Rating: 
Summary: Great to See if Seeking the Real Cuba
Review: My mother was born in La Habana and since then has returned to find her home land in Castro's hands. When our family watched this movie, 6 Cubans, we saw what Cuba had become and we were relieved that it was portrayed as it really is, beyond the Elian Gonzalez rallys. I hope everyone who sees this movie will be grateful for where they are in the world. Because this is the truth of what families go through. Leaving the country? Keeping "Faith" in a dead end in government? This may sound like I'm a Angry Cuban, but I'm not, I'm happy this was released to the people so they can see Cuba
Rating: 
Summary: The failure of the Cuban revolution is made blatantly clear
Review: Director Leon Ichaso shows us a Cuba mired in poverty and hopelessness. It is no longer a tropical paradise. The ordinary Cuban aspires to attain a lifestyle Americans would deem barely lower class. Bicycles are not used primarily for exercise, but serve as a common form of transpiration. The few automobiles are often broken-down relics of the 1950s. Psychiatrists earn far more money playing the piano for tourists than practicing their hard earned profession. Young women are drawn to prostitution because their potential husbands face extraordinary difficulties in earning a living. The Americans might be the perceived enemy of the great revolution, but much of the Cuban economy revolves around the almighty dollar. Hypocrisy reigns supreme. Castro's Cuba is officially committed to the utopian teachings of Karl Marx. However, the progeny of Adam Smith bring in the investment money the island so desperately needs. Gustavo still wishes to adhere to Communist dogma regardless of the evidence proving it to be a false faith. His brother, Bobby, adores Bob Dylan and Jimmy Hendrix instead of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. Needless to add, this sort of counterrevolutionary behavior does not endear him to the authorities. Yolanda loves Gustavo but her patience is wearing thin. Miami offers a better future than the homeland. Can she persuade her idealistic boyfriend to attempt the dangerous journey to the United States? Cuba is the last bastion of Communism in the Western hemisphere. Bitter Sugar reminds us of the destruction brought about by Castro's experiment. These characters are placed in a no win predicament. We can only pray that their nightmare ends in the very near future.
Rating:
Summary: A fifth star for having the guts to make this movie.
Review: Made in beautiful black and white plus an infinite range of greys, this is a "Romeo and Juliet" in modern world story with Capuletos and Montescos being the People vs Big Brother Castro. It's not Casablanca but it could be a classic if the academia one day took off their mask and recognized its quality. As for the reviewer below, this is not propaganda from Miami. This is about people who want to be free and people -like you- who want others to be slaves. And listen up: there is no blockade, millions of sex-searching tourists with no conscience seek the island every year leaving their money at hotels where Cubans are not allowed to enter and the tips to the prostitutes.
Cuba is a slave country, you are in your right to like it, but at least admit it.
Rating:
Summary: Breathtaking movie, some ignorant reviews.
Review: I am fed up with ignorant people who give negative reviews about these movies when they have no idea what goes on in cuba. This is reality. Say you want, you werent there. Whoever visits cuba only visits the tourist area. Another sign of ignorance when they hide the actual people who live there who have to stay away from the tourist areas. Fidel Castro is the most caniving, evil person I have ever seen. This is not propaganda, but reality I could care less what you people who think you know that "castro is a great guy. He isnt bad". I guess you have to live there to understand. Nevertheless, this movie gives a good taste, but not even 10% of what socialism is really about.
There isnt anything really positive about Marxism/Socialism/Communism whatever you want to call it. Unless you think, no freedom of speech, no food, no incentive is a good thing, then you can move to cuba and have some fun. Just ask any educated cuban who left 1962 or later and you will know what I am talking about.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie
Review: I though the movie was stimulating. I creamed in my pants a couple times.
Rating:
Summary: When you have nothing, why not do nothing together?
Review: This visually stunning, slap-in-your-face film is ultimately painful to watch. You have to admire revolutionaires that for nationalism & personal conviction are willing to put up with so little so much of the time. Watching those young people applauding at the outdoor Castro speech rallies makes you wonder what other options they had. They either wanted to be there & feed their anti-Yankee imperialism beliefs or felt that they would be questioned for staying away. Or perhaps there was nothing better or more interesting to do than attend that outdoor group experience. When you have nothing, why not do nothing together & show solidarity en-masse. The fresh music & performances heard in the movie, esp. the afro cuban (more afro than cuban, interestingly enough) is a delight to hear and enjoy the proto-African flavored dances that both black & white execute in this film. When my uncle was last permitted to vacation in Miami--before Clinton made it difficult for the frequent immigration & visits of Cuban nationals--he was often questioned as to why he kept returning to Cuba after his yearly visits to Miami. He was well read in Marxist authors & it showed when he spoke. His Miami relatives questioned him as to why if things were so scare as he claimed they were, though not so scarce that he would repeatedly return to Cuba visit after visit during the 90s, why didn't the remaining Cubans with nary a roast chicken to eat even on Sunday, not rise up & rectify things. His reponse was: we don't rise up because all the brave & decisive Cubans have left & migrated to the USA or other ports of haven. Or maybe the brave Cubans are still in Cuba holding onto what little remains of a native Cuban culture & identity there still is instead of wanting the wild abandon & comfort & endless summer after a hard day at the offices or local Walmarts of Miami, USA.
