'The Lost City' is a deeply flawed movie.
The characters are thin, the dialogue is often forced and some of the scenes are stereotypes (the assault on the palace, for instance).
But, I definitely would recommend it for some scenes that are so close to life, and so rarely seen in movies, as to make them remarkable.
One of these scenes is the saxophone scene. That scene, more than any other scene in modern cinema, summarizes what was wrong with communist regimes.
To make a long story short, drawing from the stories told to me by my parents (I only lived for four years in communism myself, then there was a revolution (of sorts) in my country), what really was wrong with communist times wasn't the repression. If you were careful and kept your head down, you never had to deal with it.
It wasn't even the corruption. You learned to get used to it, and simply became cynical.
It was the idiocy.
You couldn't avoid it, you couldn't become jaded to it, you couldn't help be affected by it...
It was the dumb slogans, the pointless - not even political - restrictions... the interdiction to play the saxophone...
Because of dystopian tales, people imagine the horrible is what shocks in a dictatorship. It isn't. People who live in a dictatorship don't spend their time and energy on politics... they worry about family, love, hobbies, etc...
The horrible, the purges and the persecutions, are simply remote. The idiocy (such as banning the saxophone), however, affects everyone and is what really bites.
Small details like this show that this was based on the writings of someone (Cabrera) who really knew what communism is like.
Other remarkable and rarely-seen scenes would include the emigration scene (true to life if ever it would be) or the scene right before emigration when Fico and his friends sit in their now closed bar celebrating Fico's departure.
As for the politics, an ex-pat from a former communist country like myself (albeit for economic rather than political reasons) is likely to be unsympathetic to Castro and his cronies, but let me just say that there are plenty of movies that exalt the Cuban revolution, it's nice to see both sides of the debate.
It is only fair, if Che can have 'The Motorcycle Diaries' to praise him, for there to be 'The Lost City' to show another side of him.
That 'The Lost City' is (AFAIK) the only movie made by a Cuban ex-pat based on the writings of a Cuban ex-pat about the Cuban revolution speaks volumes...
P.S. About Bill Murray's character, I think he was CIA. Think about it, an American citizen comes in, stays long after his welcome would be worn out as far as the regime goes, and leaves only after his friend does (so he obviously didn't stay out of loyalty)...
The characters are thin, the dialogue is often forced and some of the scenes are stereotypes (the assault on the palace, for instance).
But, I definitely would recommend it for some scenes that are so close to life, and so rarely seen in movies, as to make them remarkable.
One of these scenes is the saxophone scene. That scene, more than any other scene in modern cinema, summarizes what was wrong with communist regimes.
To make a long story short, drawing from the stories told to me by my parents (I only lived for four years in communism myself, then there was a revolution (of sorts) in my country), what really was wrong with communist times wasn't the repression. If you were careful and kept your head down, you never had to deal with it.
It wasn't even the corruption. You learned to get used to it, and simply became cynical.
It was the idiocy.
You couldn't avoid it, you couldn't become jaded to it, you couldn't help be affected by it...
It was the dumb slogans, the pointless - not even political - restrictions... the interdiction to play the saxophone...
Because of dystopian tales, people imagine the horrible is what shocks in a dictatorship. It isn't. People who live in a dictatorship don't spend their time and energy on politics... they worry about family, love, hobbies, etc...
The horrible, the purges and the persecutions, are simply remote. The idiocy (such as banning the saxophone), however, affects everyone and is what really bites.
Small details like this show that this was based on the writings of someone (Cabrera) who really knew what communism is like.
Other remarkable and rarely-seen scenes would include the emigration scene (true to life if ever it would be) or the scene right before emigration when Fico and his friends sit in their now closed bar celebrating Fico's departure.
As for the politics, an ex-pat from a former communist country like myself (albeit for economic rather than political reasons) is likely to be unsympathetic to Castro and his cronies, but let me just say that there are plenty of movies that exalt the Cuban revolution, it's nice to see both sides of the debate.
It is only fair, if Che can have 'The Motorcycle Diaries' to praise him, for there to be 'The Lost City' to show another side of him.
That 'The Lost City' is (AFAIK) the only movie made by a Cuban ex-pat based on the writings of a Cuban ex-pat about the Cuban revolution speaks volumes...
P.S. About Bill Murray's character, I think he was CIA. Think about it, an American citizen comes in, stays long after his welcome would be worn out as far as the regime goes, and leaves only after his friend does (so he obviously didn't stay out of loyalty)...