Ende der 50iger Jahre, Havana/Kuba — die Familie Fellove lebt sehr gut. Sie haben Geld, immer ein Lächeln auf den Lippen und strahlen Harmonie aus. Doch der Schein trügt, das Regime Batista neigt sich dem Ende, einer der drei Söhne schliesst sich Che Guevarra an, der zweite will auch ein freies Cuba beteiligt sich an einem Attentatsversuch an Batista. Der dritte Sohn leitet ein Kabarett und versucht sich aus der Politik herauszuhalten. Doch auch er hat Probleme, die Mafia möchte in seinem Club mitverdienen.
Was man dem Film aber vorwerfen muss, ist Einseitigkeit. So dramatisch die Geschichte dieser Familie ist, wird die Geschichte der schwarzen Bevölkerung Cubas mit keinem Wort erwähnt. Der folgende Artikel aus dem imdb Messageboard gibt die Gedanken eines schwarzen Cubaners wieder. Ich habe diesen hier komplett eingefügt, da ich die Befürchtungen des Autors für nicht komplett unbegründet halte (Vorsicht er enthält diverse Spoiler). Nachdem ich den Beitrag gelesen hatte, habe ich meine Wertung von 8 herunter korrigiert.
Watching this film was a chore, to say the least.
As a film…… this movie had areas which sorely needed editing. Although some of the shots were fabulous, they were inconsistent throughout, furthermore, they gave the appearance of a Made-for-Television film, and, at times, felt like an actor’s workshop somewhere in West Hollywood.
I could not understand the point of Meyer Lansky’s character being put in this, at all. If he represents the Mafia, then where is the dialogue which makes us understand his role clearly? The only thing that paid off in this film is that Meyer Lansky appears at the end and says: “I didn’t bomb your club. That’s not my style.” So then, that leaves us to believe that it was the ‘revolutionaries’ who created such a terrorist act. OK, the Mafia had zero influence in Cuba. They were just some really nice guys with some really nice money to fund some really nice endeavours.
Bill Murray’s character was completely misplaced & should have been left out. The inclusion of this character may have been included to provide cynical moments of bad jokes & trifling dialgoue. It was not necessary. The only thing it served to represent is the U.S. Anglo-American perspective & the fact that they simply cannot agree with such a developing government. Bill Murray never once mentioned the plight of Black people in Cuba, not once. He was too busy discussing ‘Egg Creams’ with Meyer Lansky or making some silly misplaced & callous joke about the plight of Latino people in Cuba. OR, maybe perhaps, to this Bill Murray character, poor Black people did not exist in Cuba, and if they DID, then it would be as entertainers & Orisha dancers, etc. Never was it mentioned that, ever since the U.S. INVADED Cuba (along with Puerto Rico) in 1898, they have inspired their puppet governments to murder something like 6,000 Black people who simply wanted to form their own group based on their cultural similarities as people of African descent. Furthermore, since Batista (according to Mr. Garcia) is a ‘Black’ person (which in reality he was a ‘mulatto’ who aspired to be ‘White’), his role as a ‘mulatto’ overseer for White Cubans & Mafioso-Americans could not be clearly defined. Instead he appears unconcerned with even the White people who served him so wonderfully and so ‘humbly’. Somehow, we are supposed to believe that the rich, Whites of Cuba were ready to oust Batista. (shock) Meanwhile, they forgot to ask any Black people about their opinions on what they might want to see changed. This film skips right over important KEY scenes which would balance out this truly UNbalanced film…. in favour of Andy Garcia’s Hollywood friends having stupid, nonsensical conversations about absolutely NOTHING which serves to move the story forward. It is obvious who the target audience is. The fact that this is a film about Cuba & the dialogue is ALL in American English, except in the very end, shows this.
This film & its subsequent revision of history is coming from a country called the ‘United’ States who portray the Black heroes of September 11th with White actors. It is a warping of true events, to say the least, and is only ‘united’ in its scope to continually wash away their past sins by portraying themselves as benovolent, witty people who NEVER, EVER ROB the world of its resources while leaving local populations in despair & distress with NO money and NO trading options.
