert is taken captive by several Cuban rebels which lead an attack against a military facility. Robert escapes, and alienated with the corrupt Cuban government that he has come to loath, aids the rebels in defeating the government troops. Alex watches events pass by, believing life will soon return to normal. Robert begs her to leave, either to be with him or simply to escape Cuba. She refuses. Alex's husband, Juan, is killed by the same Cuban rebel who staked Robert throughout the film.
In the final scene of the film, Robert, not seeing Alex at the airport, boards the plane to escape with other foreigners. Meanwhile, Alex is present, outside the fence, weeping as she watches Robert board the plane. Robert and most of the other American, British, and wealthy Cubans flee from Cuba as Fidel comes to power while Alex remains behind, alone, to face an unknown future under the new communist government.

Review: The cameras were rolling on the players before the final script was done and the results clearly show it.Cuba as a film certainly had potential, but it's not realized in this story.
Sean Connery plays a British mercenary who is going to go to work for the tottering Batista regime.
He's found an old flame in Brooke Adams who is married to wealthy Cuban cigar factory owner Chris Sarandon.As a film Cuba veers back and forth between an action adventure, a political tract, and a romance novel, never really settling in any one category.
Best performance in the film is that of Jack Weston who plays the archetypal ugly American.It's a sad film Cuba, because it had the potential to be a whole lot better..
Sean Connery stars as a free British counter-terrorist whom Batista's associates hope will help them beat Castro's revolutionaries...Connery quickly figures out, almost as soon as he landed in the exotic and dangerous island, that the revolution will succeed and replace one elite with another...
Now she is Alexandra Pulido (Brooke Adams), a highly ambitious woman who runs a cigar factory while her husband flirts with other women...Chris Sarandon is the profligate son of one of Cuba's wealthiest men, and the charming playboy in the romantic triangle who knows everything about Havana, 'every casino, every table, and every bed in it!' Martin Balsam is the general in the corrupt Batista regime, who intends to ask Castro to 'get rid of the Communists.'Hector Elizondo is the junior officer who realizes late in life why few were sorry about the fall of Batista...
In 'Cuba', Richard Lester reveals a likable if none too demanding talent for adventure and love...
His film lacks the detailed exposition of the many twists and turns of Michael Curtiz's 'Casablanca.' There is no club so well organized in his movie, no open arena of conspiracy, counterspies, secret plans, black market transactions, no true democrat with women, and no traditional woman enclosed by two rivals....
An enjoyable thriller, which although filmed in Spain, manages to capture the atmosphere and lunacy of the last days of Batista's dictatorship perfectly.
Set during the days leading up to Castro's revolution in 1959, "Cuba" is a wide-ranging character study that also happens to be a convincing portrayal of the unrest -- political, social and otherwise -- surrounding that event.
It also has a great cast attached to it, including Sean Connery, Brooke Adams, Chris Sarandon, Martin Balsam, Denholm Elliott and Jack Weston (who is particularly good as the opportunistic American businessman).
And look for David Rappaport -- future Time Bandit -- in a small role (sorry, bad joke) as the cigar factory overseer.This was director Richard Lester's fifth and final film with writer Charles Wood, a collaboration which produced such 1960s classics as "The Knack," "Help!," "How I Won the War" and "The Bed Sitting Room."  "Cuba," which came ten years later, can most definitely be added to that list..
In the scene in the restaurant Sean Connery and Brooke Adams are clearly at a loss for words.
The entire picture falls apart in the last fifteen minutes with silly and uncoordinated action being filmed just to fill up the running time.
"Cuba", a piece of history, a deliciously sad love story.
These were bad news for Lester's later pictures because everybody was expecting wonderful things like "Hard Day's Night" or "Help".
Having as a backdrop the last few days of Batista's dictatorship in Cuba (with notable dramatic appeal and amazing historical accuracy), Lester carefully develops a very sad and beautiful love story.
Sean Connery and Brooke Adams as the lovers who meet again after fifteen years are really superb.
