May 01, 2006

Letter to Rex Reed.

From: conductor@trenblindado.com
Subject: The Lost City
Date: May 1, 2006 9:16:39 PM EDT
To: rreed@observer.com

Mr. Reed I'd like to point out a couple of things about your review of the Lost City that I read at http://www.observer.com

The first thing I'd like to point out is a factual error that makes me wonder if you saw the entire movie. You say "After Luis leads a daring assassination attempt—a raid on the presidential palace that lands him in prison and ruins his life..."

Well, the character of Luis is murdered by Col. Candela's henchman on the roof of an apartment building. The character of Fico Fellove (Garcia) falls in love with the widow. There's even a scene in which Bill Murray's character jokes about her being the "Widow of the Revolution of the Year." There was no "adultery" in the film as you claim.

And the second point I'd like to address is your description of the film as being "politically confusing". Well the Cuban Revolution itself was politically confusing. The film does an excellent job of communicating through all of that confusion that Batista was bad but Castro is infinitely worse.

I suggest next time you familiarize yourself with the subject matter before you review a film set to true historical events. And perhaps you should actually watch the film too.


Henry L. Gomez

Posted by Henry Louis Gomez at May 1, 2006 09:18 PM

Comments

Nicely done. Most of the reviews I've read make me wonder whether the critic has seen the movie at all. One guy actually has the cojones to say that maybe Andy Garcia's project would have been better had it never been made.

Posted by: barrocas [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 1, 2006 10:28 PM

Bravo.

Posted by: George L. Moneo [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 1, 2006 10:29 PM

Way to go, Henry.

Posted by: Lou [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 1, 2006 10:41 PM

Well done Henry, at the press event I attended, two of the critics present admitted and even joked about the fact that they had fallen asleep during the movie and about the difficulties of doing a write up when you haven't seen the film. I was disgusted.

Posted by: Ziva [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 2, 2006 12:27 AM

When it comes to the Rex Reeds and others of his ilk, it is obvious that many villages out there are missing their idiot. Hmmm...there is a Village in Big Apple country, ain't there?

Posted by: Alberto-Q [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 2, 2006 07:28 AM


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