Clandestinos (1987/aka Undercover/First
Run Features/Cuban Masterworks Collection DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: C Film: C
Trying to
emulate a gritty Hollywood thriller, Fernando Pérez’s Clandestinos (1987) is really a combination drama/propaganda film
about how anti-Batista spies fought to over throw his dictatorship for a better
tomorrow and sometimes paid the price.
The film is often silly, sometimes condescending and never refers to the
results of the Castro era. Made in the
last years of the U.S.S.R.’s existence, the film never adds up to anything more
and with the results known in advance and that they are no improvement (one
dictator to the next) has zero suspense.
The
acting is not bad, but the most interesting moments are those before the
Batista fall, recreating the party days of tourism and Capitalism before the
fall, violence and all. Pérez fared
better later with Hello, Hemingway
(1990) so I am not writing him off as a flat-out propagandist, but this film is
simply full of itself and is an interesting failure at best.
The letterboxed
1.66 X 1 image is from a scratchy, problematic print. Though this is a well-shot film, this print
(and the film in general) needs some serious work. The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound is monophonic, scratchy
and has its share of background noise. Extras
include stills, on-camera Pérez interview and trailers for this series and
(again!) the Castro and Che DVDs we already covered.
- Nicholas Sheffo
