Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Havana Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 22, 2020

Sydney Pollack's "Havana" (1990) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber. The supplemental features on the disc include vintage trailers and exclusive new audio commentary by critic Sergio Mims. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The gambler

In that short exchange Joe Volpi (Alan Arkin) has with Jack Weil (Robert Redford) in front of the quiet church you get the truth. This is exactly what was happening right before Fidel Castro’s thugs entered Havana -- Mayer Lansky was paying both sides. It was a smart strategy. If Fulgenico Batista managed to retain power, Lansky and the mafia would have continued to control Havana because they already had all of the city’s key people on a payroll, including the General. After the smoke cleared up, business would have become even better. Paying Castro was an insurance policy for the future. Lansky believed that once a new government was established his bribes would provide him with the same influence he had amongst Batista’s people, which would have allowed him to preserve the business. But Castro cheated Lansky. He took his money for as long as he could and made him believe that they can coexist on the island, but once he toppled Batista’s government his people forced Lansky out. What happened next? In Marty Scorsese’s The Irishman, Frank Sheeran tells you exactly what happened. Lansky and other top underworld figures apparently worked hard to get John F. Kennedy in the White House, and soon after he was inaugurated the Bay of Pigs invasion took place. The official story was that the Cuban exiles that landed on the island were supposed to take down Castro and restore democracy, but the entire operation was really Lansky and the mafia’s power play to regain their lost positions there.

Sydney Pollack conveniently uses Weil only as an observer of the drama on the island. Weil is a seasoned American gambler who has been there for a while and has all the right connections to keep him safe and prosperous. In other words, he is actually a pragmatic businessman like Volpi and Lansky, but operating alone. Because he isn’t interested in politics, he sees the island exactly as it is -- a beautiful place offering tremendous opportunities to those that are smart enough to recognize them.

But when Weil accidentally meets Bobby Duran (Lena Olin), a beautiful former actress with connections to Castro’s people, his philosophy of life slowly begins to evolve. Weil pursues her and after her husband (Raul Julia), an outspoken revolutionary, is killed by the secret police proceeds to take his place. With Havana on the verge of being overtaken by Castro’s people, Weil then decides to participate in one final and arranged by Volpi secret no-limit poker game that could provide him with the funds to start a new life with Duran.

The evolution of the romance between Weil and Duran isn’t entirely predictable, but at least as far as this writer is concerned it is not what makes Pollack’s film interesting. The big picture and especially the peripheral forces in it are actually a lot more intriguing. For example, the chaos and the manner in which different parties react to it reveal a lot about the nature of the division that existed on the island, and how ultimately the people there had to choose between two equally poor sides. Sadly, it was just the nature of the game -- someone had to have a commanding ideological influence on the island; the economics that were attached to it would be determined after the winner had emerged. In other words, the well-being of the Cuban people was never a decisive factor, which is precisely why later on hundreds of thousands of them fled the island.

Pollack and veteran cinematographer Owen Roizman shot on location in the Dominican Republic, which provides a rather remarkable period ambience. The nighttime footage from pre-Castro Havana where ordinary thrill-seekers, gamblers, prostitutes, foreign visitors, spies and secret service agents mingle in particular looks terrific.

*If the historical and political content in Havana appeals to you, see Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's Memories of Underdevelopment, which offers a far less glamorous but much more authentic summary of the final moments before Castro's takeover.

Havana Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Havana arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber.

The release is sourced from an old master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. The master are a couple of minor limitations, but I like it quite a lot because it has a pretty nice organic appearance as well.

What are some of these limitations? There are select areas where the highlights could have been managed better to retain more native nuances. This is a common limitation on older masters, so it is not surprising that it is present on this master as well. Overall, however, the visuals appear very nicely balanced, so you won't see random spikes of big blown-out whites. Grain could be a little tighter and better resolved, but the big positive here is that there are no traces of problematic degrainig corrections. Finally, I feel that the color scheme should promoted even lusher primaries and supporting nuances, though the existing ones are surprisingly good. The rest, I must say, looks pretty good, a few times even great. The visuals have plenty of pleasing depth and in darker areas shadow definition is usually handled quite nicely. Clarity and sharpness look good as well. There are no stability issues. Lastly, there are no distracting large cuts, damage marks, stains, warped or torn frames to report. So, can this film look better on Blu-ray? If fully redone in 4K, yes. However, even though the current master is old, it is quite good. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Havana Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

There is one sequence toward the middle of the film where Robert Redford and Lena Olin meet at a secluded villa where for a short moment a noticed some very unusual distortion in the dialog. I don't know if this happens only on my disc. The rest of the audio sounded fine. Clarity, sharpness, depth, and stability were very good. I also thought that the range of available dynamics was excellent.

Havana Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers - a collection of vintage trailers for Havana. In English, not subtitled. (6 min, 480/60i).

• Commentary - in this new audio commentary, critic Sergio Mims discusses the conception of Havana, the period that is chronicled in the film, how the U.S. government and the mafia saw Castro's 'inevitable' win, some of the unique dilemmas Robert Redford's gambler faces, etc. The commentary was recorded exclusively for Kino Lorber.

• Additional Trailers - additional trailers for the following titles from Kino Lorber's catalog:
  
  1. Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here
  2. Legal Eagles
  3. They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
  4. The Interpreter
  5. Cuba

Havana Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In the weeks before General Batista's government collapsed, Havana truly was a very, very unusual place. Perhaps, and almost certainly, not as glamorous as many Hollywood-produced films would want you to believe, but this is largely irrelevant. The city did stay open for business and pleasure for as long as possible, and then overnight it was forced to adopt a brand new identity which has stayed with it until today. Sydney Pollack's film is about those final moments before the transformation and a veteran American gambler who faces some difficult dilemmas while planning to start a new life with a beautiful woman he has unexpectedly fallen in love with. Kino Lorber's release of Havana is sourced from an old but good organic master that was supplied by Universal Pictures. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.