Mr Garcia i loved this movie, What a moving love story. I love Cuban food, music,culture and you really captured it all . I have been to Cuba, its sad what happened their.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, with two exceptons that I will elaborate on later. The music and cinematography in the movie was extraordinary, as well as the sets used in the making of the movie. The sets and costumes lend to the feel of the movie, just as the Casablanca set and costumes did for that movie; it transports you to that place and time. Now to the two exceptions that keep me from giving the movie a higher score: I understand that the writer included Bill Murray's character as a sort of subconscious of the writer and as a way to keep those not interested in the storyline from walking out of the theatres. Truth be told, the Murray character actually detracts from the real story and the seriousness of the same. The second issue deals with the portrayal of President Batista as a sort of comical figure (combing his eyebrows with a comb and spit, making comical remarks to his butler, etc.). Anyone who has read about Fulgencio Batista will tell you that he was far from being that way; if anything, he was at the other end of the spectrum; he was a former military leader who really had little time for distractions or joking around. My take on this portrayal of Batista, is that this was Andy Garcia's way of trying to convince the audience that he is not an opologist for Batista or what he represents. Whatever the reason, this detracts from the movie. At some point, Garcia needed to decide if he wanted to make a serious social movie with a historical background, a comedy or a love story. At times you can combine two of those categories, not all three. My mother's family in pre-Castro Cuba were basically rural farmers whom made a humble living from the crops they harvested, and they were happy living that way. My father 's family were middle class, and they lived a good tranquil life, just like Americans did in 1959 (except for the occasional bomb being set on busses, theatres and other p[laces by Fidel's militia). Having said that, I can tell you without hesitation, that the Cuban revolution had very little to do with the poor and any struggles they might have had, and unlike the newspaper accounts of the ultraliberal New York Times of that era, Fidel and his henchman were far from being "Robin Hoods" ("Robbing Hoods" is more like it). The Cuban revolution was financed by the rich and upper-middle class, whom felt that the U.S. had too many interests in Cuba at the time, and they felt they were being left behind. As was pointed out in a previous post, if you analyze who made up Fidel's cabinet after the revolution, they were members of the upper and upper-middle class (Doctors, accountants, politicians, etc.). What the revolution ultimately accomplished was to push the U.S. out of Cuba, in favor of the Soviet Union. The protagonists of the revolution (Fidel & company) did nothing else but turn Cuba into a socialist nation in which there would only be one class of people, wherein no one had anything (the exception were a privileged few, made up of Fidel's immediate group). Land, businesses and properties were taken from their rightful owners and given to those who were responsible for the overthrow of the government, every block had a "snitch" to report any type of activity that might go against the revolutionary government and family members turned on each other as portrayed in the movie. What I liked the most about the movie is that it portrays people as they were, "Che" Guevara as a ruthless assassin, not the romanticized freedom fighter he has been erroneously portrayed as in other movies , such as the Motorcycle Diaries. Andy Garcia balances things out and remains factual with history, as evidenced by his portrayal of two members of Batista's secret police who were ruthless in their own right. This is a balanced account of reality as it was during and after the revolution! It's a shame that the movie critics did not study the history of the Cuban revolution prior to writing their reviews of the film; had they done so, they may have rated the movie differently. I highly recommend you see this movie!… Expand

this Is the best movie I have seen, the most realistic movie, I lived through it with my parents, so I know exactly the way it is. the music, scenery and everything is espectacular. congratulations to Andy Garcia for such wonderful movie.

Moving and artful but historically flawed by an inexplicable, total failure to depict the dreary economic conditions of ordinary Cubanos before Batista's downfall. Having spent a few days on that Island during 1958, I can attest that the lives of the ninety-nine percent who were not wealthy (as are all in the film) was exceedingly grim.