But the most important issue is Lester's ability to create an atmosphere of disenchantment, of sadness looking at all these people who cannot, who will not ever understand how to love each other and live in peace..
(Some Spoilers) The days are not only numbered for the year 1958 but also for the Batista regime running Cuba as well.
With the Cuban rebels lead by the "Bearded One", Fidel Castro, streaming out of the Mestra Serria Mountains and linking up with thousands of supporters in the big cities like Havana and Santiago.
In the middle of all this chaos British mercenary Maj.Robert Dapes, Sean Connery, is hired by the Batista government to help steam the rebel tide.
Arriving in Havana Robert finds that there's more then a revolution going on in Cuba.
There's the stunning and beautiful Alexandra Lopez de Pulido, Brooks Adams,there for whom he's carried a torch for over fifteen years, since he was a British soldier in North Africa back in WWII.Robert realizes right away that the situation is hopeless for the government forces and plans to get out of the country as soon as he can.
Alexandra is married to wealthy and politically connected Cuban Juan Pulido, Chris Sarandon,who besides being a good for nothing spoiled rich boy is also cheating on her.
Robert tries to get Alexandra to come with him out of the war-torn island nation but she decides to stay in her beloved Cuba and face whatever the coming Castro regime has to offer her.
With Robert leaving on the last plane out of the now rebel-controlled Havana Airport we see Alexandra, on the ground, in tears watching him leave Cuba as well as her heart forever.
The film "Cuba" shows the audience just how things were on that island nation back in late 1958 and up to New Years Day 1959 when the Castro rebels took over the country.
The last days of the Batista Regime were so weird and surrealistic that most of the people there couldn't fathom just what was happening and acted as if everything was just normal; as their world was slowly collapsing all around them..
Played out against the last months of the corrupt and US/UK-supported Batista regime, the collapse of the old society as Castro's fidelistas begin to take over is shown compellingly.
The point is well made that a revolution will only succeed if the people are behind it which, in this instance, they clearly were.It's a shame that the movie couldn't have been filmed in Cuba, as of course all the famous landmarks of Havana are missing, but its real problems are threefold.Firstly the storyline is confusing, complicated and unconvincing, with none of the characters being allowed to hold one's attention.Secondly, the acting is poor.
Even Sean Connery - who is normally excellent - seems to have had his mind on other things the whole time.And thirdly, for some inexplicable reason, the chanting of 'Fidel' as Castro enters Havana in triumph morphs into a Nazi crowd chanting 'Sieg Heil'.
Sean Connery plays Maj. Robert Dapes, sent to Havana to help Batista fight the revolutionary army, but he soon figures out that the revolution is clearly going to succeed.
In the process, he meets Alexandra (Brooke Adams), an old flame now married to a philandering cigar factory owner.I guess that overall, there's nothing here that we haven't seen before.
Also starring Jack Weston, Hector Elizondo, Denholm Elliott, Martin Balsam, Chris Sarandon, Lonette McKee, and Alejandro Rey (aka Carlos Ramirez on "The Flying Nun").
There are a number of links between this film and the James Bond movies.As well as the obvious presence of Sean Connery, we have Walter Gotell who played Morzeny in "From Russia with Love" and then played General Anatol Gogol in 5 Bond films as well as the "James Bond Jr" TV series.In addition, the Spanish city of Cadiz in Andalucia was used for much of the location shooting - a location which also doubled as Cuba in "Die Another Day".Aside from that, the film creates a wonderfully atmospheric impression of a regime on its last legs, attempting the resist the seemingly inevitable regime change sought by the rebels.Not a great film but perfectly watchable (even if I did find myself looking out for familiar Andalucian scenery as much as following the plot!)..
No wonder Connery never mentions this film in discussions of his work.
Redford has a better feel for the period and the fall of pre-Castro Cuba..
Perhaps the reason I like this film so much is because I don't, normally, like the cinema of Richard Lester.
It is a brilliant visual satire of a society in total materialistic collapse with every character in the picture (save the white knight James Bond figure played by Sean Connery who is rendered completely ineffectual by the chaos that is tumbling down upon him)is literally on the take.
