Anybody up for over two hours of blatant Communist propaganda? Hands? Well, me neither, not usually, but an exception must be made for Mikhail Kalatozov’s daffy and gorgeous 1964 film " I Am Cuba".   Commissioned as a Russian/Cuban goodwill co-production, the result was ill-received by the cultural commissars of both countries, considered by the Soviets to be decadently over-stylized and by the Cubans as the culturally tone-deaf, overly-romanticized work of a foreign interloper.  Ideological and nationalistic concerns aside, the resultant movie is a hell of a feast for film freaks, among them Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola, who were behind Cuba’s restoration and American release. 

If Orson Wellles had been given a massive budget and complete artistic freedom, the result might have been very similar to the baroque glories accomplished here by director Kalatozov and his cinematographer Sergei Urosevsky – stunningly composed deep- focus high-contrast visuals throughout, and a long   tracking shot over and through the swimming pool of a decadent capitalist hotel that can compare to the opening shot of "Touch of Evil". The influences of Antonioni and Fellini can also be detected; it seems that veteran Soviet filmmaker Kalatozov (who had gotten attention in the West for his 1957 "The Cranes are Flying", one of those films that get described as "anti-war" but is really nothing of the kind- still well worth viewing) was ready to take full advantage of the post-Stalinist artistic freedoms.  He may have regarded the Cuban Revolution as one last chance for "Communism with a human face" (as the poet said,"his hope was a rope, he should have known"); his romantic "decadent formalism" may have pleased few in its intended audience at the time but has taken its place today as one of the cinema’s magnificent follies. If the idea of a mash-up of "Touch of Evil," ‘The Battle of Algiers" and "L’Aventurra" sounds remotely interesting to you I advise you to give this a view. 

Also there is a great score by Carlos Farinas (why won’t anyone release the soundtrack?).

When I think of William Shatner, as I so often do, I marvel at the range of his characterizations. First there is Kirk, the ultimate Hero of our time (and of all time to come). Then there are the more conflicted protagonists, such as the monk Alexei from the 1958 Brothers Karamazov, or the soldier Marc in the all-Esperantu Language fantasy Incubus. There are characters that combine good and evil in equal measure, like Denny Crane, or the Priceline Negotiator. But never has the Shat Man revelled in pure evil more than in the role of Adam Cramer, the title character of 1962′s overlooked B-movie classic "The Intruder".

Scripted from his novel by Twilight Zone stalwart Charles Beaumont, and directed by the legendary Roger Corman, The Intruder follows "outside agitator" Cramer, ostensibly a representative of the mythical "Patrick Henry Society", who travels to small Southern towns stirring up the passions of the white citizenry against desegregation. Cramer seems to have no deep convictions himself, using his far-right oratory for self-aggrandizement, and to exploit his followers.

The Intruder was true guerilla film-making, Corman taking his crew to a small Missouri town, whose racist townspeople did not realize the movie was anti-racist in theme until late in the production, at which point the film-makers’ lives were threatened and shots were fired at them. The small contingent of Hollywood actors were supplemented by scripter Beaumont himself in the role of a principled school principal, while sc-fi writer pals William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson (authors of Logan’s Run) were drafted in to play local red-necks. Mobs of local yahoos were played by themselves.

Shatner is pretty amazing in this, for the most part eschewing his beloved patented Shatnerisms for a very straight-forward riveting turn as a chillingly charismatic hate-mongerer. The enjoyment in watching this full-blooded thoroughly entertaining melodrama is somewhat mediated by the realization that the extras expressing such hatred were the real deal, a disturbingly cinema-verite aspect that reminds us of what much of this country was like less than fifty years ago. This is supposed to have been the only film Roger Corman has ever made that has lost money (we can hope it is recouped by the DVD sales); well worth seeing both for intrinsic merit and as a historical reminder….and a remarkable performance in the lead. You thought you knew Shatner? You don’t know Shatner, not until you’ve seen this film.

Directed by Richard Lester, the 1979 release Cuba was a box office failure on release, not surprisingly for a film that presents a hero who is ineffectual and somewhat ridiculous, attempting to rekindle a romance with a much younger woman that may never have been what he though it was. Add that said hero is played by Sean Connery and one can understand why audiences were non-plussed. However, anyone willing to approach this film on it’s own terms will find a visually gorgeous, intriguingly ambiguous entertainment, perhaps Lester’s most overlooked film.

Connery plays Major Dapes, an "honorable" mercenary hired by the Batista regime to advise the Cuban army on fighting guerrillas; Dapes discovers a corrupt to the core society on the verge of collapse, with a ruling class willfully oblivious to the sea change about to engulf them. Dapes attempts to restart a romance with a wealthy landowner played by Brook Adams, but it becomes aware to the audience that their personal relationship doesn’t amount to a "hill of beans" in the context of the momentous changes looming.

Richard Lester is best known for A Hard Days Night and Help! as well as such notable works as Petulia, the Three Musketeers, and the Four Musketeers, and Cuba bears all the hallmarks of his style: visual density, with information-loaded, painterly shots, and all sorts of almost surreal bits of business inserted; much overheard and ambient dialogue, often of an ironic nature; and a panoply of finely drawn supporting characterizations and bit parts, here by such estimable performers as Hector Elizondo, Jack Weston, Martin Balsam and Denholm Elliot. Cuba may not be a scrupulously accurate chronicle of the Cuban Revolution – I don’t think that was the intent- but it provides a mordant and glittering canvas of a world that is about to transform irrevocably.