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For Love of Country
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Arturo Sandoval, played by Andy Garcia, is a monumental jazz trumpet player. One who, after watching this film I learned, practically invented a new genre of jazz because of fear of persecution from his homeland of Cuba. Anyone who likes jazz (or music for that matter) should definitely find this movie and give it a shot.
Sandoval lived in Cuba for most of his early life. He was taught to play the trumpet by the school system and the government later let him tour the world playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie (play scene-stealingly by Charles Dutton). When explaining his situation to immigration officials, he remembers back upon the things in his life that made him the person he is.
This may all sound terribly clichéd, and part of it is. The film has awkward moments and stilted dialog in parts, but I could not help but like it. Wonderful music accompanied by an interesting story keep it flowing right along. I cannot imagine living in a country where you could be thrown in jail for listening to the wrong song. I cannot imagine living somewhere that would not let a musician play what he wanted to play of associate with the musicians he wanted. This movie treads the lines of political and romantic storylines evenly, neither focusing on the other too much. As the end draws near the quick wrap up almost gets away from you as details previously mentioned in the story are passed by.
The DVD
Video: The video is acceptable for the story. There are moments of pixelation and muddiness noticeable when there are dissolves and fades into the night. A greater deal of contrast would have been appreciated since large parts of the film take place in dimly lit clubs or streets. It is still presented in a nice 1:85.1 letterbox that is overall acceptable and does not detract form the viewing experience.
Audio: My favorite part of the disc and the reason this will get a recommended instead of a rent. Great Dolby 5.1 audio is present in all of the numerous musical and club scenes. The sound of his solitary trumpet reverberates off of the stadium walls as he plays his love song written for Marianela. This is a full-bodied mix that sounds great and deserves to just be listened to over and over again.
Menus: Standard scene themed menus are no cause for celebration.
Extras: While short on extras it does offer up a mono Spanish language track along with standard cast and crew bios and subtitles. There is a nice, extremely informative HBO Behind the Scenes that I found to be nowhere as near annoying as they usually are. It features many clips with the real Arturo Sandoval and emphasizes his involvement in the creative process. He is personable and witty, and jokingly admits he is not as handsome as Andy Garcia. Quite a few things from the film are explained in the too short ten-minute feature.
Finally: As I stated in the review and decent movie backed up by a beautiful score and sound. Jazz lovers should seek this out for an interesting addition to their collection and other film lovers should opt for the digitally encoded DVD rather that the afternoon viewing on HBO.
Arturo Sandoval, played by Andy Garcia, is a monumental jazz trumpet player. One who, after watching this film I learned, practically invented a new genre of jazz because of fear of persecution from his homeland of Cuba. Anyone who likes jazz (or music for that matter) should definitely find this movie and give it a shot.
Sandoval lived in Cuba for most of his early life. He was taught to play the trumpet by the school system and the government later let him tour the world playing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie (play scene-stealingly by Charles Dutton). When explaining his situation to immigration officials, he remembers back upon the things in his life that made him the person he is.
This may all sound terribly clichéd, and part of it is. The film has awkward moments and stilted dialog in parts, but I could not help but like it. Wonderful music accompanied by an interesting story keep it flowing right along. I cannot imagine living in a country where you could be thrown in jail for listening to the wrong song. I cannot imagine living somewhere that would not let a musician play what he wanted to play of associate with the musicians he wanted. This movie treads the lines of political and romantic storylines evenly, neither focusing on the other too much. As the end draws near the quick wrap up almost gets away from you as details previously mentioned in the story are passed by.
The DVD
Video: The video is acceptable for the story. There are moments of pixelation and muddiness noticeable when there are dissolves and fades into the night. A greater deal of contrast would have been appreciated since large parts of the film take place in dimly lit clubs or streets. It is still presented in a nice 1:85.1 letterbox that is overall acceptable and does not detract form the viewing experience.
Audio: My favorite part of the disc and the reason this will get a recommended instead of a rent. Great Dolby 5.1 audio is present in all of the numerous musical and club scenes. The sound of his solitary trumpet reverberates off of the stadium walls as he plays his love song written for Marianela. This is a full-bodied mix that sounds great and deserves to just be listened to over and over again.
Menus: Standard scene themed menus are no cause for celebration.
Extras: While short on extras it does offer up a mono Spanish language track along with standard cast and crew bios and subtitles. There is a nice, extremely informative HBO Behind the Scenes that I found to be nowhere as near annoying as they usually are. It features many clips with the real Arturo Sandoval and emphasizes his involvement in the creative process. He is personable and witty, and jokingly admits he is not as handsome as Andy Garcia. Quite a few things from the film are explained in the too short ten-minute feature.
Finally: As I stated in the review and decent movie backed up by a beautiful score and sound. Jazz lovers should seek this out for an interesting addition to their collection and other film lovers should opt for the digitally encoded DVD rather that the afternoon viewing on HBO.
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