Product Details

• Directors: Tomás Gutierrez Alea
• Format: NTSC, Import, Subtitled
• Language: Spanish
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 4 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000YNGU20
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #198,428 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

EN EL SIGLO XVIII LA ARISTOCRACIA CUBANA SE CONCEBÍA A SÍ MISMA COMO PATRICIA, AFAMADA POR EJERCER -UN ESCLAVISMO BENÉVOLO-, APARENTEMENTE MENOS CRUEL QUE EL DE OTROS PAÍSES CERCANOS. UN CONDE SE TOMÓ DEMASIADO EN SERIO ESE PREDICADO Y SUSTITUYÓ A CRISTO PARA -HUMILLARSE ANTE SUS SIERVOS- EN UNA SEMANA SANTA QUE LE ACARREÓ MUCHOS DOLORES DE CABEZA, YA QUE PUSO DE ESTANDARTE A UNOS SUPUESTOS APÓSTOLES, ESCOGIDOS ENTRE LOS TRABAJADORES DE SU PLANTACIÓN CAÑERA.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A sobering flick, July 24, 2001

By 

S. Swallow - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Supper [VHS] (VHS Tape)

The demand for sugar brought the demand for labor and the demand for control over the labor. The Last Supper was an excellent movie in the way opening one's eyes to the use of Christianity as a means of control. Throughout the movie the Count, the owner of a Spanish plantation, is trying to use Christianity through the Padre and through guilt to cause the slaves to work better for him. He plays the neutral role as he allows Don Manuel, the overseer, to keep the slaves working and allows the father to teach them about reaching paradise if they follow their masters here on this earth. Eventually the slaves revolt after he lets 12 of them eat at his table in a recreation of the last supper. He realizes that he gave them too much. He does not want another revolt and graphically shows what will happen to those who go against his authority. Those who do not appreciate how much he has done for them. However, one of the twelve who sat at the table runs free, hope is still alive.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sinister metaphor!, June 10, 2005

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Supper [VHS] (VHS Tape)

From the times I watched Viridiana with all its wholeness expresiveness, I had never watched another striking Latin American movie made with such fierceness and dark poetry.
The last supper is nor more neither less, a parable, a powerful and sad story that describes the slow decay process around a family immersed in their ancient glories, unable to asimilate and understand what's going on outside of their geografic limits.
Gutierrez Alea gave us the super masterpiece of the Latin American cinma: Memories of the underdevelopment, a merciless portrait about the crude reality of Cuba in 1968.
After having been a public fact and having received all the honors, he insisted to return with his well know bitterness from several angles, and finally in 1976 he decided to get into the soul, and the ancestral cuban codes: the religious sincretism, the racism, the superb, the old glories and the absolute lack of respect for the human being, and we will be able to watch all those aspects throughout this outstanding picture.
The sequence in the Supper when the master decide to join all his slaves to enjoy a dinner will become a true hell after the hidden spirits appear after drinking wine. Add that powerful statement pronounced by the leader of the slaves whn he masks with a pig head and says: "One datty the lie died the thruth while it was sleeping and since then the body of the truth walks around the world with the head of the untrue" still resounds in my mind and spirit.
Go for this unusual and strong film.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Parable about the Meaning of Freedom in 18th Century Cuba, February 1, 2006

By 

Gerard D. Launay (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Last Supper [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Some movies have great stories or great writing. This has both. A plantation slaveowner convinces (himself) that he
is moral and benevolent. Imagining himself in the Christ role, the slaveowner stages a formal dinner - a last supper - by inviting 12 black slaves to dine with him. Why stage this dinner? The slave master believes the blacks will thank him for his "goodness." Instead, the plantation owner lets loose the Africans' passions, hatred, and desperation for freedom. A slave revolt follows. In response, the slave owner forgets all about Christ as he ruthlessly hunts and punishes the rebellious blacks...however one slave evades capture and wins his bid for freedom. This is a unique and provocative film about the African experience in Cuba.