Alsino and the Condor (1982)
Alsino, a boy of 10 or 12, lives with his grandmother in a remote area of Nicaragua. He's engulfed in the war between rebels and government troops when a US advisor orders the army to open a staging area by the boy's hamlet. Alsino tries to be a child, climbing trees with a girl, looking through his grandfather's trunk of mementos and trying to fly; he goes to town to sell a saddle, has his first drink and is taken to a brothel. But the war surrounds him. The US advisor takes Alsino on a chopper flight, but he's unimpressed. The soldiers' cruelties awake rebel sympathies in Alsino, and after an army assault backfires, the lad is fully baptized into the conflict.
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Sorry, this movie sucks
Don't listen to the negative reviews
Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Alsino y el cóndor (1982)--called Alsino and the Condor in the U.S.--is an extraordinary film about an extraordinary time. Director Miguel Littin presents the story of a young boy, whose belief is that he literally can fly. Of course, physically he can't fly. However, his heart and his soul can fly because he realizes the possibility of his country throwing off a brutal dictatorship.Naturally, the film has rough edges. Nicaragua in 1982 was a country with rough edges. The Sandinistas had thrown off the yoke of the Somoza family dictatorship, and Nicaragua was engaged in defending itself against U.S.-financed counter-revolutionaries--the "Contras."I traveled to Nicaragua three times in the 1980's, and can attest to the historical and political accuracy of this film. This is a patriotic film, but it's not propaganda. It's a film about a successful revolution. We in the U.S. have Revolutionary War films because we're proud of our overthrow of a tyrant. The Nicaraguans made this patriotic film to offer their story of the overthrow of a tyrant.Alsino and the Condor works on both a artistic and political level. Check it out. (Incidentally, and for the record, King George was definitely a good old boy in comparison to Nicaragua's Somoza.)
I actually liked this movie....but after reading other comments, I'm wondering what happened to me. Was I hypnotized? Was it because I was reading subtitles? I truly did care about the little boy in this film. And the scenes of war in this Central American country were heartwrenching. Really hit me hard. Am I a fool for propaganda? Was I being played like a violin? I also thought Dean Stockwell was great in his role as the American chopper pilot. I especially loved his drunk scene - uh, maybe because it reminded me of all the fights I used to have with my ex.....the one lighthearted moment in a film filled with heavy sorrows.
Miguel Littin shows to us as by means of the collectivity is possible to reach the freedom. The film is developed in a jungle in Nicaragua, where there is a boy with the name of Alsino that dreams about flying, dreams about being free. The films shows all the ways that Alsino looks for the freedom, beginning with the freedom offered by countries of the first world; later with which Alsino thinks that it is freedom; later with the freedom offered by Capitalism; and finally account that the freedom is only obtained being united to its community, becoming Manuel. Also it is important to emphasize the position that Littin gives the woman, where the sample as it leaves from the fight in the search of the freedom.
Its obvious political biases aside, this movie was terribly made and impossible to follow. Scenes were pieced together as if someone had cut up the reel, scattered the tape on the ground, and given the director only five minutes to tape it back together in no particular order. When characters were in doubt for dialogue, which was often, unnecessary profanity was used liberally. The movie didn't make sense, it preached incessantly, and it had the same entertainment value as cutting off your own finger. Alsino can keep his condor, thank you.