"THE LOST CITY" By Andy Garcia

BROOKESNEWS | MAY 8, 2006 | HUMBERTO FONTOVA

[Bernard Marx]

Read beyond the first sentence of the article.

One of the problems is that this article is very badly written. It takes so long to get to its real point many readers probably give up or reach the wrong conclusion.

I lived through the period in question and have been aware of the media-spawned Big Lie and false history that's been sold to the American public since the beginning of the '60s. I also know Garcia's background and Che's bloodthirstiness. Yet with all that it took real determination for me to see what the author was getting at.

[hispanarepublicana]

YUMMY!

[nikos1121]

I did read the article...

a. it sounded like you liked the movie...
b. but later on I wasn't sure...
c. so I thought I'd ask...and cut to the chase

[twin2]

This movie and Cuba came up on Father's Day while we visited with my in-laws.

When they fled Cuba in 1961, their business (hotel) and home (cattle ranch) had been seized. My father-in-law had come to the states and my mother-in-law was waiting to exit with my husband, who was 4 years old at the time. She had the proper exit visa, but Cuba would not issue one for my husband. Her father paid $10,000 for an exit visa on the black market, an enormous amount at the time.

On the day they were to leave, they stopped her at the airport to scrutinize the papers. She got a flight attendant to put the child on the plane without her in case something went wrong. They got out that day and have never been back.

They were settled in Baltimore where my husband remembers eating a lot of spam. To this day he still likes it! They rebuilt their lives and businesses here in Miami.

Miami Cubans have no illusions of what Castro is and what he did to the island.

[nikos1121]

Most of it.

[SeanOGuano]

They took that pic a few hours after saying to the Bolivians: "I am Che, I am valuable to you. I want to negotiate."

They didn't feel like negotiating.

[nikos1121]

"Well you got the first response in at 9:06 and the article was posted at 8:49...

Did you actualy read it? "

No speaka or reada da english...

[RobbyS]

Fidel grew a beard so he could play the romantic role of a 20th Century Garibaldi, The difference is that Garibaldi was pure of heart; Castro is a devil. Pope Pius IX joked that he and Garibaldi were the only honest men in Italy, because neither wanted political power.

[Tribune7]

It sounds like a great movie.

[GOP_Proud]

Ooo La La, Andy!

[GOP_Proud]

< Yet with all that it took real determination for me to see what the author was getting at. >

Funny. I knew from the first 2 sentences.

If Garcia "blew it" with the main stream critics, it means he actually got something historically accurate about a lefty icon.

[pollyannaish]

Wow. Andy Garcia scores a direct hit on the sacred cow of the rich and pampered.

Good for him.

[Dqban22]

IT'S A GEM! GO SEE IT!
by gigi.miamihavana (movies profile) Apr 30, 2006
18 of 18 people found this review helpful

Artistically, the movie is gem. WHAT MUSIC! The sets accurately represent the epoch of the 50s; the costumes and make-up are superb! The cinematography beautifully pleases the eye. The strategy of telling Cuba's cultural demise through events that happen within one family is very effective.

Andy Garcia has been able to vividly portray what was written in the script by the great (and late) Cuban author Gillermo Cabrera Infante, who was a Cervantes Award winner. Andy explained during an interview that CAIN (Cabrera-Infante's num-de-plume)did get to see at least part of the movie before he passed away(some months ago).

This movie is a superb attempt at explaining the great tragedy of the Cuban people, which, of course, does not historically stop where the movie ends--the reason being is that Castro is still in power. He (Castro) is still feeding the beast of "deconstruction." This movie is very compelling because it speaks the truth of what many Cubans have really gone through during this 47-year old nightmare.

The movie does not contain an ounce of propaganda; on the contrary, there is not enough time within its length to describe more horrendous passages of the destruction of an entire culture. While wishing to correct the system by getting rid of a dictatorship (and thus regain democracy), Cubans were unfortunate - because instead they were swallowed by the monster of this incredibly long-lasting totalitarian regime that, SADLY, is seen or judged by many as a "model" type of government/society.

There is nothing further from the truth than to say that Latin America "needed" such system, as some have even claimed. Those who make those comments are unaware that they are merely perpetuating Castro's propaganda machine. Many, like the citizens of Venezuela, do not realize what a regime such as Castro's really entails until it comes knocking at their own door. Unfortunately, Venezuela is being wrapped up into the frenzy of a type of governmental and social system that can only be described as "Castronianism," mainly due to Hugo Chavez' strange fascination with Castro. Hopefully, Cuba will be free someday! Go watch the movie-you'll enjoy it.

[Bernard Marx]

Funny. I knew from the first 2 sentences.

Guess you're just a whole lot smarter than me.

[Dqban22]

It was worth waiting for.
by miamiessen (movies profile) May 4, 2006
12 of 12 people found this review helpful

I am an Anglo woman who can identify with the Cuban exiles. This movie is not only about the horrific plight of the Cuban people, but all human beings through out the world who have been manipulated by a dictator or who have struggled for their own freedom from oppression. I appreciated the focus on the family dynamics and how it showed the malevolence of F. Castro. I think Andy Garcia did not only an excellent job as a director, but, again, he gives a wonderful performance as an actor. It is a movie for all people to see and empathize with the arduous journey of the Cuban people.


