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Film: Countdown to Esmeralda Bay (La bahía esmeralda)
Year: 1990
Director: Jesús Franco
Writers: Daniel Lesoeur, H.L. Rostaine and Jesús Franco
Starring: Robert Forster, George Kennedy and Fernando Rey
Review:
This is a movie that I didn’t know anything about until getting the Eurocine Collection Volume 1 in for review from Laura over at Scandal Coactive. I was intrigued as I learned that this is considered one of the better Jesús Franco films that came out in his later run for these action-centered works. Seeing that this featured Robert Forster, George Kennedy as well as Franco regulars had me as well.
Synopsis: a priest secretly leads rebels in their struggle against the corrupt military dictatorship of the Central American country of Puerto Santo.
We start this off with a boat that is approaching the shore. Interestingly, the captain is Franco himself. There is a shipment of weapons aboard. We get a double cross here. The group that takes the weapons is not who they were meant for. They were taken by a group of guerillas.
Delving deeper here, Wilson (Kennedy) is bringing in the weapons. He is supposed to be supplying the military with them. We see him at a party for his daughter, Anita (Teri Vallee). His wife, Linda (Silvia Tortosa) is late. She’s been working with the other side and helped facilitate the theft. Wilson doesn’t want to believe it though.
There are moving parts here. Col. Madero (Forster) is controlling the government through the president, Ramos (Fernando Rey). Madero is working with a United States agent in Jonathan Perry (Craig Hill). We see that Jonathan is here to prevent the spread of communism. The movie also introduces us to the guerillas, who were led by Luis (Brett Halsey). His son is Andres (Ramon Estevez). He is secretly dating Anita.
That is where I’m going to leave my introduction to the story and the characters. I’ll get deeper into the story with my analysis. Where I want to start is something that both works and hurts is that I don’t know which side many of these characters fall. Part of that is by design. A character I didn’t bring up is a priest, played by Antonio Mayans, who I didn’t realize until settling in to write this review was leading the rebels. I’m also not sure who the communists in this story are or if that is something the Americans are using as a scare tactic as well as a reason to be here.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I was sucked into this movie. There are so many moving parts and to be honest, I dug that. We have characters who are on one side until they need to shift to work with another and that worked for me. This feels like a realistic look at US foreign policy in the late 80s and into the 90s. We would back corrupt South American governments to instill leaders who were sympathetic to US interests. President Ramos is that guy until we see a chance with bringing back General Maho. There’s even a scene where Jonathan talks to an official outside of the White House and he alludes to what is going to be told to the ‘boss’. They even reference what happened with the contras and Nicaragua. I thought this was managed well.
Sticking with this, we see the decisions that characters make to keep power. Madero tells Ramos he can’t resign until he tells him to. The former knows the president is a patsy under his control. That is until Gen. Maho gains leverage again. Oddly, this general was a military dictator previously in Puerto Santo. Wilson is willing to shift sides and then flee when business goes sour. Andres and the other guerillas are stealing from him, until they see that Madero is the villain. Linda is sleeping with Madero and helping him with the thefts. I could be wrong in things that I thought, but the story here is deeper than we usually get from Franco.
Let me then go over to the acting as that helps this for sure. We have two great actors in Forster and Kennedy. We get more of the latter early on, but as this goes, we see that Forster is the true villain. Both have good performances. I liked Rey in his role, especially with a reveal late. Estevez, Tortosa, Hill, Halsey, Vallee, Daniel Grimm, Mayans, Lina Romay and the rest of the cast are also solid. I love how everyone shifts as this feels like a game of chess. Each action causes a reaction and who you trust.
All that is left is filmmaking. Now I’ll be honest, they didn’t have the largest budget here. We see that with the effects. There are minor issues with gun effects that I’m not going to hold against this too much. I thought that the action scenes were fine. The limited budget hinders it. The story helps carry through though. This was shot well though so credit to the cinematography. The soundtrack also fit what was needed.
To end this out, this isn’t a great movie. I thought it was a better action/war film that brings drama. The last bit here is helped by the acting. One of the better casts that I’ve seen in a Franco film with the likes of Forster and Kennedy. The cast around them are also good. It is also one of the better written ones as well. I love the commentary and story elements that are used to tell the story. The budget hinders this with action sequences, but not enough to ruin this. If you want to delve into Franco’s later career with these types of films, I’d start here. I rather enjoyed it and would recommend it if what I said piques your interest.
My Rating: 6 out of 10