I love this movie so much

Captivating movie !

Absolutely Fantastic

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Perhaps the reason I like this film so much is because I don't, normally, like the cinema of Richard Lester. I've always found it too frenetic to be funny and too fragmented to be involving on any human level. However, CUBA is, arguably, the most misunderstood picture to close out the decade of the 70s. 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. What is extraordinary here is that the mise-en-scene is as visually dazzling and stylistically coherent CAPTURING chaos as it is satirically barbed, subtle and consistently ingenious. You really have to WATCH this movie. There's always something inventive and extremely droll going on around the edges. 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. I think Connery is terrific in his role making the pathos of his Gable-like flawed hero comical and deeply affecting. Lester was even more successful in JUGGERNAUT satirizing a genre while squeezing the maximum thrills out of it at the same time. CUBA doesn't work successfully on both levels in the way that JUGGERNAUT does. 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.

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. It has an interesting concept - counterinsurgency expert fresh from Malaya tries to help Batista's regime - which is swiftly abandoned in favour of a rekindled romance with an old flame. Finally the revolution occurs and the movie descends into a few mediocre action sequences. Pre-revolutionary Cuba is splendidly re-created in all its glamour and glitz; seething with vice, poverty and intrigue. Sadly the script isn't all that convincing and seems to take ages to get anywhere. 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). Worth one viewing.

There have been many stories of people going to countries on the eve of a revolution and finding out why there's a revolution. "Cuba" is kept afloat by strong performances. 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. But the way that they filmed it gives one the feeling of a society about to explode. Also starring Jack Weston, Hector Elizondo, Denholm Elliott, Martin Balsam, Chris Sarandon, Lonette McKee, and Alejandro Rey (aka Carlos Ramirez on "The Flying Nun"). Worth seeing.One more thing that I have to ask is whether or not Sydney Pollack remade this as "Havana". The two movies don't have the exact same plots, but they're certainly pretty close.

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.