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Freaktana A Major Disappointment

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

jfarms1956 I am Cuba is a movie best enjoyed by adults, 18 and older, who either enjoy "artsy" films, are artists in the film industry, are artists in other genres, and who enjoy the "different" kind of film. This is certainly the "different" kind of film. Since I don't belong to any of the aforementioned categories, I did not appreciate the artistic nature of the film nor the film itself. I found the film meaningless and rambling through the scenes. The music was okay. The movie was incredibly long, I think the film should have been edited down to one hour. I wouldn't bother with this film unless you like to torture yourself with something "different" for a change. Remember, different does not mean better in this case. Eat your whole dinner through this one. You won't miss a thing.

st-shot The cameras are flying in this remarkable display of cinematic poetry that elevates I Am Cuba's heavy handed and sometimes mawkish propaganda message to an effective and inspiring pedestal. Like Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin and Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will it is both visually mesmerizing and immediate to the early glories and heady times of change through revolution before the total onset of the totalitarian dictatorships that followed in each country.The dictatorial and brutal regime of Fulgencio Batista is in it's final days but the exploitation and repression of the Cuban people living amid poverty continues. The somber sultry beauty of the rhythmic isle we float through is suddenly thrashed by the crass noise of sloppy rock and roll poolside amid tall hotels and voluptuous swim suit models. Other interrelated stories feature a woman forced through economics to peddle herself to unctuous American businessmen and along with a student activist fight off a platoon of loutish US servicemen. Outside the city the farmers are also exploited by United Fruit Company and attacked indiscriminately by government planes. The cause is clear for all; they must rise up against the tyranny. This point is gracefully and heroically conveyed from end to end in I am Cuba.Matching their masterful artistry displayed in the powerful and moving The Cranes are Flying, Soviet director Mikhail Kolatozov with cinematographer Sergei Uresevsky blueprint some audacious camera acrobatics. With some of the finest tracking and crane shots I have ever witnessed (the hotel pool scene and the funeral for the student activist are as good as it gets in any film) I could rhapsodize endlessly on its form but I am Cuba's content also offers some fascinating incite to time and viewpoint. The film is anti American Imperialist, Capitalist, Western Influence and Coca Cola with a hint of anti-semitism thrown in but even with this stilted viewpoint I am Cuba remains a powerful and moving document on the struggle against government repression.All leaders of the Twentieth Century understood the power of film and its possibilities to reach, persuade and motivate the masses to their way of thinking. Propaganda is an indispensable tool to all who hold power and film is a perfect delivery system. Democracies (The 49th Parallel, Purple Heart) as well as Dictatorships (see above) and anyone else interested in consolidating and maintaining power would be lost without it. I am Cuba is a magnificent and passionate tract in that vein that clearly does Castro proud but with nuances in ideology would have done the same for Roosevelt Churchill or Robert Mugabe. In the case of I am Cuba it's the singer not the song that shines.

tieman64 "I am Cuba" is a Soviet funded propaganda film designed to promote international socialism. It deals with the Cuban revolution but is mostly remembered for its acrobatic and innovative camera work.The film was virtually unknown for a number of years, before reappearing in the late 80s. Its inventive style would prove hugely influential on both Paul Thomas Anderson and late period Scorsese. "Goodfellas" and "Casino" owe much to this film. "Boogie Nights" also copies a long take, in which a camera prowls a party before eventually diving into a swimming pool.Director Mikhail Kalatozov, who made the excellent "The Cranes are Flying", remains virtually unknown today. His films are filled with remarkably complex long takes and some pretty daring camera-work. For "I am Cuba" he custom made his own rigs, dollies and camera mounts, and as a result the film has a virtuosity that you simply didn't see in the 50s and 60s. Kalatozov zooms along buildings, hurtles up staircases, zaps down Cuban streets and plunges through pulsating crowds. The film's actual plot consists of 4 interwoven stories, designed to promote revolution and the "greatness of socialism". The problem is, Kalatozov is so in love with his camera that he completely forgets he's making a propaganda flick. The film touches upon some facts, highlighting that a handful of American owned mega corporations were oppressing the vast majority of Cuban people, but it also makes Capitalism seem damn seductive, by focusing on snazzy American hotels, partying Cubans and the fun nightlife.As a result of the film's confused message, "I am Cuba" was rejected by its Marxist backers. The film's flamboyant style was seen to be too free, too liberating, thereby obscuring the intended message. We see shanty towns and poverty and yet Kalatozov makes it all seem so damn sexy.7.5/10 - A strange film. Still, it remains a technical milestone.Worth one viewing.

MacAindrais I Am Cuba (1964) A breathtaking marvel of cinematography. Mikhail Kalatozov's I am Cuba, a joint production between Soviet and Cuban filmmakers, remains an astounding visual success, with its inventive and freewheeling camera style that went on to influence so many. So legendary is the films style that a great many filmmakers today likely do not even realize that they've been influenced by it through the work of other directors such as Martin Scorcese.The film, a hyper stylised perhaps propaganda film (although the film was berated on both sides - by the Russians as too sympathetic to Americans, by the West as entirely unsympathetic to Americans), it flows (and really is there a better word to describe this?) through a series of vignettes, dealing rebellious youths to slimy members of Western bourgeoisie.One could discuss the incredible long and free form shots, moving up and down buildings, in and out of water, soaring over crowded city streets - it is a technical marvel, at its release and even still today. The stories often get left out of discussion because of this, but it should be noted that they are quite powerful and moving, and propaganda or not, they express some profound tellings of the eploitative relationship between the wealthy American business class and the Bastista dictatorship.Whatever your political leaning, I am Cuba is an unquestioned masterpiece and innovator of the visual language of cinema.