Themes: Assumed Identities, Heads of State, Twins and Lookalikes
Main Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Raul Julia, Sonia Braga, Jonathan Winters, Fernando Rey
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 103 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Jack Noah (Richard Dreyfuss) is all actor: Self-possessed, obsessive, vulnerable, and an addict for praise, his soul burns with "the craft." Having just finished a grade-Z straight-to-cable crime thriller in the fictional South American country of Parador, he gets the ultimate acting challenge (though it's more like an offer he can't refuse) from Roberto Strausman (Raul Julia), the Paradorian dictator's chief advisor. The challenge: impersonate the country's dictator, whose just died. Strausman knows just how to manipulate Noah: He takes him to a meat locker, shows him the director's body (actually Dreyfuss' brother, Lorin), threatens to kill him, and he brings clips of Noah's best reviews. Thus enticed, and bearing a striking resemblance to the man, Noah accepts the job. Under the exacting direction of Strausman, he follows the script precisely. Noah immediately enjoys the job's perks, not least of which is the dictator's scorching mistress, Madonna (Sonia Braga), but of course cannot conceal his real identity to her. A close call with Parador's revolutionaries and Madonna's brimming social conscience push Noah to take command of the role. He starts pushing a kinder, gentler social agenda, and incurs Strausman's wrath. It begins to look like Noah will play the dictator's last act, but a chance meeting with a stunt man friend (Michael Greene) inspires a caper that will change all of the characters' fates. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
Review
Director Paul Mazursky is a very funny and fair man. His Moon Over Parador is a much better satire of the way politics and performing mix than Dave, yet it's also a devilishly funny tease of the relationship between actors and directors and Washington and Hollywood. Mazursky skewers others and doesn't let himself off the hook, either. It's one of his and Dreyfuss's best comedies and features a powerfully funny performance from the late Raul Julia. Playing off the stereotypical relationship between actors and directors, he and Julia are a great comic team. Setting a tone later mimicked by Marlon Brando in The Freshman and Robert De Niro in Analyze This, Dreyfuss zestfully sends up himself and actor-ish preoccupations. Mazursky sprinkles good supporting actors and wacky cameos from Charo, Sammy Davis Jr., and Ed Asner to keep the fun going, and writers Charles G. Booth, Leon Capetanos, and Mazursky throw in sly political references to everything from Reagan to national anthems (Parador's sounds like a sick cross between "Pomp and Circumstance," "Aud Lang Syne," and "Old Lavender"). Yet the best performance is Julia's. Few actors had his extraordinary power, and he uses it to amp up the bizarrely blond Strausman into a character equally scary and comic. See this movie and you'll mourn his death anew. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide
Sammy Davis, Jr. - Himself; Michael Greene - Clint; Polly Holliday - Midge; Milton Goncalves - Carlo; Charo - Madame Loop; Marianne Sägebrecht - Magda; René Kolldehoff - Gunther; Richard Russell Ramos - Dieter Lopez; Jose Lewgoy - Archbishop; Dann Florek - Toby; Roger Aaron Brown - Desmond; Dana Delany - Jenny; Dick Cavett - Himself; Ike Pappas - Himself; Ed Asner - Himself; David Cale - Edgar Low; Ariel Coelho - Paulo; Betsy Mazursky - Woman at Buffet; Rod McCary - Gordon Boyd; Nildo Parente - Gray Man; Nelson Xavier - Gen. Sinaldo; John C. Broderick - Director; Lorin Dreyfuss - 1st Dictator; Jill Mazursky - Assistant Director; Bianca Rossini - Tilde; Reuven Bar-Yotam - Menachem Fein; Nika Bonfim - Carmen; Vera Buono - Nightclub Singer; Ursula Cantu - Showgirl; Regina Case - Clara; Catalano - Family Member; Jorge Cherques - Family Member; Renato Coutinho - Family Member; Nina Fineman - Casting Secretary; Carlotta Gerson - Momma; Giovanna Gold - Carnival Girl; Guara - Bearded Man; Mario Guimaraes - Umberto Solar; Patricio Guzmán - Family Member; Guilherme Karan - Forte; Lutero Luiz - Samuel; Lora Milligan - Alice; Rui Resende - Man on the Beach; Helio Souto - Family Member; Carlos Augusto Strazzer - Drunk on Street; Flavio R. Tambellini - Dante Guzman; Neville de Almeida - Family Member
Credit
