Benedito Dias Rodrigues
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
ddolan-5
This film is laughably bad. In the scene in the restaurant Sean Connery and Brooke Adams are clearly at a loss for words. This scene is obviously unscripted and they are making up the dialog and not doing very well either! The entire picture falls apart in the last fifteen minutes with silly and uncoordinated action being filmed just to fill up the running time. I am sure that the actors (and this picture has a good cast) would like to forget that this flick was in their filmography. The dialog is silly, the action is senseless, the relationships unbelievable. The director has a lot to answer for. A waste of good film.
bkoganbing
According to the Citadel Film series book on Sean Connery, Sean violated a rule that both he and Charlton Heston normally follow, never take an assignment on an unfinished script. 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 being hired on the strength of good work he did in Malaya where the British did successfully quell a Communist insurgency in the Fifties. Connery's got a lot of reservations when he sees the quality of the troops that Batista has. But that's not what's totally occupying his mind. 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.
David198
This drama/love story could have been excellent. 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'. Whatever was this trying to say? When Castro actually came into power, one of the first things he did was to open all the 'whites-only' clubs to black people, and to make it clear in an early speech that there was no such thing as a superior race. To liken Castro to Hitler is a travesty of the facts.So, ultimately a flawed film. Watch it not for the story or the 'message' but for what is going on in the background.
AD
