I love it for its ...flavor. For Lena Olin and Robert Redford. For the clash between romance and politic. For the old image of people in the womb of bad times. And for a Cuba who was so easy lost. And that is all.

This movie is for people who have been in love or like watching movies about love. Though this movie isn't your cliché type of love story (it also contains aspects on the Cuban revolution) the chore of the movie revolves around love.The movie is about a simple man (Jack) who visits Havana because he loves to gamble, to meet the woman (Roberta) that would change his outlook and life forever. She fights for the resistance, against Batista, while he's not into politics at all. She's married with a man (Arturo) that is the head of the resistance in Havana. When Arturo gets kidnapped and is considered killed, Jack and Roberta have the chance to fall in love. But Jack finds out that Arturo is still alive and faces the choice of letting Roberta go or staying quite...This is one of the most real, deep and touching love stories I have seen. It contains beautiful poetic dialogues and the acting is great. A beautiful story about the meaning of love, sacrifice combined with the Cuban revolution.

Beautiful romance set in The Pearl of the Antilles, as Cuba was called before commies turned it into fido's island gulag.In Havana, Hollywood spares us its tedious fantasies of commies good and we bad. Havana is an elegant film whose reds seem a chaotic pile of unwashed, B.O.-plenty scurfs. Authors, Dr. Mario Lazo and Guillermo Cabrera Infante tell us all we need to know about castro's Cuba. The Cuban people have suffered under this monstrous regime since 1959. No matter, see Havana for the fine film it is.Havana's worth watching for the scenery alone, and the rest is gripping as well. Was Havana filmed in Florida and the Dominican Republic? Would love to know for certain. Havana, San Juan, and Santo Domingo, I believe are the three tropical cities each one guarded by a Moro Castle.Mark Rydell appears briefly, playing Meyer Lansky. His speech to Jack Weil and Joe Volpe - a real person, by the by, - well explains why Cubans who yearn for freedom nonetheless don't want the return to Cuba of any mafioso, be they gangsters or 'legit' BigKorpseorate monopolist greaszeballs or their political handmaidens. They don't get any uglier than Rydell's vigorous portrayal of Lansky, and there's plenty of his type in circulation today.Check out Daniel Davis' character, CIA Operative Marion Chigwell. Redford confronts, corners, and taunts Davis, then threatens to blow his cover as Davis' eyes turn cobra-like, dark, poised to strike. It' a compelling moment, one of many created by this inspired acting ensemble.Watch for brilliant character actor Thomas Milian, as he delivers his character, Colonel Menocal's two piercing soliloquys. He pulls no punches, makes us think, and serves as unlikely hero, one of many in Havana. Marion Chigwell, good to his word, delivers the Colonel to freedom.Freedom is Havana's understated yet powerful theme, one not easily missed.Dr. Paul Vincent Zecchino Manasota Key, Florida30 October, 2007

Many viewers have noted that Havana is essentially Casablanca in the Caribbean, which is certainly true. But I found the same apocalyptic tension in Havana as in Casablanca, although not quite as effective the second time around. Others criticized the dialogue. I thought it was exceptionally mature, and subtle, which may be what threw some of the reviewers in this forum, who maybe would have wanted something more bombastic. The plot development was very compressed - things had to happen very quickly, and so some thought they happened far too quickly. But I thought Olin in particular showed all of the pain and turmoil necessary to make her quick transitions of emotion believable. You have to believe that the times were so tumultuous that people had to adjust very quickly to changing circumstances. As for Jack falling in love with Bobby so fast, that's entirely believable, and the look they exchanged at the party where Jack meets her husband for the first time was our signal that this love affair was happening, and was one of those insane passions that overtake people, not infrequently, and in this case, again, against the apocalyptic backdrop of this incipient revolution, which made all involved feel very much at loose ends, ready for, or dreading, the vast changes about to happen to them. I though the end was too dragged out, but other than that, the movie mostly plausible.