Recently saw it


First, I wanna say that I think the story of Trujillo and his assassination should never have been made into a movie based on the book "La Fiesta del Chivo." Don't get me wrong I love the book and I think Vargas Llosa did a masterful job of telling a complicated story but he had 500+ pages to do it. Luis Llosa only has about 2 hours so as a result a lot of the characters including some of the people who should have been the main characters feel incomplete and relegated to supporting roles. The irony of all this is that the only characters in the film who get their due are the young Urania and her father and they never even existed.
All that being said I probably would have ended up liking the film had Luis Llosa not directed it. This story needed somebody more subtle who would let the drama play out. Luis seems to think that the best way to show drama is by showing slow motion shots of guns being locked and loaded. The cast was good and there is no more beautiful setting that Dominican Republic but this story deserved a lot better than this film.

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(maybe spoilers)

Im agree with that. I love the book and im obsessed with Trujillo Era and the stories of the heroes of may 30th. But I think that the movie didn't do well telling their stories and instead making most of them as secondary characters, like Antonio Imbert, he is barely included in the movie but is the only one of the two survivors alive until these days. Juan Tomas Diaz, Fifi Pastoriza among others are nowhere around in the movie. It was sad for me to watch this on the movie because I was expecting a better job from Luis Llosa who is by the way from Peru as I am.

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Remember, Vargas Llosa got bad info about the facts about Trujillo when he was investigating while he was writing the novel, that's why a lot of people that knows very well Trujillo's history was very skeptic about the movie. I'm dominican by the way.

Later.

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According to a friend of mine who is a personal friend of Antonio Imbert, the only survivor of the massacre following Trujillo's assessination, Imbert felt that the book was surprisingly accurate in depicting the situation. But, although Imbert personally partook in the assassination, not even he can guarantee that every detail of the story is correct since it encompasses so many people, locations and circumstances. However, it seems the book follows as closely to reality as humanly possible. I just felt that the actor playing Trujillo did not resemble the dictator much. Balaguer however was nearly spot-on!

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You're right, Balaguer's chrachter is a dead ringer, but a few decades too old.

In the early '60s he was still a a little over 40, wheras in the movie, he appears to be reaching 60.

All in all, I didn't dislike the movie, although in my personal opinion, I think it could've been portrayed differently, for instance, focus more on the political and human rights violations commited during this dictatorship, other than Trujillo's insaciable appetite for sex with minors.

To this day, both of my parents who were only 8 years old when the tirant was killed, remember those days with a lot of anguish, and recall their own parents being neurotic all the time, and whispering around the house.

The turning point that fused the rage of Dominincans, was the murder of the Mirabal sisters, at which point, they all agreed it was one thing to kill the men, for which they had tolerated enough, out of fear, not benevolence, but it was a totally different thing to start murdering our women.

Maybe someday, the world will probably know the real story behind the shadows of Trujillo's 30 years in power, now that his protege, Balaguer is dead as well, and the reminiscents of fear have faded with him.

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Hey, you're right! I completely missed that! I was so used seeing Balaguer in his 60s, 70s, etc that I forgot that he was just about is his 40s during El Jefe. Yes, the actor looked good, but too old. I just thought Trujillo was too skinny.

So, if Balaguer was standing in the shadows of Trujillo (and who knows how much power he had by then already), and we know that in his final blind years others stood in the shadow of Balaguer (and who knows how much power they had)...who is REALLY in control NOW!?!

Yo solo tengo un partido por el cual voto: Los Aguilas!

Aguilucho hasta la muerte! ;-)

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To all that saw the movie, does Steven Bauer has a large or small role in the movie?

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