Andy Garcia blew it big-time with his movie The Lost City. He blew it with the mainstream critics that is. Almost unanimously, they're ripping a movie 16 years in the making. In this engaging drama of a middle-class Cuban family crumbling during free Havana's last days, in which he both directs and stars, Garcia insisted on depicting some historical truth about Cuba--a grotesque and unforgivable blunder in his industry. He's now paying the price. Earlier, many film festivals refused to screen it. Now many Latin American countries refuse to show it. The film's offenses are many and varied. Most unforgivable of all, Che Guevara is shown killing people in cold blood. Who ever heard of such nonsense? And just where does this uppity Andy Garcia get the effrontery to portray such things? The man obviously doesn't know his place. And just where did Garcia get this preposterous notion of pre-Castro Cuba as a relatively prosperous but politically troubled place, they ask? All the Cubans he portrays seem middle class? Where in his movie is the tsunami of stooped and starving peasants that carried Fidel and Che into Havana on it's crest, they ask? Where's all those diseased and illiterate laborers and peasants my professors, Dan Rather, CNN and Oliver Stone told me about, ask the critics? Garcia--that cinematic bomb-thrower--has seriously jolted the Mainstream Media's fantasies and hallucinations of pre-Castro Cuba, of Che, of Fidel, and of Cubans in general. In consequence, the critics are unnerved and disoriented. Their annoyance and scorn is spewing forth in review after review. Garcia blew it. If only his characters had spoken with accents like John Belushi's as a Saturday Night Live Killer Bee! If only they'd dressed like The Three Amigos! If only they'd behaved like Cheech and Chong! If only they'd mimicked the mannerisms and gait of Freddie Prinze in Chico and the Man! If only the women had piled a roadside fruit stand on their head like Carmen Miranda in Road to Rio! If only the cast had looked like the little guy who handles my luggage when I visit Cancun! Or the guys who do my lawn! Everybody knows that's what Hispanics look like! If only masses of Cubans had been shown toiling in salt mines like Spartacus, or picking crops like Tom Joad or getting lashed by a vicious landlord like Kunta Kinte, or hustling for a living like Ratso Rizzo! "In a movie about the Cuban revolution, we almost never see any of the working poor for whom the revolution was supposedly fought,"sniffs Peter Reiner in The Christian Science Monitor. "The Lost City' misses historical complexity." Actually what's missing is Mr. Reiner's historical knowledge. Andy Garcia and screenwriter Guillermo Cabrera Infante knew full well that "the working poor" had no role in the stage of the Cuban Revolution shown in the movie. The Anti-Batista rebellion was led and staffed overwhelmingly by Cuba's middle-- and especially, upper-- class. To wit: in August of 1957 Castro's rebel movement called for a "National Strike" against the Batista dictatorship --and threatened to shoot workers who reported to work. The "National Strike" was completely ignored. Another was called for April 9, 1958. And again Cuban workers blew a loud and collective raspberry at their "liberators," reporting to work en masse. "Garcia's tale bemoans the loss of easy wealth for a precious few, " harrumphs Michael Atkinson in The Village Voice. "Poor people are absolutely absent; Garcia and Infante seem to have thought that peasant revolutions happen for no particular reason—or at least no reason the moneyed 1 percent should have to worry about." What's "absolutely absent" is Mr Atkinson's knowledge about the Cuba Garcia depicts in his movie. His crack about that "moneyed 1 per cent," and especially his "peasant revolution" epitomize the clichéd idiocies still parroted by the chattering classes about Cuba. "The impoverished masses of Cubans who embraced Castro as a liberator appear only in grainy, black-and-white news clips," snorts Stephen Holden in The New York Times. "Political dialogue in the film is strictly of the junior high school variety." It's Holden's education on the Cuban Revolution that's of the "junior high school variety." Actually it's Harvard Graduate School variety. Many more imbecilities about Cuba are heard in Ivy league classrooms than in any rural junior high school. "It fails to focus on the poverty-stricken workers whose plight lit the fires of revolution," complains Rex Reed in the New York Observer. You're better off attempting rational discourse with the Flat-Earth Society but nonetheless I'll try to dispel the fantasies of pre-Castro Cuba still cherished by America's most prestigious academics and its most learned film critics. I'll even stay away from those "crackpots" and "hotheads" in Miami. In place of those insufferable "revanchists" and "hard-liners" I'll use a source generally esteemed by liberal highbrow types, the United Nations. Here's a UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) report on Cuba circa 1957 : "One feature of the Cuban social structure is a large middle class," it starts. "Cuban workers are more unionized (proportional to the