HAVANA

Lenin considered Westerners who misunderstood the ruthless nature of Communism to be useful idiots. He would have been delighted by the movie HAVANA, which could be subtitled “How to train a useful idiot,” for it subtly tries to persuade the audience to join the army of useful idiots who support international socialism by portraying the revolutionary indoctrination of an archetypal capitalist (from a Marxist perspective): a selfish American gambler. (Actually, a free market capitalist is not a gambler, but a person who uses capital to create goods and services which increases the total wealth of the economy). Set against events leading to the Cuban revolution on New Year’s Eve, 1959, Robert Redford, who has been wined and dined by the ruthless dictator Fidel Castro’s Latin American Film Cinema School, plays Jack Weil, a high-stakes American gambler who falls in love with a Swedish actress who is married to a wealthy Cuban revolutionary (another useful idiot).

On his way to Havana, Cuba, in the pre-Revolution days of 1959, Jack cares about nothing in this world except playing poker in fancy and fast-paced casinos. On the ferry ride from Miami, he meets Roberta, a beautiful, smoky senorita who is carrying military radios in her car for the “freedom fighters”–Fidel Castro’s forces–and is afraid of being caught by Havana custom agents.

Jack agrees to switch cars with her until they are safely in Havana. Enchanted by her beauty (which doesn’t come through on the big screen), he attempts to entice Roberta into an affair, even though she is married. “This is Havana,” he replies. “Things are different here. Everybody fools around.”

There is much talk in Havana of the impending revolution and what will happen to this country that is the playground for the rich and decadent. Jack, however, is undaunted by the talk, concerned only with setting up the highest-stakes poker game of his life. “It’s what I’ve been living my whole life for,” he says.

The Cuban secret police, looking for those not loyal to the ruling Batista family, arrest Roberta and her husband Arturo. Arturo is reported dead while Roberta is tortured in prison. However, with some charm and a few well-placed American dollars, Jack obtains Roberta’s release.

Roberta wants to join the Castro forces, but Jack convinces her to leave her ideals and come back to the U.S. with him. Then, he finds out that Arturo is alive and poses as a CIA agent in order to bargain for his release. This is difficult for Jack, since in giving her up, he is losing the only thing he has ever loved more than gambling.

Later that New Year’s Eve, Castro’s revolution is ushered in amid much confusion and rejoicing as the common people run through streets, tearing up the gambling houses in a symbolic display of the masses rising up against the ruling class.

The achingly slow pace of HAVANA makes it seem even longer than it is. There are endless scenes of a steamy city at night where whatever perversion or debauchery a person desires is for sale. Jack, the protagonist, seems to be more a part of this sick society than a cure. Selfish and ruthless, he is susceptible to the false emotionalism of the Revolution, as he is led by his baser member to follow the so-called beauty Roberta. However, he takes a brief detour to have a menage-a-trois romp with two young girls from the United States, who are out for a good time (Redford looks like he is experiencing mid-life crisis in these steamy scenes).

In the process of acceding to his lust, Jack gives up his political neutrality in the interest of fairness, which is the slogan Arturo uses to enlist Jack in the revolution. In the end, Jack fulfills every one of Marx’s four goals. He participates in the destruction of property, commits adultery (thus undermining the family), aids in overthrowing legitimate authority, and wallows in immorality. Redford’s dedication to the absurdity of dialectical materialism is truly idiotic. Lenin would be proud of having produced such a useful fool for the cause of Communism.

In fact, there is nothing fair about international socialism, as Marxist/Leninism is called everywhere in the world except the United States. While Fidel and his cronies live better than any feudal lord: the per capita income in Cuba has dropped from the highest in the Caribbean before the revolution to one of the lowest; property has been confiscated by the party elite; families have been destroyed; thousands have been sent to fight in Africa to pay debts owed the Soviet Union; religion has been suppressed; and, thousands are rotting in jails because they did not subscribe to the agenda of the nomenclature. In the brutal attempt to equalize everyone, human dignity has been crushed and biblical principles have been violated. Now that the evil of Communism has been exposed in Eastern Europe, how can Robert Redford and MCA-Universal foist this propaganda on the American people?.

Another problem with HAVANA is that the historical facts are way off base. The U.S. pulled its support for Batista and supported Castro’s revolution before it became all too clear to the common man that he was a tool of Soviet imperialism. Perhaps the most ludicrous bit is that the movie ends with a supposedly glorious revolution with people in the streets carrying placards that welcome Castro’s new order. That’s a laugh. His new order was merely the same type of oppressive dictatorship, only intensified in its feudal ruthlessness.

Someone should tell director Pollack and Mr. Redford that the communist overthrow of Cuba was not the ousting of a corrupt government by the masses, but instead a carefully orchestrated Communist coup which took the Cuban people from a bad to a worse situation. Perhaps they need to realize what the rest of the world has learned: Communism is a complete failure.

At the end, Jack stands on the Florida shore, meditating on dialectical materialism and musing that “we’ve got our own revolution” in the United States. Perhaps, but the useful idiots should beware because they are the first to fall in the purges that follow a Communist takeover. On the other hand, perhaps people will repent and turn to God, thus saving the republic so that useful idiots can continue to sow their humanist seeds of destruction. Perhaps, by the grace of God, Redford will come to know the Truth that will set him free from false doctrines. Let’s pray.

Consequently, because of its inaccuracies, promiscuous sex, fornication, nudity, perversity, immorality, poor plot, and the main character’s humanistic philosophies about how random and meaningless life is, HAVANA is recommended only for those who want to analyze critically archaic propaganda.