The Last Supper (1976/Cuba/New Yorker Films)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Film: B
As Fidel
Castro steps down, it is hoped that there is hope for the country and its
future. Besides the many who became
victims of his oppressive regime, there are the artists who found every work a
struggle with the government. This is
especially true of filmmaking where more than a few films were censored. Tomas Gutiérrez Alea has been one of the
smartest and most challenging since he arrived on the scene. For starters, you can try the following films:
Guantanamera!
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/294/Guantanamera!
The Twelve Chairs (1962)
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/4954/The+Cuban+Masterworks+Collection
His film Strawberries & Chocolate was recent
and was censored and denounced by Castro’s regime while becoming a worldwide
arthouse hit. Then there is his enduring
1976 political hit The Last Supper,
which is not an attack on Christianity, but the force-feeding of it on
others. As relevant as ever, it is a
dark comedy about white slave owners deciding to force the religion on their
black slaves to “improve” themselves and be “better” by making them take place
in the title event. Of course, the owner
will sit in Christ’s seat. The slaves
who wanted to be free in Spielberg’s Amistad might have gained an understanding
of the religion on their own, but when forced, the 12 prisoners here reject the
religion and violence ensues.
Of
course, the long history of Colonialism, The Inquisition, The Crusades and
other infamous attempts to force a bastardized version of Christianity on those
who do not want it is an age-old story and as we well know, has sadly, recently
been the project of extreme Right-Wingers in the U.S. with great political
power (encouraged by some corporations) to do the same by new means, including
ruing by fear.
By Alea’s
film is not that simple, as it takes its time to go through the whole story (he
wrote it himself) as character study of how this kind of dictatorship develops
and just gets worse and worse and more destructive. It has been a long time since I have seen
this gem, but it is now out on DVD and is just one more film that proves that
Alea is one of the most underrated filmmakers of his generation.
The
letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image is from an older print that needs some work (where’s
the negative) and likely a later analog master.
Color is limited somewhat, though it is obvious the original color
schemes were interesting. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Mono is also flat, but the film is subtitled and the sound is not
too noisy. Extras include four trailers
for other New Yorker DVDs and a color pullout in the DVD case that offers an
interview with the director as text with illustrations.
- Nicholas Sheffo
