Word: costa
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There is no denying that Costa Rica is a republic, or that it grows a lot of bananas. But the tiny Central American country (19,650 sq. mi. and 1.700,000 people) is a far cry from a banana republic. It is not run by a gaudily uniformed strongman backed by a well-equipped little army. It does not even have an army; the last one was disbanded in 1948. When Lyndon Johnson visited the country in 1968. the Costa Ricans had to borrow a cannon from Panama so that they could give him the customary 21-gun salute...
...What Costa Rica does have, however, is the highest literacy rate (85%) and the second highest per capita annual income in Central America ($450 v. an average $300). It also has an enviable record-not quite unbroken but still impressive-of free and democratic elections. Last week, for the fourth time in a row, the Costa Rican electorate peacefully voted out the party in power. As usual, the 2,000-man police force stayed quietly in the background; the most noteworthy figures at polling places belonged to pretty girls in miniskirts who were on hand to assist voters...
...Dwarf. In a region increasingly dominated by dictatorship and plagued by the sort of border skirmishes that broke out anew between El Salvador and Honduras last week, what makes Costa Rica different? Partly, there is its enduring system of small landholdings -caused by the absence of a large Indian labor force-which from the earliest colonial times produced a strong, propertied middle class. (Large landholdings did not come into being until the second half of the 19th century, when coffee became the major export crop.) Then, too, there is Costa Rica's historical preoccupation with education, which resulted...
...relieved in the later investigation. The camera also shrewdly caricatures the individuals in the film. The generals and officials with their squinted eyes and tinted glasses bear an unmistakable resemblance to the current leaders in Greece-Papadopoulos and Pattakos-and vindicate the declaration by the Greek-born director Costa-Gavras at the outset of the film that "any resemblance of the characters in this film to actual person or persons is not coincidental-it is intentional...
...attempts to provide depth in characterization are the weakest parts of the film: a few quick flashback shots for Yves Montand, as useless as John Schlesinger's attempt to create a past for Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy; Costa-Gravas's seeming attempt to link one character's villainry with homosexuality...