Interpretations of Pre-and Post-Revolutionary Cuba - Movie Review Example

The paper "Interpretations of Pre-and Post-Revolutionary Cuba" is a good example of a movie review on history. Cuba: The Forgotten Revolution narrates the story of fundamentally unknown Cuban revolutionaries Juan Antonio Echeverria and Frank Pais, a student of architecture and a teacher, whose names rarely appear in the list of other famous contemporaries like Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. By using stock footage that had been achieved along with exclusive interviews with people who took part and observed the Cuban revolution, American citizens who fought along with Castro and Guevara as well as a former CIA agent, it becomes evident that the two men were critical to the ultimate overthrowing of the Fulgencio Batista Zaldiva.

New research, as well as footage that has been acquired recently, have challenged the prevailing view that could have been created and propagated by Che Guevara implying that a 200 strong guerilla army allied to Castro single-handedly trounced over numerous soldiers loyal to Batista thereby liberating the people of Cuba. In reality, Echeverria and Pais’s insurgencies in Santiago and Havana were most critical to the generation of popular support for undermining the authority and creating resistance of Batista along with his secret police.

Echeverria and Pais rivaled Castro in popularity and power at the height of the revolution but the two men did not live long enough to see the success of the movement. Apparently, Pais’s associate gunned him down in the street while Echeverria met his death during a daring raid to the palace (Klouzal 213). The film points out the intricacies that are fundamental to revolutions while examining the influences on the final historical record. Subsequent to Castro assuming power in 1959, he tied together with the power of the emergent medium of televisions so that he could advance a narrative that successfully removed Echeverria and Pais, among others, from the history of Cuba.

  Cuba: A Lifetime of Passion is a documentary that points out present Cuba, its revolutions and past, as well as its future transition. Cuba is in a fledging revolution that rose to power prior to the birth of the most of the countries citizens and the film explores behind the scene political indicators of the revolution that have been seldom seen outside, along with an insider perception of Miami Cuba. Through a number of sequences and interviews that are shot in Washington, Miami and Cuba, aspects on the present and future situation in Cuba as well as its revolution become evident.

These can be seen through the account of Cuban citizens who have lived in the communist regime along with those who were exiled. Cuba is seen from a perspective that is arguably pro-Castro, through the view of oppositionists and the ones stranded in exile in Miami. The perspective of the US Department of State in Washington DC is also seen in the film. The politics of Cuba functions through the politics of opposition, in that Castro was opposed to the US as well as Cuban Miami. The film possesses various questions including, what will happen when the opposition that prevailed ended?

How the regime in power will hold on to power without being perceived as being dominated by the Americans? These and other issues are addressed in the film that invokes answers and speculations and will allow the people who watch it to see the culture, which might unite the Cubans again. Cuba at Crossroads: The Root of the Revolution is a series that has four episodes that entail examining the changes that occurred in Cuba after the Soviet economic crisis from 1994 to 1998 (Bell 352). The first episode, A view from Havana, addresses the basics of the Cuban revolution as well as the reality of contemporary Cuba, the collapse of the infrastructure and the health care system of the nation, along with the haves and have nots in a society that had previously been democratic.

The second episode, A view from Havana and the Bay of Pigs, addresses the embargo by the US, the efforts by Cuba to attain US dollars as well as recollections of the assault at the Bay of Pigs that had been supported by the US. The Roots of the Revolution, which is the third episode entails visiting the historic sites that were critical to the 1956 to 1958 revolution, exploring the perceptions of the Cuban pleasantry at the time of the revolution and today, the myths that surround the revolution as well as the future relationship between the US and Cuba.

The last episode, Havana 2000, is concerned with Cuba after Elian and includes a clash of the Western and African religion with the state, newer non-US investors engulfing Havana, what remained of the Helms-Burton Act as well as the treacherous road to reconciliation for Cuba and the US. Conclusion All these films deal with revolutionary aspects of Cuba in one way or another and like many other conversations that touch on contemporary Cuba, these films are framed before and after the revolution.

The 1959 revolution brought changes to the condition and character of the country allow with its citizens, even though as certainly as various revolutionary socialists would have hoped. The main goals of the government subsequent to the revolution were to create a unified Socialist national identity especially since it was experiencing external pressure. This goal has been challenged in a more direct manner by the reality of race relations in the country and even though the government has attempted to hide and play down their significance, these issues are fundamental to all the policy initiatives that have been undertaken by the government.