Sex and Freedom

The life of Reinaldo Arenas, a gifted Cuban writer and poet, is captured brilliantly in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls. Based on a posthumous autobiography, the story recounts Arenas' journey from sex-crazed soldier during the rise of Castro to his imprisonment for being a political dissident and homosexual, followed by his exile during the Mariel boatlift in 1980 and eventual suicide in 1990.

To understand the film and the autobiography-which every fan of the film should read-one needs to realize that only one thing drives a spirit like Arenas-freedom. The freedom to have sex, to write, to scream-these were all denied him while he lived under Castro's cruel totalitarian dictatorship-even though Arenas half-heartedly put Castro into power by serving in the "people's revolution" at age 16. To Arenas, the revolution was not about elevating Castro, but about exiling the current dictator and instituting a freer state. But as even beginner students of history know, the revolution brought only oppression, quelling any hopes of a socially liberal society.

Arenas spent the next twenty years in Cuba, enduring constant persecution for his homosexuality and for sneaking out manuscripts that he published abroad. The government tracked his whereabouts and eventually imprisoned him for his actions.

Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor mostly unknown in American cinema, gives a deft performance as Arenas. He burrows inside the character, offering a man who is deeply troubled after seeing his dreams of freedom crushed by an iron fist. That dream was no better personified than in Arenas' claim that he had slept with over 5,000 men by age 25: He saw his sexual freedom as synonymous with his freedom to write, and both were denied him by the Castro regime. His sexual freedom also almost killed him when he contracted HIV. In his suicide note, Arenas blamed all his problems-his disease, his suffering, his Sisyphus-like existence-on Castro.

Having read Arenas' autobiography, it was difficult to watch the opening scenes of the film. There is an almost sensual look to the surreal, jungle-like environment where Arenas grew up. Though born into abject poverty, Arenas was never poor in spirit-or in his sexual veracity. Director Schnabel goes to great lengths to show how the free people in Cuba lived during the 1950s. (Not everyone was free: There were still Afro-Cuban slaves). Havana, the capitol, was a sinner's delight, offering wealth for a few, uninhibited sexual adventure for most and freedom for all.

Before Castro, we see Arenas in a happy relationship. After Castro, we see Arenas in prison, smuggling his scripts out via a transvestites' (played by Johnny Depp in a double cameo) rectum. Arenas' life in exile is no better-apparently, the one thing worse than living in an imprisoned country is having no country at all. He sinks into deeper depression in the United States, contracts HIV and eventually terminates his life.

Even with its well-adapted screenplay, direction and lush cinematography, the show is completely stolen by Bardem, who rightly earned an Oscar nomination for his performance. Before Night Falls will play you emotionally as you watch Arenas tumble into oblivion, but the real pain is watching his beautiful country slide down the slope of oppression. The death of freedom-an overarching theme in all of Arenas' books-is truly a reason to mourn.