Film Review: Before Night Falls (2000)

The 20th and 21st centuries have seen a significant shift in the left-wing politics' stance towards homosexuality. In contrast to the 21st century, where homosexuality is widely accepted, the leftists of the 20th century, including those in Cuba during the first decades of Fidel Castro's rule, considered homosexuality to be a bourgeoisie perversion and had homosexuals persecuted. The 2000 film Before Night Falls, directed by Julian Schnabel, depicts this persecution in a biopic based on the eponymous book of memoirs by Reinaldo Arenas, a Cuban writer and dissident.

The plot follows Arenas from his childhood in rural Cuba, where he grew up in poverty. During the Cuban Revolution he enthusiastically joins Castro’s rebels and later discovers his writing talent and has his works published. However, he gradually becomes disillusioned and critical of Castro’s regime due to his hostility towards freedom of speech, with his own books becoming suppressed. The other issues that puts him at odds with the authorities is his homosexuality, which is an excuse used by regime to put him in prison. His attempts to escape prison or go to America are unsuccessful until he joins 1980 Mariel boat lift, where he would be exiled with thousands of homosexuals, criminal, mental patients and other people Castro considers “undesirable”. He would spend next ten years enjoying freedom, but his life and career will be cut short by AIDS.

Director Julian Schnabel, an artist by trade, had made an interesting film debut in 1996 with Basquiat, a biopic about his friend, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Schnabel tried to employ a similar style in Before Night Falls, using his artistic background to create a visually striking film. However, while Schnabel's images are interesting and sometimes intriguing, he fails to connect them into a coherent whole, resulting in a confusing and disappointing film.

One of the film's strengths is the performance of Javier Bardem, a renowned Spanish actor, who plays against type as a gay character. Bardem's stardom was built on roles of burly macho men, but his portrayal of Arenas is nuanced and powerful. Bardem's work in the film earned him the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and an Oscar nomination. The film also features an unusual casting choice, with Sean Penn appearing in a cameo role and Johnny Depp playing dual roles as a Cuban drag queen and a sinister security officer. While these casting choices add an element of intrigue to the film, they do not compensate for Schnabel's disjointed direction.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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