The supporting cast of Jack Weston, Hector Elizondo, Walter Godell, Martin Balsam, Chris Sarandon, Denholm Elliott and Alexandro Rey (unrecognizable)was flawlessly assembled but because the film doesn't ANNOUNCE its satirical intentions and Lester refuses to telegraph his gags and put anything in the center of the frame, most people came away from the picture pooh-faced.
Well, there is one other problem with CUBA and Lester has to take the brunt of the responsibility for it which is, in his corrosively ebullient fervor (and perhaps because, as a director he never responded to women very much), he left poor, ultra-lovely Brooke Adams out to dry as a character.
It's clear that he has nothing but contempt for the "Casablanca" aspect of the story involving her and Connery but he should have done a better job disguising the fact.
But it is the most impressively detailed and dynamically precise cinematic rendering of what the last days of a politically corrupt regime looks like - as it goes into free-fall - that a mainstream commercial film maker has ever given us..
For all involved, this star-studded catastrophe must either have been a desperate misery, or a sad, resigned joke to make.Somehow permitted to be shot on location in legitimately atmospheric locations in Havana, this turkey seems to have been enacted within an alternate universe, where each and every person is, for lack of a more eloquent designation, flat-out stupid.Nearly every shot and line of dialog contains truly jaw-dropping anachronisms, incongruities, and incomprehensible plot gaps.The characters, each the epitome of stereotyping (as well as typecasting) are quite completely air-headed.
With the lonely exception of Sean Connery, whose apparently sincere effort sadly amounted to no particular improvement to the results, all the actors as well as the writers and director phoned in their work, apparently via low-fidelity satellite phones.Someday I hope to read someone's memoirs about the making of _Cuba_.
Although the film is not terrific, what can be said for it is that a lot of effort was put into the creating of the film that was full of diverse action and story; from the film's beginning to the film's end not everything is so clear, and where the film is going is also uncertain.By following the individual characters around Cuba, and by observing the personal backgrounds & lives of these characters, one gets a decent idea of what Cuba was like at this period of time (from the corruption to the guerrilla war) that is at the same time entertaining.
The film is not as bad as I have read, of course it is not to great either.
The main reasons to watch the film are of course Connery and Cuba (with good/historic landmarks).
The film deals with something about a love interest that brings Connery deeper into the Cuban crime/vigilante world.
Anyway, more recent movies have done similar stories better, of course they don't have the CUBA.
Except for Sean Connery's apparent lack of his supposedly astute anti-terrorist ability (in contrast to his James Bond persona which he last performed in an authorized version eight years earlier and would perform in an unauthorized version four years later), CUBA had a very fascinating and consistently told story of political revolution and the various contrasts between cultures and the underlying love story.
Unfortunately, they probably took it too far, leading to a disconnect with the main character's presumed background in this movie.Regardless, this movie had a nice, slice of life feel with a relatively unused technique of editing in various scenes of real life interposed along side the main storyline that provided a depth of backdrop usually unseen in most political revolutionary and foreign setting films.
The storyline and plot stand out, particularly the love interest of Connery which defies the typical stereotypical character and motivation and presents a surprisingly much more authentic and somber look at relationships - the idealistic past fusing with the realistic present.Overall, this is an entertaining, informative movie that doesn't stress its overt, explosive action in a dramatic way that seems to defy reality, but the awkward chaos and sometimes stumbling military conflict that likely really occurs..
This picture has a serious problem to start,inappropriate contract of a mercenary in such situation when Castro already had Cuba in your hands,the triangle love story is totally unbeliavable to fit in,they tried to improve the picture adding a female sexy character to Connery has some reason to stay there,the battle on cane field depose against the picture laying down at mass grave of the useless,it was so ridiculous scene,also great stars featured are quite often lost on it,for some good acting like the fine Jack Weston and Chris Sarandon 6 out 10!!!Resume:First watch: 1982 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6.