Haven't lived the horror
by cubanalibre57 (movies profile) Apr 30, 2006
75 of 85 people found this review helpful

Funny how "professional" critics put down this movie with such ignorance. It's easy to watch a movie and critize the acting, the plot, the direction, and the feelings that went into it, but unless you have lived in Cuba, and seen it's horrors, you cannot critique AT ALL! To all those so called "professionals", live the life of an exile, suffer with the ones still living there, walk in their shoes, THEN speak, otherwise, keep your reviews to yourself, this isn't HOLLYWOOD, it's real life and it's about time someone told it like it really is, without fear of being put down by so called film critics! These critics are insensitive people, taking for granted where they were born and how they live today, spoiled to the core. Thank you Andy Garcia, you are a wonderful human being.

It's about time
by avolaone (movies profile) Apr 28, 2006
44 of 47 people found this review helpful

I saw this movie at a special showing in Los Angeles and although I had gone with the idea that it would focus on Cuba's history during the 1959-1960 period, it turned out to be more about the destruction of a prominent family. After "adjusting" my thinking to this fact, I found the movie to be extremely well done as it very poignantly depicts what so, so many families went through, including my own. I highly recommend this movie to all Cubans, those in exile as well as to their children born in the U.S. or elsewhere and specially to all those people who still think that Fidel and "El Che" are heroes. This film shows a little of what they truly are. My very deep respect and thankfulness go to Andy Garcia for having the guts to make this movie and to everyone that worked in it in any way. It's about time!

[Lori675]

http://jacq.org/Politics/coultergeist.htm

I changed the subject. Who was sexy? The movie stars Ms. Coulter digs are Andy Garcia, Peter Horton and Tom Selleck.

[Starter]

Eeewww.

Great, now I'm going to have images of Garcia's dead twin floating through my mind for the rest of the day,

[dfwgator]

And for the guys Ines Sastre is in it.

[Dqban22]

A long awaited disclosure...
by faircritic4all (movies profile) May 20, 2006
3 of 3 people found this review helpful

In reading the "critic" reviews about "Lost City", I would have chosen not to take the time to see this movie. However, having had fist hand experience in the subject, I was very much interested in seeing for myself what this work of passion from Andy Garcia(much like Mel Gibson's in "Passion of the Christ")was all about.

And, I was delightfully surprised with a beautifully projected cinematography gem, basking in a cast of solid, yet sensitively mastered acting, which could do nothing less than add exactly what the movie needed to bring to reality the Cuban experience, which many Americans, as well as other countries, have never fully understood.

The amazing thing is that Mr. Garcia, while his characters denounced Castro and his regimen, never allowed himself to take the liberty of taking a "cheap shot" at Fidel Castro, or Che, for that matter, in his handling of the scenes where they appeared.

As the director, and having been affected personally by Fidel's politics, he could have bombarded the leader and his supporters in a humilating manner, making the audience hate and despise these characters, only. Instead, the director chose a very admirable "neutral" stance, and just presented the facts, allowing his characters, inclusive of Che and Fidel, to project themselves and evolve as complex human beings, just like any other in the story.

The movie must be seen to fully understand its virtues and triumphs.

A well recommended must see for Americans to understand why so many Cubans have chosen to uproot themselves, in spite of great personal loss, to give their children the freedom and future that Castro took from them so long ago...

A must see movie for our children
by andaletu (movies profile) May 5, 2006
3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Only a cuban could have done a film so accurate. The music is superb and the story right on the money. As to the unfavorable critic, what to expect!!! Hollywood has never been on the right side of history and all I can tell them is that there are 2.4 million cubans(out of 13)who prefered to start a new life washing dishes anywhere in the world than to live in "paradise"
Bravo Andy, bravo!!!!!


Liberal Ivy-educated Cuban shocked by ignorance.
by dpr_062787 (movies profile) May 15, 2006
6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Some facts for the ignorant critics: 1. The Cuban revolution had nothing to do with a "peasant" revolt- it was financed mostly by wealthy Cubans already in the US. Protests against the corrupt Batista government began in the University and the leadership in the Escambray was entirely from the "elite" and educated. 2. Pre-Castro Cuba had the highest standard of living in all of Latin America and had a very large middle class. 3. The mere existence of more than a million Cubans in exile expose as an ignorant lier the critic who bemoans the "1% with all the money" whom he presumes were the only ones who objected when Che began executing people (men, women and children as young as 15) without any semblance of a trial. 4. The movie is historically truthful and representative- sorry if it doesn't jive with your fantasy. Grade A.



The Lost City
by perfectionpresident (movies profile) May 6, 2006
7 of 7 people found this review helpful

I most admit that, originally, I went to see this movie out of support for Andy Garcia. When a man commits to his dream and realizes it through work and sweat, (a la Mel Gibson) he is worthy of recognition and rewards. That been said, I wholeheartedly recommend this motion picture. It will go down as a masterpiece & as one of the most true to fact stories of exiles ever exposed on film. This is not a Cuban story; it’s a human story. Everyone that sees this film will find something they’ll identify themselves with, no matter what their background. If you want your children to know what their grandparents went through, what they gave up, what all those stories they tell are about, take them too to see this epic. You’ll be glad you did. Maybe you can talk about it around the dinner table, as a family, at six o’clock… sharp.

[dfwgator]