Customer Reviews

Improper Conduct (aka Mauvaise Conduite)

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This documentary by Nestor Almendros (Man with a Camera), now nearly three decades old, is a well-crafted expose of the Castro regime use of National Socialist-style methods for dealing with all who did not conform to the regime's idea of a "revolutionary." The documentary pays special attention to the treatment meted out to Cuba's homosexuals, who along with dissidents were hunted down and herded into forced labor camps, the so-called "Military Units to Aid Production" (UMAP). The documentary includes interviews with "veterans" of the labor camps. One of the best is with the writer Reynaldo Arenas (subject of a recent movie (Before Night Falls). He relates how he had smuggled and published books abroad, where he was well known, but when a visitor to the island asked to see him he was told that there was no Reynaldo Arenas--he had been banished to the Orwellian universe of "non-persons." Uncannily, the documentary illustrates the techniques of totalitarian dictatorship detailed by Richard Overy in The Dictators: Hitler's Germany, Stalin's Russia.

Strong, if sometimes heavy handed documentary about Castro's horrific
mistreatment of gay Cubans.

Always interesting, but somehow not as powerful as it might be. Maybe
because it's too sure of it's own POV. There's no pretense of balance
or questioning of the claims made by victims. While I have no doubt of
their honesty, it doesn't feel like the film is interested in doing research or
proving it's points with more than talking heads recounting stories..

Also, its focus seems to drift at times, into more generic, general
Castro bashing, which is less effective, and starts to undermine the
power of the specific arguments being made here.

It's one thing to hate a political figure, even with good cause, and
another to really do justice to that hatred with solid film-making.

And yet, all that said, I'd still urge people to see the film, because
it does address an important and under explored issue.