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Strawberry and Chocolate is an Academy Award nominated film from 1994. The film is about the blossoming friendship between two different men. A friendship that overcomes intolerance, politics, and sexuality among other things. David is a heterosexual communist and Diego is a homosexual artist. Diego is mad at Cuba’s intolerance of the gay community and the censorship of art and culture. These two men meet once Diego sits down next to David outside. Diego is eating strawberry ice cream. This refers to the title of the film when David said he knew Diego was gay when he chose strawberry ice cream instead of chocolate. David's only reason for befriending Diego is his responsibility for the Communist Party by revealing counter-revolutionaries. This could bring Diego ten or more years in prison. Diego tries to seduce David at first with sexual intentions but that quickly fades into a growing friendship. David then falls in love with Diego’s neighbor, Nancy, and another new relationship blooms.
I think the major theme of this film is tolerance. It takes David’s relationship with David to understand more about different viewpoints and life. The David we see in the beginning of the film is a much different David from the end of the film. David’s friend Miguel would more represent David’s original prejudice thinking. The contrast between Miguel and David at the end of the film is quite vast showing the tolerance, understanding, and love David had achieved. Miguel wanted to use David as a spy, as Diego seems to be a threat to the Communist party. The time David and Diego spend together definitely allows David to see what Diego is really about and what he has to offer intellectually. Diego’s character intrigues David is the beginning of an incredible relationship.
Most of this film is just conversations between the two main characters. Diego and David pretty much just sit around and talk about books, art, politics, music, etc. This is essentially the driving force behind the change of David’s character. I understand that this movie could not have been made any other way. It needs those long conversations. However, I felt it to be a bit slow and the conversations sometimes went on too long. The addition of the character of Nancy I felt was much needed. The film couldn’t rely on the relationship and conversation of David and Diego alone. Bringing Nancy into David’s life also helped change his character as we see him with nothing but smiles the day after he makes love to her. Strawberry and Chocolate is a well made film. The acting is very good and it stays as naturalistic as possible. However, I found the film to be a little too slow for my own taste. There are interesting scenes, dialogue, and characters but as a whole I felt the film was a bit dry.
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