MovieChat Forums > Juan de los muertos (2012) Discussion > Politics of the movie

Politics of the movie

posted 12 years ago by balducci2
5 replies | jump to latest

It seems to me that this movie was pretty obviously anti-Castro, and went out of its way to suggest that the revolution had failed to improve people's lives. There were so many examples of this. Several that I can think of right now are that:

- doctors are said to be hard to get
- the medicines are mostly expired
- the cars driven by most Cubans are crap
- the elevators we see are all broken
- the infrastructure is crumbling
- people stealing from one another to get by
- people taking advantage of one another to get by (charging for the zombie kill service instead of doing it as a civic service)
- people taking extra advantage of tourists to get by (charging tourists, and Cubans with relatives in Miami, double)
- no one knows any Christian prayers (when they tried the crucifix on the 'vampire') because post-revolution religious persecution shut down many churches
- the way it mocks the Castro regime for blaming everything on dissidents

I think this is what really made this movie a true and excellent zombie film, in the spirit of most of Romero's zombie movies. It was making real social / political statements, using the context of zombies to do it.

I wonder how this movie got filmed in Cuba, and how it got the support of various Cuban agencies? I wonder if the government representatives who approved its filming / funding actually read / understood the script, or if they just went by something like the IMDB description ("The Cuban government and media claim the living dead are dissidents revolting against the government") and failed to understand that it was a satire mocking the regime?

Someone at an anti-Castro, extreme right-wing, Miami based blog I follow (one I read out of my own interest in Cuba, combined with a desire in knowing what the nuts on the very, very, ultra-extreme right are saying) considers this a pro-Castro movie. Which, to me, is laughable. Of course the moron who said that has never actually watched the movie.

[–] yahko_kun 12 years ago

Thats a good question. I would consider a change in the political transformation within Cuba. Its getting a much lax cultural restrictions, the reason
i say that is that the same things happened in Russia back in 88-90, it wasnt about getting bombarded with Western movies and merch. Its about the culture within the country that is being publicized, printed and gets a voice.
comedy and books especially. I cant speak for the Cubans if thats the truth or not but I think thats the reason behind this movie being shot in Cuba and accepted to be shot in Cuba.

I would call it a pro Cuban movie because the ending gives a reference to staying in your country, no matter how it sucks, its still yours. Cubans might dream of going to the States but then they lose their identity and are still considered strangers there despite living there for 20 years.

My question is, was this movie shown in Cuba, if yes, did people like it, hate it.

My other examples is Iranian movies, I seen quite a few. They are almost always criticize the regime on a political and religious levels. They are still shot there, we dont know if they are necessarily shown there.

[–] jigalini 12 years ago

I wondered same thing. I thought it was not filmed in Cuba, till I saw ending credits and info on this site.

Part where announcer on tv says "These are dissidents funded by American government" cracked me up. I guess Castro or whoever is in charge, is lightening up. The politics added to making it a good movie.

[–] Gular-Scute 11 years ago

The Cuban authotities are a lot more laid back about criticism of the revolution and it's icons than the anti-Cuban propagandists would have it.

Also, the characters, while sympathetic, aren't portrayed as people we'd wish to emulate. Besides this, the main character goes through a journey where he starts as a lazy, criminal, politically disinterested critic of his country and ends up as someone who refuses to leave and is committed to being engaged with the process of liberating Cuba and willing to fight against overwhelming odds. Perhaps that sold it to the authorities as much as anything.

[–] liutenantsalt 10 years ago

The Cuban authotities are a lot more laid back about criticism of the revolution and it's icons than the anti-Cuban propagandists would have it.

I think jackass here means to say that they just beat them and arrest them instead of shooting them and wringing slave labor out of them like they used to.

[–] Gular-Scute 10 years ago

If, like Castro, I'd risked my life fighting to depose a rapacious dictator who forced the poor to remain uneducated, starving and disenfranchised while rich Americans treated the place like their personal playground, I'd also make sure that trouble causers were beaten and arrested.

There was no slave labour after Batista and the only people who were shot were the ones who thoroughly deserved it.

I wouldn't show the kind of restraint that he did but he's a better man than I and a world away from a maggot like you 'liutenantsalt'. If you'd grown up under his rule, you might even have learned how to spell.

I doubt it would have done you much good though and I equally doubt that you are capable of growing up. Get back to the shopping mall and keep shoving burgers into your fat mouth while buying stuff you don't need or even want.