Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

MJD 31 I first saw this film in 1995, before I became a huge movie fan, so I guess that innocence blinded me to the so-called similarities with "Casablanca" or allegedly poor directorial or acting performances. I saw it for what it was and it marked me for life. I've seen it again many times since then and it is always a beautiful romantic movie set against the backdrop of the Cuban revolution and the end breaks my heart every time. I loved the actors and their performance, the plot, the setting, the soundtrack... everything really. It's in fact one of the few movies I still hold very dear in my soul and that will never change. I found the characters believable and not false in any way. It also made me very interested in Cuba and its history. I really don't understand what was expected from this movie and why the harsh reactions back when it was released. All I say is, watch it and make up your own mind. I believe it is worth it. Enjoy!

Michael Neumann The island of Cuba is a long way from Morocco, but in Sydney Pollack's film of the same name the city of Havana isn't too far removed from 'Casablanca'. The two films share a similar exotic locale, the same shady intrigue, and an all too familiar bittersweet romance. All that's missing are Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, but what's surprising about Pollack's film is how well it stands up under the comparison. Robert Redford portrays a tough and charismatic (if slightly disreputable) gambler who drifts into the decadent Cuban capital during the last, desperate days of the Battista regime, and it's a pleasure to watch him playing, for once, a character without a built-in halo. The foreign intrigue, played against a background of political unrest, is perfectly suited to the swinging tropical setting, but the romance between Redford and beautiful revolutionary Lena Olin isn't as convincing. Don't blame the talented cast; the script lets them down too often during the last half of the film, undermining an otherwise attractive and entertaining bit of high-grade, escapist fluff.

MARIO GAUCI To begin with, I had always stayed away from this one until now (watched in tribute to its recently-deceased director) given the fact that it was a notorious flop on original release. Having caught up with it, it’s strange to think that Hollywood was still trying to recapture the magic of CASABLANCA (1942) fifty years on: the title itself, the backdrop of a country in turmoil, a hero who won’t ‘stick his neck out’ until he meets the beautiful wife of a ‘freedom fighter’ (believed dead at some point), the gambling element as a symbol of the fickle nature of destiny, his antagonistic relationship with the chief villain (whom he dupes in the end), etc.A lot depends on the effortless charm of its protagonist (Robert Redford – still looking great at 54), though his character is so laid-back that it’s hard to swallow him being so swiftly and easily a smooth operator with the authorities when required! Lena Olin and Raul Julia play the couple in peril this time around: reportedly, the latter so wanted co-star billing (though his relatively brief role hardly demanded it) that he opted to appear unbilled if his request was declined (which is exactly what happened)!; an overweight but quite effective Tomas Milian (a native of Cuba, incidentally) is the head of the organization rooting out the rebels; also on hand are Alan Arkin as the put-upon casino owner, Richard Farnswoth as “The Professor” and Mark Rydell as the real-life Meyer Lansky.As expected of Pollack, he gives the film a polished feel all round – from Owen Roizman’s diffused lighting to Terence Marsh’s remarkable production design (depicting both the glamor and the seediness of Havana) and Dave Grusin’s plush Oscar-nominated score. Overlong at nearly 2½ hours, the film’s ultimate failure can be pinned down to its essential dullness (lacking in action and being deliberately-paced to boot) – despite a number of undeniably compelling individual sequences.

malcolmi In this extremely underrated 1990 film the worn glamour of gambler Jack Weill, played with expert subtlety by Robert Redford, is a perfect echo of the attractive corruption of Havana on the brink of the 1959 Cuban revolution. Locked in the pursuit of his big game, "with guys who don't even think how much they're playing for", Redford's character is unapologetically self-centred. "How many guys do you know who are really crude?" he asks with a charming leer. But Jack is drawn into a different climate of feeling when he encounters the earnest, committed revolutionary social consciences of Roberta and Alberto Duran, played flawlessly by Lena Olin and the uncredited Raoul Julia. Jack falls in love with Roberta, and begins to commit himself to a world larger than the circumference of his poker table. The betrayals and cruelties of the Batista regime are echoed in miniature around that table, and we can see Jack's growing understanding that, however he avoided it in the past, his world is indeed political, filled with kinds of suffering and commitment that he can't avoid any longer. When he makes his choices, and lives with the consequences, we watch the brave sadness of a man who knows that if he'd faced then what he understands now, he might have won. The excellent performances by Alan Arkin, a perfect illustration of the world to which Jack once aspired, and Tony Plana, as the Cuban reporter who yearns to be brave enough to act on his knowledge, expand the textured subtlety of this picture.Why was the film spurned in the US when it first appeared? I have to think that American audiences found it difficult to accept a film presenting both a sympathetic presentation of Castro's revolution and a clear condemnation of covert CIA support for Batista's government. Jack Weill's story is a parable of the pain and glory of growing up. That's a process that American audiences seem unwilling to face.