Unfortunately this film shows like a quickly thrown together filler that trades on Sean Connery's big name.
There are plenty of good cast members like Martin Balsam, Jack Weston, Alejandro Rey, Hector Elizando and of course Connery, but none of them capture the essence of their roles.
Connery in particular hardly seems like a military man let alone a top notch mercenary as he wander through the film as if he were waiting for the script.I was hoping for more, but it never delivered.
Cuba (1979)Plot In A Paragraph: Robert Dapes (Connery) a British mercenary (with surprisingly high principles given his job) arrives in pre-Revolution Cuba to help train the corrupt General Batista's army against Castro's guerrillas while he also romances Alexandra Pulido (Brooke Adams), a former lover now married to a plantation owner.In his last movie of the 1970's Sean Connery reunited with director Richard Lester who once again produces an uneven movie.
It's almost as if he changed his mind mid filming about what type of movie he was trying to make.
Connery (who looks great in his tan suit and fedora) who has saved worse movies than this, dominates every scene he is in, but seriously has his work cut out here.
It's worth noting Connery's future Indiana Jones co-str Denholm Elliot Jack Weston and Hector Elizondo all pop up in supporting roles.
Connery ended the 70's with a whimper rather than a bang, as Cuba bombed at the box office.
Things would not really improve for him for quite a while, as for director Lester however, he went on to take over from Richard Donner and completed the filming on Superman 2..
Brit mercenary arrives in Havana on the eve of the Cuban Revolution of 1959..
British mercenary Sean Connery arrives in Havana on the eve of the Revolution of 1959, hired by the Batista regime to defeat it.
He finds a former teenage lover of his there (Brooke Adams)who is now married to the son of cigar-factory wealth (Chris Sarandon) Does she escape the revolution?
You don't have a major star like Connery walk away from the people we ourselves are supposed to sympathize with, but do we really expect him to join the Revolution?
I wonder where Connery stood/stands on the Cuban Revolution, & Cuba now, likewise Redford..
Given that Castro entered Havana on New Year's Day, 1959 and Battista had already fled Cuba on December 31, 1958, the events that transpire in the movie could hardly have occurred in 1959..
This movie is set during the build up to the Cuban revolution in 1959.Former British Major Robert Dapes arrives in Cuba.He is there to train the corrupt General Batista's army against Castro's guerrillas.He also meets his former lover, Alaxandra Lopez de Pulido, who's married now to a man called Juan Pulido.But the old love still hasn't died.Cuba from 1979 is directed by Richard Lester.Sean Connery, who turned 80 earlier this week, is brilliant as Robert Dapes.There's a little bit of James Bond in that character, I noticed.Brooke Adams does very fine job as Alexandra.Chris Sarandon is great as her lousy husband Juan.Jack Weston is terrific as Jack Gutman.Hector Elizondo gives a great performance as Capt.Raphael Ramirez.Denholm Elliot is very good as Donald Skinner.Martin Balsam is marvelous as Gen. Bello.Those scenes where there's some bloodshed are the most memorable.In one of them people are dining together in their finest outfits and the gunmen arrive.In the end we see some actual footage of the revolution and the rise of Fidel Castro.Not a masterpiece but a movie worth checking out..
Plot: A British mercenary is hired by the Cuban government to defeat Fidel Castro's insurgency but finds an old love instead.If there is such a thing as failing with verve, thenthis film does it.
Finally the revolution occurs and the movie descends into a few mediocre action sequences.
A handful of stand out scenes and the brilliantly conjured atmosphere can't conceal the lack of forward momentum, although this is partly imposed by the tragic nature of events (Connery's character can't stop the rebellion and doesn't get the girl).
However the actor who played Batista didn't look like him & the scene where Batista left was a good scene.
Also Castro's Rebels were portrayed as Saints and there were other things that were good like an ambush at dinner scene & also Julio trying to be a hero and keeps killing the wrong people but in the end gets the guy who was messing with his sister.
Sean Connery did a good job playing a guy who wondering if he's fighting for the wrong team.