User Reviews

One of the first books I read when I was a kid was Doña Barbara, and over the years I have become very familiar with the characters and the argument of the novel. Thus, I was amazed how badly the movie script has been adapted from the original book.

Doña Barbara is set in Venezuela during the mid 20's, during that time Venezuela was beginning its oil exploitation and the country area was not developed. It was shocking to see Santos Luzardo (the main character) wearing a watch and all his "llaneros" (Venezuelan cowboys)wearing a "gaucho" outfit (mostly used in Argentina) when in Venezuela, at that time, the clothes worn by the "llaneros" were simple cotton pants and most of them raided barefoot.

The script does not respect the in-depth environment and rich colorful characters of the original novel; even an important character was eliminated from the script (Mr. Danger), an American seeking fortune in the Arauca Valley in Venezuela.

In a nutshell, although the characters of Santos Luzardo and Doña Barabara were very well played by the respective actors, I consider the script a very poor adaptation of the original novel which results in a very bad and very poor historic and social version of the excellent novel by Romulo Gallegos.

Doña Bárbara, seen through the eyes of Betty Kaplan. Such a bad experience for me! Ms. Kaplan can argue that she did deep research in Mr. Rómulo Gallegos work to better translate the book to film, or that Ms. Goris wanted to be Doña Bárbara so bad, that she insisted until she got the part, but the final result is a very bad version of a wonderful book. María Félix can be hated due to many reasons, but she had the attitude, Mr. Gallegos himself, after seeing her at a party claimed SHE WAS DOÑA BARBARA! From then on, María Félix was nicknamed "LA DOÑA" This Argentinian actress, Esther Goris, old, skinny and ugly, didn't have the attitude to portray such a powerful woman. It is a pity that Ms. Kaplan didn't understand or get the right idea from the text. She erased Mr. Danger in exchange of including a soft erotica moment, after the fight between Goris and Gabriel, when she puffs while she stares at the girl's breast... Here, sex didn't sell. I was against Edith González telenovela and now I am really upset after seeing this trash. There should be a law that prohibits to trash such artworks like Mr. Rómulo Gallegos "Doña Bárbara"

On familiar territory, director Betty Kaplan ("Of Love and Shadows' with Antonio Banderas), again successfully brings a Latin American classic novel to the big screen. This time however, the film deals with none other than DONA BARBARA, generally regarded as the greatest novel in Latin American literature. A true Hispanic American film, this classic drama could be located just about anywhere in Latin America. This commonality is perhaps the film's greatest achievement. Though mostly shot in Argentina, it could be Venezuela, Peru, or ... just as its characters are not nationality specific. In fact the leading roles are played by a Cuban, a Spanish and an Argentine actors)Esther Gorris (Evita in Argentina's EVA PERON (1995/6) is an electrifying Dona Barbara, and the lush cinematography and exquisite sequences give the film a sense of a Latin-American Western. Not to be missed, it was presented as the closing film of Miami's 1999 Hispanic Film Festival, prior to its release in the United States and the U.K. Look for it soon, and enjoy.