Cuba

Largely ignored by audiences upon its release, Richard Lester's handsome 1979 epic of the Cuban revolution—set in 1959 Havana (but filmed in Spain) during the last days of the tottering Batista regime—features an Altmanesque ensemble of characters who view the incipient arrival of Fidel Castro (present only in vintage clips) and his revolutionaries as either a temporary crisis or a business opportunity. Central to the loose plot is Major Robert Dapes (Sean Connery), an aging British soldier-of-fortune hired by a Batista general to help fight the terrorists. Dapes recognizes a Cuban aristocrat (Brooke Adams) as—somewhat amazingly—the same girl he loved in North Africa during WWII, a woman who has now reinvented herself as the wife of a philandering Havana tycoon (Chris Sarandon). Unfortunately, the broad-canvas narrative here is only intermittently engaging, feeling more like a series of vignettes, albeit with some standout sequences (such as a Castro gunman shooting up a posh dinner party). Oddly, no particularly strong political point-of-view emerges regarding the island nation's history and upheavals, adding to the curiously dispassionate tone of this historical romance. Extras include trailers from other 1970s Sean Connery films when the rugged actor was trying to put 007 behind him. A strong optional purchase. (C. Cassady)