Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and several of his partners travel to pre-revolutionary 1950s Havana to discuss their future Cuban business prospects under the cooperative government of Fulgencio Batista.
At the time, Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista is soliciting American investment, and communist guerrillas led by Fidel Castro are trying to bring down the government.
The politicians are all onside. The only problem is a growing insurgency.
“I assure you this: We will tolerate no guerrillas in the casinos and the swimming pools,” a Cuban official jokes, as he courts investment from the gangsters.
But Corleone is skeptical, especially after his car is stuck in traffic. He sees police try and fail to arrest a revolutionary.
“I saw an interesting thing happen today. A rebel was being arrested by the military police,” he tells his fellow gangsters.
“And rather than being taken alive, he exploded a grenade he had hidden in his jacket,” he continues.
“He killed himself and he took a captain of the command with him.”
The mobsters mutter that the rebels are lunatics.
“Maybe so,” says Corleone. “But it occurred to me: The soldiers are paid to fight. The rebels aren’t.”
“What does that tell you?”
“They could win,” Corleone says.
There is a very interesting scene in the New Years festivity, of December 31,1958 in a large luxury ball room in the midst of the “bourgeoisie” present Michael Corleone embraces his brother Fredo and tells him he discovered his betrayal.
Outside, in the streets the population is partying. Then Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, enters the grand ballroom of the party. There he addresses the people attending telling them that due to the serious setbacks of his troops in Guantánamo and Santiago, he resigns “to prevent more bloodshed” and designates a provisional government and bids farewell to leave the city and wishes them all “good luck”.
Outside the scene is an emotional population and someone shouts: “Viva la revolución! Viva Fidel!”.
The bourgeoisie flees the ballroom. There are those who arrive at the Club Náutico Marianao to board their yachts and flee the country. Others are at the entrance of the US embassy. In an air strip a plane of the Cubana National Airlines is ready for takeoff.
In another scene the population takes to the streets to strip the casinos and destroy parking meters. A bus equipped with a loudspeaker shouts: “The tyrant has fallen! Viva la revolución! Fidel, Fidel!”. Michael Corleone tries to take Fredo but does not manage it while the crowd surrounds the car and continue shouting: “Fidel, Fidel, Fidel!”.
The scene was not filmed in Cuba but in the Dominican Republic in the Las Cariátides hall of the National Palace of Santo Domingo.
The exceptional scene of this film is a testimony of a real event; the overthrow of Batista in Cuba and the triumph of the revolution led by Fidel Castro, January 1, 1959.
And the events have been recreated in the film with real drama because the Cuban Revolution overthrew one of the most corrupt and repressive governments of Latin America that not only was allied to the Mafia but had in Havana a series of businesses placed at the service of the powerful Cuban oligarchy and capitalist interest in the US.
#TheGodFather #AlPacino
#FrancisFordCoppola
The Angry Proletariat 