population) than U.S. workers. The average wage for an 8 hour day in Cuba in 1957 is higher than for workers in Belgium, Denmark, France and Germany. Cuban labor receives 66.6 per cent of gross national income. In the U.S. the figure is 70 per cent, in Switzerland 64 per cent. 44 per cent of Cubans are covered by Social legislation, a higher percentage then in the U.S." In 1958 Cuba had a higher per-capita income than Austria and Japan. Cuban industrial workers had the 8th highest wages in the world. In the 1950's Cuban stevedores earned more per hour than their counterparts in New Orleans and San Francisco. Cuba had established an 8 hour work-day in 1933-- five years before FDR's New Dealers got around to it. Add to this: one months paid vacation. The much-lauded (by liberals) Social-Democracies of Western Europe didn't manage this till 30 years later. And get this Maxine Waters, Barbara Walters, Andrea Mitchel, Diane Sawyer and the rest of you feminist Castro groupies-- Cuban women got three months paid maternity leave. I repeat, this was in the 1930's. Cuba, a country 71 per cent white in 1957, was completely desegregated 30 years before Rosa Parks was dragged off that Birmingham bus and handcuffed. In 1958 Cuba had more female college graduates per capita than the U.S. The Anti-Batista rebellion (not revolution) was staffed and led overwhelmingly by college students and professionals. Unemployed lawyers were prominent (take Fidel Castro himself.) Here's the makeup of the "peasant revolution's" first cabinet, drawn from the leaders in the Anti-Batista fight: 7 lawyers, 2 University professors, 3 University students, 1 doctor, 1 engineer, 1 architect, 1 former city mayor and Colonel who defected from the Batista Army. A notoriously "bourgeois" bunch as Che himself might have put it. By 1961 however, workers and campesinos (country folk)-made up the overwhelming bulk of the anti-Castroite rebels, especially the guerrillas in the Escambray mountains. And boy, would THAT rebellion make for an action-packed and gut-wrenching movie! If by some miracle it ever got made you can bet these learned critics would pan it too. Who ever heard of poor country-folk fighting against their benefactors Fidel and Che? The New York Times' Stephen Holden also sneers at Garcia's implication that " life sure was peachy before Fidel Castro came to town and ruined everything. " In fact, Mr Holden, before Castro "came to town," Cuba took in more immigrants (primarily from Europe) as a percentage of population than the U.S. And more Americans lived in Cuba than Cubans in the U.S. Furthermore, inner tubes were used in truck tires, oil drums for oil, and styrofoam for insulation. None were cherished black market items for use as flotation devices to flee the glorious liberation while fighting off Hammerheads and Tiger Sharks . The learned Mr Holden is also annoyed by "buffoonish parodies of sour Communist apparatchiks barking orders." Apparently, Communist apparatchiks should be properly depicted as somewhat misguided social workers, or as slightly overzealous Howard Dean campaign staffers. It's no "parody," Mr Holden, that the "apparatchiks" Garcia depicts in his movie incarcerated and executed a higher percentage of their countrymen in their first three months in power than Hitler and his apparatchiks jailed and executed in their first three years. As well complain that the guards and police in Schinldler's List , Julia or The Diary of Anne Frank come across as hackneyed caricatures. Instead let's portray them with more "complexity," as misguided idealists who followed a leader who unshackled the German working class from it's subserviance to snooty barons, who eradicated Germany's unemployment and who ended Germany's national humiliation at the hands of Europe's premier Imperialist powers. Andy Garcia shows it precisely right. In 1958 Cuba was undergoing a rebellion not a revolution. Cubans expected political change not a socio-economic cataclysm and catastrophe. But I fully realize such distinctions are much too "complex" for a film critic to grasp. They prefer boneheaded clichés. Garcia might have followed the laudable examples of "historical complexity" and "accuracy" shown in previous movies on Cuba. Take two that these critics compare (favorably) to The Lost City, Havana and Godfather II. In Havana, the brilliant director Sydney Pollack casts Fulgencio Batista with blond hair and blue eyes. In fact Batista was a Black. In Godfather II, Francis Ford Coppola, to show Havana streets on New Years Eve 1958, casts more people than marched in Los Angeles last week and depicts them in a battle scene right out of Braveheart. In fact Havana streets were deathly quiet that night. I don't presume to the exalted position of a film critic. So I don't comment on the dramatic and cinematic criticisms made by these august critics. I'm not saying, or even implying, that The Lost City is a better movie than the Godfather II. I'm simply criticizing the critics on their criticism of The Lost City's historical accuracy. In these reviews we see--in all it's classic splendor--the Mainstream Media's thundering and apparently incurable stupidity on matters Cuban.… Expand

