Tropical Snow
{{Short description|1989 film}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2023}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Tropical Snow
| image = Tropical Snow.jpg
| caption = Promotional poster
| director = Ciro Durán
| producer = J.D. Leif
| writer = Ciro Durán
| based_on =
| starring = David Carradine
Madeleine Stowe
Jsu Garcia
| music = Alan DerMarderosian
| cinematography = Eduardo Serra
| editing = Duncan Burns
| distributor = Paramount Pictures
| released = {{Film date|1988|||West Germany|1989|04||US}}
| runtime = 87 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| gross =
}}
Tropical Snow is a 1988 American drama film written and directed by Ciro Durán and starring David Carradine, Madeleine Stowe, and Jsu Garcia (credited as "Nick Corri"). It was Durán's "first scripted, English-language feature", and also Tim Allen's film debut (with a cameo as a baggage handler).{{Cite web |last=Puchalski |first=Steven |title=Tropical Snow |url=https://www.shockcinemamagazine.com/tropicalsnow.html |year=2021 |access-date=May 4, 2023 |website=www.shockcinemamagazine.com |archive-date=May 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501061227/https://www.shockcinemamagazine.com/tropicalsnow.html |url-status=live }}
Plot
{{More plot|date=December 2023}}Tavo and Marina Luna live in poverty in Bogotá and desire a better life in New York.{{Cite news |last=Coto |first=Juan |date=April 21, 1989 |title=Tropical Snow is topical but simplistic |pages=184 |work=The Miami Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald/123257897/ |access-date=April 25, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=April 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425183827/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald/123257897/ |url-status=live }} Such a move is an expense neither can afford. Tavo is almost killed while attempting to pickpocket, and Marina refuses to enter a life of prostitution. She was working in a gentlemen's lounge but leaves after Tavo becomes jealous.
Oskar, a local drug peddler offers them the chance to move to the United States if they agree to smuggle cocaine into John F. Kennedy International. Tavo eventually dies from a drug overdose after failing to pass the cocaine. Marina survives, passing the cocaine in custody before spending time in a United States prison and then returning to Colombia.{{Cite book |last=Richard |first=Alfred Charles |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/30110303 |title=Contemporary Hollywood's negative Hispanic image : an interpretive filmography, 1956–1993 |date=1994 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=0-313-28841-0 |location=Westport, Conn. |oclc=30110303}}
Cast
- David Carradine as Oskar
- Madeleine Stowe as Marina Luna
- Jsu Garcia as Gustavo "Tavo" Luna
- Argemiro Castiblanco as Horse Trader
- Alfonso Ortiz as Pickpocket Teacher
- Celmira Yepes as Matilde
- Evelyn Osorio as Teacher's assistant
- Libia Tenorio as Tavo's mother
- Merena Demont as Marina's mother
- Roger Melo as Tavo's step-father
Reception
Tropical Snow was described by Bill Kelley of the Sun Sentinel as "that bleakest of low-budget entities – an exploitation B-movie with a social conscience".{{Cite web |last=Kelley |first=Bill |date=April 21, 1989 |title=Drug story more like dirty stoush |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1989-04-21-8901210147-story.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630142717/https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1989-04-21-8901210147-story.html |archive-date=June 30, 2021 |access-date=April 25, 2023 |website=Sun Sentinel}} Kelley criticized the direction and acting, stating both were done with the "sort of solemn incompetence that only the truly untalented can achieve", noting that even the explicit love scenes had a "sad, desperate quality". While praising Carradine's performance, he described the remaining cast as "unconvincing" and concluded by calling the film "boring".
In rating the film one star out of five, Michael Mills of the Palm Beach Post stated that "despite its poetic title, Tropical Snow is glum and prosaic".{{Cite news |last=Mills |first=Michael |date=April 23, 1989 |title='Tropical' is glum, full of sterotypes |pages=202 |work=The Palm Beach Post |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-palm-beach-post/123257882/ |access-date=April 25, 2023 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=April 25, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230425161012/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-palm-beach-post/123257882/ |url-status=live }} The same review did praise the film's cinematography, observing it "gives everything, even the hillside shanty towns, a tarnished glow". The movie was noted as "timely" given the attempts by Colombia to pursue drug lords at the time the film was made.{{Cite book |last=Nowlan |first=Robert A. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/22889267 |title=The films of the eighties: a complete, qualitative filmography to over 3400 feature-length English language films, theatrical and video-only, released between January 1, 1980, and December 31, 1989 |date=1991 |publisher=McFarland & Co |others=Gwendolyn Wright Nowlan |isbn=0-89950-560-0 |location=Jefferson, N.C. |oclc=22889267}}
Juan Coto of the Miami Herald gave the film two and a half stars out of five, praising the "strong" performances by Garcia and Stowe. The performance of Carradine was also praised, with Coto opining it was "surprisingly genteel" and "perhaps the kindest drug dealer ever put on screen". He finalized the review as "topical" but "sometimes as simplistic as the metaphor in [the] title". Critic Steven Puchalski also sees Tropical Snow as a "gritty potboiler": "Maintaining a serious tone throughout, [Durán] captures the poverty and despair of his [Colombian] home turf, while demonstrating how prostitution, crime and drugs could seem like the only way to succeed". The film still made concession to commercialism, as with "scattered moments of overheated drama and lots of gratuitous nudity from both Stowe and Corri".
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0098521|title=Tropical Snow}}
- {{Rotten Tomatoes|tropical_snow}}
- {{tcmdb title|id=507579|title=Tropical Snow}}
Category:Colombian crime drama films
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Films set in the United States