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• We Were Strangers

  • I_Fortuna
  • 3/4/13

  This is a very good film. John Huston made great films in remote places. He pushed the evelope for location and stories that no one else could or would make. I think this is an important film and one should not make light of the "big, bad government" portrayal. If one looks at Cuba today the political message of this film is rather accurate. Gilbert Roland and John Garfield, Jennifer Jones, Pedro Armendariz are all fine actors. I am very sure that Huston and others, were well acquainted with rebels in Cuba and elsewhere. Huston was also a screenwriter on this film as well as Viertel, a German who came to America when he was 8 and who was a Dartmouth graduate, a Marine, and later was in the O.S.S. working against Nazi Germany. Also, Americans used to travel to Cuba all the time. Before revolutionary trouble mushroomed in the 50's (the corrupt Batista was thrown out in '59), Cuba was a popular vacation spot with casinos and wonderful beaches. Huston used to fish there and would have gotten to know many locals and probably rebels, maybe even Castro or Che. Thus, this would facilitate an accurate dialogue and story line. Huston knew how to make a movie that audiences would like while weaving into it elements of truth as he experienced it. This is a great film for students of Cuban and American history. This film is also important because few films were made in English with so many primarily Spanish speaking actors.

• A soap opera stuck on the same note

  • Mike Shobris
  • 6/3/10

  With some heavy editing, this could be a slick, taut film about citizens fighting an oppressive gov't. But it gets mired in its political message to the point where the pace is destroyed. It also suffers terribly from an overflow of bit characters, all trying to turn their few lines into Oscar moments. Ham alert! Without all the whining and over-posturing about big, bad gov't the film could be a successful action thriller.

• Pedro Armendariz: A True Star

  • jose garcia
  • 8/17/09

  We Were Strangers is an American financed movie set in Habana with two major league Hollywood Stars, Jennifer Jones and John Garfield. The Director, another American icon of cinema John Houston brought in the reigning male star of Mexican Cinema Pedro Armendariz, who in 1948 he was the Cary Grant, James Cagney and GregoryPeck of movies South of the Border. Pedro along with another Mexican born naturalized American citizen Gilbert Roland. The cast also includes the legendary Ramon Navarro, another Mexian born movie star who made his name during the silent movie era in Hollywood.

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