For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Dolby Digital Trailer-Egypt Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	115:08
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Joseph Sargent
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Andy Garcia Gloria Estefan
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Arturo Sandoval

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	Unknown	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes, Cuban cigars of course
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story is the true story of one man's dream to play the music that was in his heart. Unfortunately, he lived in a country where individual expression was severely curtailed.

    This film covers part of Arturo Sandoval's life. The film opens at a time where he has become very disillusioned with the restrictions placed on the lives of the Cuban people. He currently plays in the official government band. This band is a propaganda piece to show the world how great the government of Fidel Castro is. Only government-sanctioned music can be played. Arturo's great love, Jazz, is banned as coming from the enemy, America.

    He is about to leave on a world tour with the official government band and does not plan to return. As with all best-laid plans, just before he leaves he meets the woman of his dreams and falls in love. He leaves on the tour but his love draws him back to Cuba and all the restrictions that he hates.

    The famous jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillepsie visits Cuba and Arturo and Dizzy form an instant friendship based on their love of music.

    In an attempt to be allowed to play the type of music that he loves, Arturo leaves the official band and tries to form his own band. He also attempts to disguise the type of music he is playing, but the authorities will not allow him to play. The word goes out to all the night clubs that he is not to be allowed to perform. We begin to understand the price that he has paid in order to return to his love.

    His wife initially is a strong supporter of Castro and of the revolution, but as she sees the effect of the restrictions on her husband and the growing problems within Cuban society she becomes disillusioned and agrees that the family must get out of the country.

    A bold plan is hatched. Arturo becomes a model citizen, following the party line and playing the music that the government wants. By playing in the government band and joining the communist party, Arturo gains their trust. Eventually, after quite a few years, they trust him enough to allow him and his family out of the country at the same time.

    The story up to this point is told as a series of flashbacks as Arturo tries to convince a sceptical American official that he should be allowed to defect. The story then moves to real time as we learn whether the family will be successful in their attempts to defect to America.

    The portrayal of life in Cuba is interesting. The focus is very much on the story of Arturo and his family and friends. The restrictions on life and the problems with the society that they live in are not emphasised, but form the backdrop to the story. While this is a long film at just under two hours and could probably have benefited from a little editing I still found it very interesting. It is fascinating to be given a view into another society and how other people live. We can all become very complacent in a very stable and safe society like Australia's.

    While the pace is somewhat slow, it is a true love story and an educational experience. The music is very good in this film which of course features lots of trumpet and jazz.

Video

    Before putting this disc in the player, I forgot to look to see if it was a single or a dual layered disc. Hence, during the film I was keeping a watch out in case there was a layer change so that I could note down its time for this review. After a while, I got caught up in the film and was very surprised to discover that nearly two hours had gone by and there had been no layer change. I had been happily watching a reasonably good image and could not believe that they had managed to squeeze the entire film onto one layer. While there are some problems with the transfer and the character of the film is such that it would not strain the MPEG encoder I was still very impressed that they had managed such a feat of compression. I have seen shorter films with far greater problems than this transfer presents.

    The film is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and is 16x9 enhanced.

    Sharpness is a little variable but quite good for most of the film. Shadow detail is good and there is very little low level noise present.

    Colours are slightly muted but skin tones are accurately reproduced and there is no chroma noise or colour bleed.

    There are some MPEG artefacts. At 8:23 all the problems are visible in one scene. There is macro blocking in the background, there is posterization on the actor's face, and a small amount of edge enhancement is visible on the light/dark transition of the coat visible at the left of the screen. While these problems are present here and throughout the film they are not particularly bad and will not really distract unless you are looking for them. There are also the usual problems with the scene changes that are seen on heavily compressed films, with a slight loss of resolution in the frame before and the frame after the transition.

    The film master that the transfer has been taken from is in excellent condition with very little grain visible and almost no specks or scratches.

    There are English subtitles for the Hearing Impaired on this disc. They follow the dialogue and also include descriptions of some of the sounds such as laughter and clapping. They are easy to read and seemed accurate to what was being said.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There were no problems with the dialogue and the audio was in sync throughout the film. A very minor point is that the miming of the trumpet playing was very good but not perfect.

   The music throughout the film is either Jazz or Cuban and is a real treat. As this is the story of one of the world's greatest Jazz trumpeters, music plays a critical role in the story. The music and the reproduction by the soundtrack of the playing really adds to the overall experience of this film. I did not know that some of the notes that they manage to draw out of their instruments were even possible. While Andy Garcia plays the character, the trumpet is brought to life by Arturo Sandoval himself and is nothing short of spectacular.

    The surrounds are subtle but active throughout the film. They are used to give the music space. For instance, if they are playing in a club then the acoustics of the club are reproduced. They are also used for ambience. While there are no directional effects, the surrounds have been integrated with the film very skilfully.

    The subwoofer is used to give the music a solid foundation and again has been integrated very well.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• A 12 minute making of featurette.
• Cast and Crew Biographies
• Cast and Crew Filmographies
• Spanish and French subtitles
• Dolby Digital 2.0 surround encoded track
• Mono Spanish sound track.

The region 1 version of this disc misses out on;

• nothing

    I personally wouldn't pay the extra dollars that a Region 1 import would cost for a 12 minute featurette but strictly speaking, the Region 1 disc is the marginal winner.

    This is one of those films that some people will like, and some won't. The slow pace may well frustrate some people but others will find the combination of a love story, the view into Cuban life and the music produces a very watchable film.

    The video suffers a little from the tight compression.

    The audio is excellent.

    It is probably best that there is only a single extra considering the space restrictions. I personally would have preferred a dual layered disc with some extras. As this is a true story, the opportunity exists to tell us more about the characters' lives and times.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall