times of the butterfly... the movie

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Lee-Lee

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Oct 17, 2002
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Just watched a wonderful movie with Salma Hayek (apologize if i have a spelling mistake)... name of movies is something along the lines of 'in the times of the butterfly'?

amazing movie.... wanted to know if anyone knows of/can recommend any other productions of this story about the revolution.

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jojocho

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Jul 10, 2002
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Lee-Lee,

I thought the movie was pretty bad, specially when compared to the original novel by Julia Alvarez (the actual title is In the Time of the Butterflies). You should try and read it.

There's another current thread with this same topic. It starts with a critique of another book by the same author called "How the Garcia girls lost their accents".
 
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suarezn

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Feb 3, 2002
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I agree, that movie was horrible...not a good depiction of dominican life even back then. In addition none of the actors were dominicans.
 
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SDecatur

Guest
I watched that movie, and to tell the truth, if it had not been for this board I would have had no idea what it was about.

With all the Dominicans living in NYC, their interest and involvement in world affairs etc, why hasn't there been at least a low budget production dealing with the DR, the Galindez (sp) assasination, US Occupations of the DR (Hell, I was shocked when I watched an old Eastwood Movie, Heartbreak Ridge) and they mentioned one of his service stations as the "Dominican Occupation) Trujillo or the Haitian dominican Wars?

I really am surprised, i think it would do well, but I certainly am not a producer so I am only playing to my personal interests
 
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Lee-Lee

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Oct 17, 2002
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the movie was horrible in what sense? are we talking technical? acting? depiction of story? about that last one.... i was wondering just how realistic the depiction of the girls lives was (ie: the home they lived in, how they grew up... was not the image i had in mind when i thought 'dominican life')... but then again, what i have in mind could be obscured by limited exposure to the culture, as well as, my sole exposure to dominicans being my experience in the tourist area.

it is inevitable to have the comment of 'bad movie' especially after one has read the book; more than often, after we've read a book and proceeded to view a production of it, we find the movie to simply not satisfy our expectations for obvious reasons. I guess I just loved the movie because I love Salma Hayek's work. : ) It's somewhat hard to watch at times though.
 
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Lee-Lee

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Oct 17, 2002
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difficult because some scenes have innocent lives lost by such torturous means... you see people treated like animals by terrible forces of power in extremely inhumane conditions.
 
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Porfio_Rubirosa

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Apr 26, 2002
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Veracruz

Veracruz, in Mexico, is where the movie was made. That's why nobody looks Dominican, and the sets are all wrong. The closest thing to Dominican in the movie was Marc Anthony, and he's NewYortorican.

Can't blame the producers for not wanting to make the movie in the DR, though. Can you imagine the bribary and extortion that would be needed to complete the project! For info on what it's like to actually try to make a movie in the DR, see some of the web articles about the making of the movie "The Serpent and the Rainbow".

What was wrong with the movie? What was right about it is the better question. The acting was so syrupy and overdone that you could have cut it with a knife. Nothing complex or interesting in how the screenplay was put together either. And, of course, the movie totally failed to capture Dominican life.
 
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Porfio_Rubirosa

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Apr 26, 2002
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Salma

Okay, I'll give you Salma. She's mighty fine. And, actually, her acting was quite descent in the movie too. It was the direction that stank.
 
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SDecatur

Guest
Re: Veracruz

Porfio_Rubirosa said:
Veracruz, in Mexico, is where the movie was made. That's why nobody looks Dominican, and the sets are all wrong. The closest thing to Dominican in the movie was Marc Anthony, and he's NewYortorican.

Can't blame the producers for not wanting to make the movie in the DR, though. Can you imagine the bribary and extortion that would be needed to complete the project! For info on what it's like to actually try to make a movie in the DR, see some of the web articles about the making of the movie "The Serpent and the Rainbow".

What was wrong with the movie? What was right about it is the better question. The acting was so syrupy and overdone that you could have cut it with a knife. Nothing complex or interesting in how the screenplay was put together either. And, of course, the movie totally failed to capture Dominican life.
Click to expand...

Veracruz was likely used due to its exemplyfying what the average person thinks of as a 40'50's area spanish Colonial City. It has a gorgeous central swuare, beautifully maintaine Colonia Spanish Architecture, very little traffic in the central town, colorful friendly people in beautiful costumes, no motorcycles running around...what more could you ask for when you want to show a "spanish colonial city" in the 50's? Apparently they promote the city well, clear and present danger, medicine man and several other big budget films were produced there

Must be doing something right :)
 
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