Havana (1990), a Robert Redford movie directed by Sydney Pollack, was not a big box-office success. Basically a remake of Casablanca, it's set in Cuba in late 1958, on the eve of Fidel Castro's takeover. Redford plays professional gambler Jack Weil, who arrives in Cuba to set up a big poker game, but falls in love with a rich, beautiful revolutionary, Bobby Duran, played by Lena Olin.
Shot in a glowing, nostalgic light by cinematographer Owen Roizman in the Dominican Republic, the movie features a great supporting cast of 1950's automobiles. Mostly big cars with big tail fins, but also a few Jeeps driven by Batista's army, including a couple of appearances by this bare-bones CJ-3B.
At one point Jack drives through the front lines of the civil war in his silver convertible Cadillac (70K JPEG), searching for Bobby. He pulls off the road when a sniper puts a bullet through his windshield, and the CJ-3B then makes its best appearance in the film, heading up a retreating army convoy.
The beautiful Bobby drives an equally beautiful green Chrysler station wagon, which in one shot of the film is passed on the street by a blue Willys Jeepster.
Although the plot and the dialogue are at some points unlikely, Havana is a delightful re-creation of a pivotal moment in modern history, and the automobiles are a treat. -- Derek Redmond
See some real Jeeps in Cuba on The CJ3B Page.
Return to The CJ-3B in the Movies.
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