Marcos Flacksman - Art Director, Marcos Flaksman - Art Director, Ellen Chenoweth - Casting, Bianca Rossini - Choreography, Paul Mazursky - Co-producer, Pato Guzman - Co-producer, Geoffrey Taylor - Co-producer, Albert Wolsky - Costume Designer, Harry Curtis - Costume Designer, Irby Smith - First Assistant Director, Paul Mazursky - Director, Bill Catching - Second Unit Director, Stuart H. Pappe - Editor, Maurice Jarre - Composer (Music Score), Gary D. Liddiard - Makeup, Marcos Flaksman - Production Designer, Pato Guzman - Production Designer, Alexandre Meyer - Set Designer, Jim Webb - Sound/Sound Designer, Steve Maslow - Sound/Sound Designer, Bill Catching - Stunts, Bill Catching - Stunts Coordinator, Paul Mazursky - Screenwriter, Leon Capetanos - Screenwriter, Charles G. Booth - Short Story Author
The film follows the exploits of Jack Noah (Dreyfuss), who is filming in the small, fictional South American country of Parador (obvious portmanteau of Paraguay and Ecuador) when the Paradorian president-for-life suddenly dies of a heart attack. Not wanting to lose his position in power, the president's right-hand man, Roberto Strausmann (Raúl Juliá) forces Jack to take the 'role of a lifetime' - that of the dead president, as the two men look so much alike. Jack accepts, eventually winning over the people and even the dead president's mistress, Madonna (Sonia Braga). However, when paradise proves to be too boring, Jack needs to find a way to get out while keeping Roberto out of the loop.
The movie attempts to generate suspense by establishing that Jack Noah is in physical jeopardy so long as he remains in Parador. However, the film is told in flashback, with an opening scene establishing that Jack has returned to New York City.
Underlying Themes
The film, though a farce, does suggest several intriguing under currents about the use of propaganda in Mass Communication, as it applies to international relations in western theory. Parador, a fairly blatant characterization of Paraguay, is among those geographic locations that always seem to be frontiers of ideological indifference and as such seem to give way to their perpetual states of de-facto violence. There is always a feeling that revolution could break out at any moment. At the same time the film pokes fun at the democratic process with the use of rigged elections, the "red" and "blue" party, which are actually just different colored posters with the same candidates name written on them.
Also of course is the admission of Roberto Strausman (Raúl Juliá), a parody of Alfredo Stroessner, that the proceeding dictator, of whom Jack Noah takes the place was actually an actor himself. Then there is the archetypal fat, loud mouthed, ex-military, CIA operative; an early installment from the Korean war days, no doubt, who reminds Strausman and his fellow aristocratic conspirators that it is and has always been the agenda of the United States that makes their parasitic existence possible in the first place.
The film also seems to reflect the attitude of the 1980's U.S administration Reagan Administration policies concerning the all too frequent employment of western friendly puppet style, governments, as a necessary corollary to maintaining economic and political stability around the world.
Production notes
The following concern production aspects of the film:
During a scene where Jack has to address the crowd as the Paradorian President, he ad-libs his lines and uses the text for the song "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha. Only Roberto catches on, a reference to Raúl Juliá's leading role (Don Quixote) in the Broadway version of Man of La Mancha.
Sammy Davis Jr.'s rendition of Parador's national anthem is sung against the music for "Besame Mucho".
The previous Paradorian National Anthem ("O Parador") is sung to the tune of "O Christmas Tree".
Ralph (Jonathan Winters) tells a long story concerning an Englishpirate who founded the country of Parador to explain why Alphonse Simms has an Anglo-Saxon surname. The real reason is that the film was shot in Brazil, and director Paul Mazursky needed a shot of a crowd of Brazilian extras chanting the dictator's name. When the crowd is calling out "Simms! Simms!", they are actually chanting "Sim! Sim!" "Sim" is "yes" in Portuguese, the language of Brazil.
Director Paul Mazursky appears uncredited in drag, playing Simms' mother.
Mazursky's wife Betsy appears at a buffet table and asks, "Por favor, is it safe to eat this lettuce here?" His daughter, Jill, plays the assistant director of the second film crew to shoot in Parador.
In the beginning, while both the President and Jack are in the scene, the President is played by Dreyfuss' older brother Lorin.
