Customer Reviews

Latino [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Make no mistake this is a film that involves a political war and a small piece of history that most of us won't be aware of but while the story itself is made up the facts of what occurred is real.
Robert Beltran gives a great performance of a Latino green beret who comes to question his assignment and ultimately wakes up the viewer to ask themselves if what the government is doing at any given time the right thing. After all we are only told bits and pieces of these things and films such as this one help to clarify. To bad it's only available on vhs.

A film passed over. Theme of the movie shows U.S. as the bad boy
on the block. That is why it got very little notice, hardly
available and who would care, except left wing radicals who
care about social injustice perpetrated by the Empire against
the people shown clearly in the film. I wondered how the movie
got made in the first place given the anti-US slant. The scenes
were enlightening and the somewhat filmy/grainy visual effect
added to the surreal quality. Very scarry. Characters were a
back drop to the theme. I was afraid of the CIA barging into my
home to confiscate the video and taking me in for questioning
as to why I was watching this film as they pulled my finger nails
out and my arms out of their sockets. Few have knowledge of this
movie and the U.S. government is happy to keep it that way.

it's a good movie, it really describes the other side of the story, the soldier side, this chicanos US soldiers sent to nicaragua to train the contras and forced to fight without their dog tags cause US didnt want dead american soldiers in a nicaraguan civil war, that made them feel like they were not doing the right thing and they shouldn't even be there, it was a real story, i'm Costa Rican and i know some central-american history, i remember about this nicaraguan civil war, but i didnt know USA was financing the contras, interesting story, it would be better to read about the contra and sandinistas history before watching this movie, cause it'll help you understand it better, cause i think that in the movie is not very clear which side of that civil war was the right side. i liked it.

Judge Russell Engebretson, DVD Verdict-- The story has all the elements needed for a rousing, suspenseful war drama: romance with a woman who sympathizes with the declared enemy, duty versus moral choice, witness to brutal torture and murder, a running gun battle in a small village, and realistic depiction of guerrilla warfare. The problem is that none of the story elements hang together all that well. The movie is coherent and presents a clear picture of what is going on in post-Somoza Nicaragua, but it does not propel the viewer into the story; it does not, for the most part, create a passionate sense of outrage that should be building throughout the film. There are a few very good scenes which are engaging and disturbing: the torture and attempted brainwashing of a young village boy; the casual rape and murder of peasants suspected of harboring Sandinista rebels; the attack on an unarmed village. However, a few good scenes do not a good movie make.

I don't fault the acting, although it rarely rises above a workman-like level; the understated performances help to reinforce the documentary feel of the movie.

The editing may contribute to the film's lack of forward momentum. The jumps between locations in Honduras and Nicaragua serve the important romantic subplot, but also defuse the tension of the Nicaraguan scenes

The most fascinating aspect of Latino is that it was actually filmed in Nicaragua during the time it portrays. Real villagers and Sandinista fighters were used during the shooting, some of whom had freshly experienced events similar to those depicted in the film. Wexler relates several stories of the hardships endured by the cast and crew during the filming in what was, quite literally, a war zone--a case of genuine guerrilla filmmaking.

Audio is a lackluster but serviceable Dolby Digital stereo track. The picture is simply terrible. I've seen worse, but there is no getting around the fact that this is a subpar transfer
-Full review at dvdverdict.com