The truth about Che Guevara is finally shown in a movie.

Actually, a very, very good movie. Beautiful cinematography and great music. I expected the story and directing to be tedious possibly, after reading some reviews. I now wonder why those reviewers couldn't follow what was being said. It all made sense to me, and it was told very well. I was in Havana last month and it is a beautiful city...that has deteriorated for years. Great trip in a country of contrasts. The people are beautiful and warm. Havana has the largest amount of colonial architecture in the Americas. I believe it can become a city like Prague in terms of tourist attraction. Yet the people are very poor. The visitors to the country use a different currency than the residents, and everything is divided along those lines. The children seem happy and there is universal education and healthcare. There is a sense of "The Revolution" everywhere and also a sense of waiting...... For things to change and get better. This movie gives a true perspective of how one dictator replaced another. I recommend the film to everyone.… Expand

Multi-faceted, intelligent work of heart and beauty. This movie looms large !

Andy Garcia's homage to the good ol' days of Batista and US imperialism has about as much political depth as Sean Hannity and about as much character development as a Mentos commercial. Some fine acting by Garcia and excellent music (much of it by Garcia as well), but I'm left wondering if anyone in Cuba had any material reason to want a revolution in the first place.

An excellent movie, good acting and great music!

Andy's picture is the best that has come out to tell the "true" cuban crisis when Fidel Castro took power. I know, I was there, about the peasants that everybody seems to care about, there were not many and less of all in all the cities in Cuba. There was money in Cuba, remember we had Sugar and Tabaco and Rum, and the economy was good. Peasants came from the sugar fields, workers, and even they all had $5 in their pockets always to spend. Five dollars went a long way at that time (1950s). Che Guevara was an assassin of the first degree and not a person to be idolized and made a hero like many people try to make him. He may be a good face to put on T-shirts and make money from, but he was the most depicable man on this earth, a real cold blood murderer (I had a friend that was asassinated by him at the wall). The picture is very well made, even if they say its long, it could have been longer and still not tell of all the inhumaties that Castro and his band of evil has done to Cuba. We can't wait for a sequel of the movie, excellent job to everyone that work on making this film a reality. Celina M.… Expand

Excellent story - the music is great. My wife and I throughly enjoyed this movie.

Great movie, being a Cuban/American I am proud of Andy Garcia and Lost City, well done!!!!!

This is a great movie unaffected by Fidel Castro´s multi-million dollar investment in media PR. This is a truly great movie that depicts the realities of life in Cuba prior to Castro´s destructive revolution.

Refreshing to see a realistic perspective of the impact of the cuban revolution and a true portrayal of Che for the assasin that he was instead of how he has been portrayed by Hollywood in the past.

All my Family and Friends have seen "The Lost City" 2 and 3 Times, I enjoyed the second time even more than the first. It touched my Family and I, because of our personal experiences that We endured during that time in Cuba. Congratulatios to Andy Garcia for voicing the truth about Cuba for the first time!

I was very young when I left Cuba but seeing the movie with my Mom she relived her past and as the movie was happening, she would be explaining things to me. Cubans are very family oriented and this movie certainly depicts how communism affect even the closest family. The music is fabulous. This movie certainly needs more exposure and it would be nice to see a continuation of another movie similar to this one. American people need to see what we Cuban's went through and how our country was destroyed by Fidel Castro.… Expand

Great Movie. Tells the true story. God Bless Cuba.

The Lost City, is a wanderful movie because it shows the true reality of what happenned in Cuba.The true history of Cuba that has been silenced by the media on this country. We are very proud that Andy Garcia had the courage to do this movie. God bless America and its freedom.

This movie is beyond ridiculous even if you don't pay attention to the political propaganda. Andy Garcia proves that a chinless man cannot be trusted with a determined action, but have his eyes watering at every opportunity. Who financed this joke?

I watched this movie through tears, re living my own sad and devasting family moments as a child in Cuba ready to depart with my family for the unknown. The Cuban story is sad, but thanks to Andy Garcia's passion for truth, the real story has been told even, if it took 16 years. How unfortunate that the so-called critics have ripped this movie to pieces without doing their research on Cuban history. I guess the truth doesn't sell. As a Cuban-American, I feel proud and have the utmost respect for Andy Garcia. Andy, thanks for your courage. Thanks for the telling the world our truth. … Expand

This was a wonderful movie. It kept our attention throughout.

