Product Details

• Actors: Andy Garcia, Inés Sastre, Bill Murray, Danny Pino, Richard Marquez
• Directors: Andy Garcia
• Writers: D. Daniel Vujic, G. Cabrera Infante
• Producers: Andy Garcia, Aaron Mazzolini, Frank Mancuso Jr., Joe Drago, Johnny O. Lopez
• Format: Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Magnolia
• DVD Release Date: May 1, 2007
• Run Time: 144 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (104 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000PKG8U6
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #78,652 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
For his first feature film as a director, Andy Garcia has crafted an ambitious and vivid love story set amid the Cuban revolution. El Tropico, an elegant nightclub, overflows with exuberant music and sinuous dance; the owner, Fico (Garcia, Ocean's Eleven, The Untouchables), and his family live a life of privilege in Havana, but Fico and his father hope to steer the brutal reign of Batista towards democratic reforms. Fico's two brothers are not so patient and get caught up in the guerilla forces that seek to overthrow Batista by force; one dies after a failed coup attempt, the other joins Fidel Castro's revolutionary army. Meanwhile, Fico and his widowed sister-in-law Aurora (Ines Sastre) fall in love, their romance unfolding in the still-thriving Havana nightlife, while during the day Castro's new regime turns as repressive as Batista's. Gorgeous cinematography captures the spectacle of the musical numbers in El Tropico, which are never less than stunning, and the depiction of the political chaos is effective and dynamic. Unfortunately, at the heart of the movie is stasis; Fico, though morally indignant, never takes any action, and his courtship with Aurora is beautifully filmed but lacks palpable heat. Clumsy dialogue and odd digressions with mobster Meyer Lansky (Dustin Hoffman, Rain Man) and a seemingly metaphorical character known only as the Writer (Bill Murray, Lost in Translation) make a long movie feel even longer. But the music is undeniable; if your feet don't itch to dance after watching The Lost City, you have no soul. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Movie, June 27, 2006

By	Henry L. Gomez (miami, fl United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In watching The Lost City, you have to evaluate it on two levels. One is the purely cinematic approach, or simply is it a good movie, and the other is from a historical/political statement point of view.

As a movie the best parts are the beautiful photography, locations, costumes and music. It really is a treat for the eyes and the ears. Is it long? yes it's long. But after seeing the film for the second time, I can't see where there was room for a lot of trimming.

Overall the acting in the film was good, with some weak spots. As a movie it's definitely worth seeing and the film doesn't deserve a lot of the negative reviews it's gotten. I suspect those have more to do with the political/historical aspects of the film which I referred to before.

This film will offend a lot of people that have bought into the idea of Fidel Castro as a benevolent dictator and Che Guevara as a righteous revolutionary. This film exposes them for the cruel opportunists that they are/were.

The film makes no bones about the need to remove the (then) dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista but also unequivocally shows that what happened next was far worse for all involved.

Some have criticized this film for not showing "the grinding poverty" of the masses in pre-Castro Cuba. There's a reason for that. There wasn't that much of it back then. The Cuban revolution was one led and funded by the middle and upper classes and supported by intellectuals throughout the island. They wanted democracy not a totalitarian dictatorship.

Cabrera-Infante, the screenplay author does a great job in showing us the differing approaches to getting rid of Batista by putting one of Fico's (Andy Garcia) brothers in the 26th of July movement (Castro's group) and another in the Revolutionary Directorate (a competing revolutionary group). In the end Castro's group seizes power and squashes opposition. In other words, the bad guys won.

You'll need to see the movie to judge it's value as a work of art, but this movie goes a long way toward telling the untold (or rather unlistened-to) story of what happened and is happening in Cuba.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Lost City, July 17, 2006

By	Nelsn A. Carbonell "Maria T. Carbonell" (Gaithersburg, Maryland, USAb) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an artistic masterpiece, in terms of the story, the plot, the music, cinematography, fashion of that epoc in Cuba, settings sceenery,etc. The blend of the background-forground music with the action is amazing. Even though fiction, the historic value is remarkable: representation of events, sequence of events, magnitud of events, vingnets of issues and characteristics of the process, representation of the Cuban spirit, etc.

I'm a 65 year-old Cuban woman who lived through that historic time. I'm a psychologist, mother of seven children , all successfull college graduates and grandmother of 19 children.
I'm very greatful to Andy Garcia for the gift of this movie.
Maria T. Carbonell, Montgomery Village, Maryland

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally...telling it like it is, August 16, 2006

By	CMorfe (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost City (DVD)

For many of us who have lived through our own "Lost City," watching this film was a bittersweet experience. Andy Garcia has given us an artful, albeit realistic and truthful expression of the tragedy that befell the people and beautiful Island of Cuba. Not only was the movie entertaining and captivating, it was beautifully filmed, evoking images of a time and place we can never go back to. The casting was brilliant and the acting very compelling---you could tell that for many of them the movie was "personal." Amazing that this film made it to the screen given its honest portrayal of the brutal architects of the Cuban revolution, particularly Hollywood's darlings, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. I can't help but laugh (although I should cry) every time I see the blissfully ignorant adulation for Che and company...perhaps if more people see the movie they might think twice before sporting their ugly mugs on their t-shirts....way to go Andy!