| Tropical Snow | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Ciro Durán |
| Written by | Ciro Durán |
| Produced by | J.D. Leif |
| Starring | David Carradine Madeleine Stowe Jsu Garcia |
| Cinematography | Eduardo Serra |
| Edited by | Duncan Burns |
| Music by | Alan DerMarderosian |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Tropical Snow is a 1988 Americandrama film written and directed byCiro Durán and starringDavid Carradine,Madeleine Stowe, andJsu Garcia (credited as "Nick Corri"). It was Durán's "first scripted, English-language feature", and alsoTim Allen's film debut (with a cameo as a baggage handler).[1]
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Tavo and Marina Luna live in poverty inBogotá and desire a better life inNew York.[2] 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 intoJohn 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.[3]
Tropical Snow was described by Bill Kelley of theSun Sentinel as "that bleakest of low-budget entities – an exploitationB-movie with a social conscience".[4] 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".[4]
In rating the film one star out of five, Michael Mills of thePalm Beach Post stated that "despite its poetic title,Tropical Snow is glum and prosaic".[5] The same review did praise the film'scinematography, observing it "gives everything, even the hillside shanty towns, a tarnished glow".[5] The movie was noted as "timely" given the attempts by Colombia to pursue drug lords at the time the film was made.[6]
Juan Coto of theMiami 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".[2] He finalized the review as "topical" but "sometimes as simplistic as the metaphor in [the] title".[2] Critic Steven Puchalski also seesTropical 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".[1]