Extremely moving, amazing cinematography and an extraordinary musical socre. Some criticts talk about historical inacuract. Extremely moving, amazing cinematography, and glorious music. Some critics talk about historical inaccuracies, mainly the portrayal of Che Guevara as an assassin. Ironically, the movie is historically accurate. Separate from his many recorded speeches, Che kept a diary up until his death and it he recounted in detail many of the killings "with a bullet to the temple" of uncooperative peasants and people suspect of not adhering to the revolution's dogma. His motto was 'When in doubt, kill him” and he advocated (as he did in his speech to the Tricontinental) that a good revolutionary was not one to be willing to die for the cause, but one willing to kill for a cause (I guess Bin Laden would approve). While Che was in charge of La Cabana prison he re-routed the visitors’ entry so the prisoners’ relatives (including children) would walk in front of the firing squad wall which was never washed. On it, blood stains and pieces of brain were clearly visible - this, in a country whose constitution did not allow the death penalty. The romantic version of the Motorcycle Diaries failed to mention that the Cuban doctors that went into the world to help the suffering masses were (and are) indenture servants, given meager wages, no medicines or equipment. Scores of them died in Angola from diseases against which they had no defenses or medications. They are always accompanied by a member of the G-2 secret police (patterned after the KGB by Guevara himself), but never with a family member. Family always stays behind as hostages (same situation with athletes and musicians, dancers, etc. - remember pitcher Livan Hernandez anyone? As for the “oppressed masses” not represented in the movie, all the leaders of the revolution were wealthy, private schooled young men and women (beginning with Castro who attended the top Jesuit prep school in the country). Look at the 1957 & 1958 statistics kept by UNESCO, the World Bank and several Swiss organizations: Cuban agricultural workers had the 7th highest wages in the world, industrial workers, the 8ith, and Cuban workers were more unionized in proportion to the population than their U.S. counterparts. Cuba’s per capita income was higher than Austria and Japan. The sugar harvest of 1958 (a year in which roads were often blocked by rebel forces) was 7 million tons; this year, the Castro government predicts 1.2 million with Cuba BUYING 100,000 tons from Colombia and Brazil to fulfill the quota owed the Chinese. The uprising against Batista was conceived and financed by the middle and upper middle classes, seeking to reinstate the Constitution and democracy, as were all other previous uprisings against Spain and assorted dictators such as Machado. Che Geuevara was not the people’s hero: the true beloved hero was the charismatic Camilo Cienfuegos whose last words in public (standing next to Castro) were “I promise the Cuban people that the day this revolution turns red, I will be the first one back in the hills, fighting for democracy.” He was dead within 48 hours, his mysterious disappearance in a plane crash that left no debris, a mystery to this day. ies, maiinly the portrayal of Che Guevara as an assasin. Ironically, the movie is historically accurate; Che kept a diary up until his death and it he recounted in detail many of the killings "with a bullet to the temple" of uncooperataive peasants and people suspect of not ahering to the revolution's dogma. His motto was 'When in doubt, kill him… Expand

Smarmy fat-cat pitty party. Who cares about these characters? [***SPOILERS***] Wealthy playboy has his club taken away. Then, rather than staying to fight for a principle (he doesn't have one as far as we can tell other than be rich and party) goes to New York to rebulid. Just more propaganda (note tall he political rants that accompany this flick). Would have had at least a scintillla of respect for him if he had stayed and fighted to keep Cuba free for the capitalists like his rotund, cigar-chomping tio for whom we should supposedly feel sorry. Andy Garcia is looking pudgy and seeing his manicured fingernails (after he presumably has been washing dishes for weeks) says a lot.… Expand

Descended into self-parody. Interesting idea, some nice music, and scattered effective scenes, but the execution often left one squirming. Reminiscent of high school drama or (at some points) a beer commercial. The romance was as hot as an animal cracker. Clunky political dialogue on all sides. Bill Murray looked like he walked onto the wrong set. And where was the editor?

This movie magnificently brought to life the memories my grandparents would share with me of the Cuba they left in 1958, and left me in tears. Only those with no connection to Cuba can question the accuracy of the story told by Andy Garcia - the story of those who left the Cuba they loved because of the violence and oppression involved with the "revolution."

The film is nicely done with beautiful pictures, but there is too much dead weight, if you know what I mean. Bill Murray's charactar, the excessive dancing, the shows, etc. distracted the attention and made it all too long.

Snoozefeast-a-palooza! There's so much talent on the screen and none of it comes through. A boring story that has way too many distractions. I never thought that I would be disapointed seeing Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, and Dustin Hoffman in the same movie and in the same scene! I guess there's a lesson to be learned from this movie... what it is... I have no idea.

I liked the story and the cinematography. The acting? Overall pretty good, although Bill Murray's character should have been axed, inappropiate and not funny. Dustin Hoffman's was too short and didn't add too much to the story. It was a little slow at times and could have been shortened. Ines Sastre was surprisingly good for a model... It just lacked something, can't put my finger on it. Directing maybe? It just didn't flow.… Expand

I was telling my mother tonight that it seemed that Andy García made this movie for Cubans and Venezuelans as well. I watched the movie with my mother and boyfriend as we cried seeing exactly what is going on in my country at the moment. I congratulate Andy García for his courage and hope Cuba will finally be free. We all hope that in Venezuela this will not happen but we are seeing it all.… Expand