The selfishness of Andy Garcia’s character in the end…. who wanted to simply be creative & have a ‘good time’ making music with his key Black performers & Jewish drinking buddies…. is quite evident. Aurora is shown to have understood the ‘higher cause’, finally giving in to the revolution & its tenets, though because of her lack of development as a character & the non-depiction of just what exactly the revolution supported and WHY, she appears as a dim-witted woman who is brain-washed & led ‘blindly’ by such titles as ‘widow of the revolution of the year’…. which, by the way, is supposed to be another moment of comic relief for its intended target audience…. right. The plight of Afro-Cubans & the middle class intelligensia who supported change is made into a comedy, while the poor white Cubans who ‘worked so hard’ for their land & wealth is taken seriously…. well, taken seriously by White Cubans & the children & grand-children whom they’ve told their sob stories to for over 40 years. They mention over & over again how Castro has murdered so many of their innocent friends & family, but forget how many AFRICANS were MURDERED simply for being BLACK over hundreds of years of Cuban history. Meanwhile, those same White Cubans are in the United States practicing Santeria as if they invented the religion.
Also, is Ricardo to blame for his uncle’s death? Or, is the fact that smoking too many cigars caused his OWN heart disease & therefore led him to choke on his own smoke? This movie caters to the White intelligensia who seem to forget that the money & land they ‘WORKED SO HARD FOR’ was toiled for hundreds of years by AFRICANS and their appointed MULATTO OVERSEERS, mulattos who were promised these positions in order to be a STEP ABOVE the darker ones. THIS is the system which the SPANISH SLAVERS in Cuba set up to build their wealth. Yes, they toiled hard all right. It took a lot of energy to lift their wigs upon their heads every morning to go make sure that their ‘mulatto’ overseers did their jobs in beating the backs of the Blacks who actually worked the land…… and were worked to DEATH, I might underscore. ‘Negros’ brought to Cuba to support selfish Whites who wanted to mimic Spanish culture in a tropical environment. They really did not know how to toil & sweat in this environment, that is the TRUTH which Mr. Garcia whitewashes over….. instead spending a good deal of screen time with the unnecessary dialogue sequences of washed-up actors like Bill Murray & Dustin Hoffmann. Is this to let us know that Cuban-Americans ALSO support Jewish Israel? One can only wonder why SO MUCH valuable screen time is wasted with all of this & NOT with further explanations of the Black people who formed the backbone & base of Cuba’s economy.
This is a film for U.S. White people & their wanabe minions. Everyone else is left out of the equation. And, contrary to popular belief, this is NOT historical. If Cuba suppresses freedom of Speech, then anyone reading this entry can read the myriad of other opinons on this board which are met with opposition & hatred. People like me, a Cuban of African descent, are not truly FREE to express our opinions on this board (or any OTHER American-run board) as the truth of what Cuba is TODAY in 2006. My family & I speak multiple languages & have great educations (despite the propoganda that the U.S. spreads about our island) all thanks to the Revolution. We have learned to understand the evils of this world, as well as those evils committed & still being committed by a country such as the ‘United’ States…. united simply to destroy the rest of the world without regards to who lives in it…. all in the name of DEMOCRACY. If Fidel has controlled our media, who then controls the U.S. media? I guess wiretapping is a concept alien to people in the U.S. And, if we lack an understanding of human rights, then what happened to Bush when we were ready, willing & able to help the people during Hurricane Katrina? Of course…. Bush had everything under control there, yes, of course. This is why African-Americans are still having a love affair with George W. They just simply appreciate the fact that politics is put far ahead of PEOPLE.
The poverty in Cuba is due to the U.S. BLOCKADE which prevents any ships from reaching us for trade. With no money from trade & no way to eke out an existence, why ELSE would some people flee in desperation. Most, however, have withstood this annoying country to the north of us & have had each other to keep the Spirit of Freedom ALIVE. The culprit of such heinous acts against Latino people IN Latino America is the U.S., but it seems that everyone BUT the U.S. & Israel do not see that. They would rather continue spreading guns around their country instead of ideas which TRULY UNITE the people. Of course they wouldn’t. No one in those country wants you to mess with their blood money. They need their money to go into other people’s countries in order to sack them & take what little they’ve got for themselves. War is most important.
This film needs to stay out of Latin America, as it is not a film about our experience AT ALL.
Asi es.
