Carla's Song

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Depressing!

A Customer from Grimsby, 29th February, 2008

I found the Scottish accent very difficult to comprehend. This,plus a heavy Central American accent made this movie hard going. I found this a very depressing movie....and for what!

Read all highest rated reviews

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

*** May contain spoilers ***

Love And War

A Customer from Berkshire, UK, 15th November, 2007

Ken Loach's films (Kathy Come Home, Kes, The Wind That Shakes The Barley) always come from the heart and deal with big issues, and this one is no exception. Set partly in Glasgow and partly in Nicaragua, the film follows the developing relationship between Robert Carlyle's fiesty Glaswegian bus driver and Oyanka Cabezas's disturbed Nicaraguan exile. The Nicaraguan so-called 'civil war' has now been forgotten by many people, but this is a film which reminds you not only of the tragedy of that particular conflict, but also of parallels still continuing around the world today where US foreign policy is operating covertly or openly to prop up or destabilise regimes. And in case you think this is long past history, bear in mind that the Reagan administration was for some time selling armaments to Iran and channelling the funds raised to supporting the Contras in Nicaragua. In the film this US involvement is shown through ex-CIA man Bradley, played explosively by Scott Glenn (especially when he's filling in the less savvy Carlyle as to the realities of what is going on in the warzone). Moving between romance and harsh reality as this film does, it sometimes makes for uncomfortable viewing, which is as it should be. The hopeful and determined Sandinistas are shown being brutally attacked by the Contras, with the added tragedy of families being split down the middle in the escalating conflict. Too many films show wars as thrilling background for love stories, but Carla's Song shows war for what it is: a violent and ugly waste of human life and happiness. And ultimately, the honesty of Carlyle's and Carbeza's performances are what make this film such a moving piece of cinema.

Read all highest rated reviews

5 out of 5 people found the following review helpful:

Touching and powerful

RockAndRollMachine from Cheshire, 10th February, 2006

One thing you can say about Ken Loach is that he doesn't pull punches. He's one of the most fearless directors around. And he makes films that are bursting with humanity.

All the performances are excellent, but Robert Carlysle goes that one step further. He's an ordinary Joe, a bus driver in Glasgow, thrust into a different world. Carlysle handles the transition well, from that hard determinism to do the right thing, his love for Carla, through to his realisation that there is horror in this world that he has no inkling of. Superb.

The film strongly reminded me of Oliver Stone's "Salvador" in tone, so if you liked that, I'm pretty certain you'll enjoy "Carla's Song".

Read all highest rated reviews

4 out of 4 people found the following review helpful:

A quietly searing triumph

WomBiddumBiddum from East Sussex, 8th December, 2005

A brilliant story, great acting and a searing indictment of the CIA's sponsorship of all sorts of nastiness in Nicaragua.

I knew nothing about recent Nicaraguan history when I first saw Carla's Song - but the great thing is, nor did Robert Carlisle's character before meeting Carla. The greatest injustice he had encountered was from over-judicious bus company officials. We take a voyage of discovery along with him and discover what real injustice is.

Brilliantly filmed, exciting in parts and not preachy. Hugely recommended.

Read all highest rated reviews

1 out of 1 people found the following review helpful:

carlas song

A Customer from West Drayton, 1st August, 2008

not bad but became bored half way through movie

Read all recent reviews

carla's song

kneesup from from Banbury, 9th July, 2008

Gave up on this one.The accents were impossible to understand,may have been something to do with the quality of the soundtrack. The story took far too long to move along and when it finally did it was so drawnout I lost all interest.

Read all recent reviews

Problematic DVD edition

Jegsy from , 23rd June, 2008

As far as the film itself goes, I'm inclined to think that it's an interesting piece of work with a decent performance from Carlyle, and encouraging debut from Cabezas. The romance element of the story seemed unconvincing during the film, but this is later revealed as deliberately so - Carlyle is looking to escape something, Cabezas is afraid to confront something. There's a series of commentaries going on here: the reasons behind much of the immigration into the UK being due to brutal regimes; the possibility that if we don't keep watch it could happen here and elsewhere; the reasons behind the tragedies that have befallen nearly all of central and south America being due to north American imperialism. From these perspectives, it's a sensitive, thought provoking and powerful film. My issues with this DVD issue are due to the dreadful subtitling. Personally, I don't think it's necessary to subtitle Scottish people, but I do think that if you're going to have English subtitles, it's stupid to then present the Spanish dialogue in Spanish! About threee quarters of the way through the film this problem is mysteriously rectifed. Another major issue is that having seen this film before at the cinema, I was bewildered by the editing of entire scenes that has occured on this DVD edition. For example, Carlyle's family is entirely edited out - indeed a crucial scene where his teenage sister tells him about the Nicaraguan political situation is missing - which really adds to the knowledge of just how little he knew before he left with Carla. There are other bits, links, which are also missing, and I recommend you check the deleted scenes. A very strange decision by Loach. For these reasons, I can only give this fantastic film 3 stars.

Read all recent reviews

3 out of 3 people found the following review helpful:

Preaching

A Customer from Windsor, 25th April, 2008

We found this a very dry and tedious film to watch. We didn't make it to the end as interest waned. It was rather like some lecture going on. We were being educated... It was also very difficult to understand. The sound was muffled, the accents inpenetrable.

Read all recent reviews