Rating: 
Summary: Disingenuous of AMAZON
Review: I ordered this film in the expectation that the one or two glowing reviews that came up first in the Amazon reviews were accurate or dependable in some way. After having seen the film, I realize that this is another piece of propaganda from the exCuban fugitive community in Miami. Simplistic, unrealistic, inaccurate, and misinformed did not compensate for the "torrid" scenes of simulated intercourse. Cuba is a catastrophe, of that there is no doubt. The reasons however fall on all of us, the blockade, the abject fear of the spectre of socialism and social justice, and one of the unluckiest political struggles of modern times. I resent, however, that the customer reviews in Amazon.com can be so manipulated by a small group who would willingly starve their own relatives to fit their agenda.
Rating:
Summary: Followup on this movie
Review: This movie potrays the situation in Cuba very well. Although its somewhat sugarcoated and was filmed in another place other than cuba of course. I have to reply to one of these reviews because it insults me and my mom, who came from cuba in '62. There is one reviewer that basically insults the Cuban community. This person is obvious a pinko-leftist bias that probably admires "da great fidel castro". I wonder what your cuban parents think. Im sure he would love to live in filth like most cuban people live today. Everything there is decaying. Id be interested in the proof of how Reagen killed more people in his own country than Fidel does. I didnt know american presidents killed their own citizens for opinions possibly opposing the government. You are insulting the wrong people. Aparently you dont want democracy for Cuba either.
Rating:
Summary: ABSOLUTELY TRUTHFUL
Review: FROM AMAZON'S REVIEW OF THIS MOVIE, I CAN TELL NONE OF YOU HAVE BEEN TO CUBA OR SPOKEN TO SOMEONE WHO'S RECENTLY ARRIVED. THE MOVIE IS "GENTLE" IN IT'S DEPICTION OF THE REALITY OF LIFE IN CUBA. IF THE MOVIE HAD REVEALED THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT PRIVILEDGED ENOUGH TO WORK FOR THE GOVERNMENT RUN TOURISM INDUSTRY, NO ONE WOULD BE ABLE TO SIT THROUGH IT. IE- YOU CAN GO TO JAIL FOR SIX MONTHS IF THERE IS FOOD FOUND IN YOUR HOME WHICH EXCEDES THE ONE POUND OF RICE AND ONE POUND OF BEANS ALLOWED IN THE MONTHLY RATION. WAKE UP FOLKS, IGNORANCE IS OUR GREATEST ENEMY.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Film and Hanuntigly Devastating
Review: This is an incredible film that was made on a very small budget. I believe some if not all the actors worked for free. If you are from Cuba you know how realistically real and scary this movie is. Leon Ichaso, the film's director hit the nail on the head on this movie because everything in it is exactly how it is and is all true. I left Cuba when I was four but I have since gone back to visit a few relatives that I have there and I can tell you that it is devastating to walk thru the streets and see all the filth,hunger and desperation of its people. This film hit me too close to home and I was moved to tears when I first saw it. To this day everytime I watch it I can't help the tears from rolling down my face. I'm glad that this brilliant movie has been made available on DVD so that more people can see it and take a closer look at the way desperate people live in a country that was once beautiful now torn apart by the harsh and cruel not to mention unhumane regime of Fidel Castro. The film was shot in black and white which makes it all the more real since it would be foolish to do a movie that takes place in Cuba in color since there isn't any. All of the actors did an excellent job with their roles. I wish this film would've of reached a bigger audience when release in 1996 but since it was a low budget film it was only seen by most people living in Miami where the majority of its population is cuban. If you care about what really goen on Cuba today and the struggles that the people over there go thru to break free from under its fascist regime you should see it. I have it in my movie collection and is one of my favorites but I can't watch it too often because it hurts too much. Overall is an excellent movie, I was dissapointed that it was not even considered for an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign film. This movie deserved not only the Oscar but praise and recognition worldwide.
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