• Home
  • News
  • Top Picks
    • Movies & Films: Top 25
    • Documentaries: Top 25
    • Films For Students: Top 10
    • Music Videos: Top 10
  • Categories
    • Film
    • Documentary
    • Shorts
    • Blog
    • Calendar
    • Links
    • About

Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World

Libertarian Movies, Films & Documentaries

Before Night Falls (2000)

Tagged: Anti-socialism, Escape from socialism, Freedom of speech, Government as bigot, Sexual liberty

Reinaldo Arenas suffers increasing state persecution as he rises to become one of Cuba’s greatest writers. [ Before Night Falls credits: Dir: Julian Schnabel / Javier Bardem, Olivier Martinez, Johnny Depp / 133min/ Biography, Drama/ Anti-Socialism, Freedom of Speech, Government as Bigot]

“While this is a story of state oppression, it’s also a story of heroism in the face of oppression, and it’s told, often in Arenas’s own (narrated) words, with that kind of laughter in the face of pain that belongs exclusively to the long-suffering. The telling has wit, not only in words, but incorporated into events. The film is likewise notable for artful cinematography and generally superior acting.”

“People that make art are dangerous to any dictatorship. We create beauty and beauty is the enemy. Artists are escapists. Artists are [condemned as] ‘counter-revolutionary’ because there is a man that cannot govern the terrain called beauty, so he wants to eliminate it.” The man referred to in this bit of dialogue, who wants to eliminate what he cannot control, is dictator Fidel Castro; the artist to be eliminated, and the subject of this film, is poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas.

Based on Arenas’s best-selling memoirs, Before Night Falls tells the story of his colorful youth in pre-Castro Cuba, his early support for the Cuban revolution and eventual disillusionment with it, his rising career as a writer, his persecution both as a writer and as a gay man, his escape to the U.S., and ultimately his tragic death.

Arena’s experience in Cuba, as portrayed in this film, is typically Orwellian. Cuba’s state (monopoly) literary institutions deliberately underrated Arenas’s achievements because he refused to tow the party line. Cuban authorities intimidated Arenas and his fellow writers with sudden arrests and show trials of suspected literary “counter-revolutionaries.” At the same time, Castro ordered the general round up of gay men; and one by one, many of Arenas’s friends were arrested and sent to concentration camps. (After years of denying persecution of gays, Castro recently conceded the point.)

Arenas nonetheless persevered, writing in secret and carefully and ingeniously hiding his manuscripts until they could be smuggled out of the country. Publication abroad and worldwide acclaim did not win him fame at home, however. Instead, he was imprisoned on a trumped up charge, and although one of Cuba’s most talented writers, for years he remained little known in his own country, so complete was Castro’s control of the media.

While this is a story of state oppression, it’s also a story of heroism in the face of oppression, and it’s told, often in Arenas’s own (narrated) words, with that kind of laughter in the face of pain that belongs exclusively to the long-suffering. The telling has wit, not only in words, but incorporated into events. The film is likewise notable for artful cinematography and generally superior acting, including both an Academy Award–nominated performance by Javier Bardem as Arenas, and characteristically creative performances by an almost unrecognizable Johnny Depp in two polar opposite cameo roles: as a macho Cuban prison officer, and as “Bon Bon,” a transvestite.

Before Night Falls is biographical, but finer than conventional biography because it incorporates the very dreamlike poetical sense of Reinaldo Arenas that made him worthy of being its subject. Although just over two hours, it feels longer, like a leisurely story-telling by a Cuban wit. No doubt Reinaldo Arenas would be pleased.

How to See It

Netflix
Amazon (DVD)
Amazon (Instant Video)
Online Video Search

Links

IMDB
Wikipedia
Related Film: Improper Conduct
Related Film: Fidel Castro, the Dictator’s Legacy in Four Films
Book: Before Night Falls

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

  • RSS
  • Twitter

Featured Post

badass beauty queen

Badass Beauty Queen | Documentary

Anastasia Lin wins the annual Miss World Canada beauty contest and uses her newfound notoriety to campaign against human rights abuses in communist China. [ Badass Beauty Queen credits: Dir: Theresa Kowall-Shipp/ Anastasia Lin/ 100 min/ Documentary/ Libertarian Heroes, Anti-Socialism/ Country/ … Continue Reading

Snowflake

Snowflake: Bud Sugar Song Mocks Social Justice Crybullies

Snowflake is a great new song from the band Bud Sugar. It mocks social justice crybullies in a lighthearted way and to a catchy beat. This is just great fun. Some links for the band: YouTube  Instagram  Facebook  Twitter  Patreon  Homepage … Continue Reading

A Pity You’ve Never Seen An Old Movie: 10 Suggested Films

Per the New York Post, "A new study finds that less than a quarter of millennials have watched an old movie from start to finish that was made back in the 1940s or 50s and only a third have seen one from the 1960s." This is something of a cultural tragedy, as so much of what is great in the larger body of … Continue Reading

Themes

Abuse of power American revolution Anti-draft Anti-regulation Anti-slavery Anti-socialism Anti-taxation Anti-war Ayn Rand Corrupt government Creator as hero Democide Econ 101 Eminent domain Equality & law Escape from socialism Freedom of speech Free press as hero Government as bigot Government as torturer Government enforced morality Government healthcare Government schools Incompetent government Individualism John Stossel Law & liberty Legalize Drugs Libertarian heroes Libertarianism 101 Power corrupts Power worship Pro-capitalism Pro-immigration Propaganda Psychiatric coercion Resistance to tyranny Right to secede Search & seizure Second amendment Sexual liberty Social tolerance Unions & monopolies Voluntarism Working for government

Genres/Categories

Action-Adventure Animated Biography Blog Comedy Documentary Drama Family Featured Film Foreign History Horror Music-Dance Netflix News Romance SciFi-Fantasy Shorts Thriller Upcoming Western

About Miss Liberty

This site is a collection of films and documentaries of particular interest to libertarians (and those interested in libertarianism). It began as a book, Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film: Movies for the Libertarian Millennium, where many of the recommended films were first reviewed. The current collection has grown to now more than double the number in that original list, and it’s growing still.

  • RSS

© 2022 Miss Liberty's Film & Documentary World. All Rights Reserved

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.