Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean (2023)
★★★ — Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean (2023)
Ray Figueroa is a Puerto Rican filmmaker with a background in short-form work, and Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean represents a notably ambitious feature-length undertaking, produced through a modest tri-country arrangement between Ocean Park Entertainment, Belle Films, and Re:skrituras, with Spain lending co-production weight to what is otherwise a distinctly local story. Shot on location across rural Puerto Rico, the film draws on the jíbaro figure, the archetypal Puerto Rican highland peasant, as its central image, placing that cultural identity inside a revenge narrative with clear debts to the spaghetti western tradition. At 140 minutes, it is a generous runtime for a regional production of this scale, suggesting Figueroa was given room to pursue something personal rather than commercial.
A-Z World Movie Tour Puerto Rico From the very first frame, Once Upon a Time in the Caribbean grabs you with its bold visual style, sun-bleached colours, wide shots of rugged fields and forests, and a striking use of composition that feels unmistakably inspired by Kurosawa. Set in rural Puerto Rico, this is a gritty, slow-burn western drama with the soul of a samurai film. The story follows a former sugarcane worker drawn back into violence when a local land baron kidnaps his wife, and the early scenes are electric: tense, atmospheric, and elevated by a haunting soundtrack that pulses like a heartbeat. The cinematography is gorgeous, golden fields, shadowy forests, machetes catching the light like katanas, and the film wears its influences with pride, from the stoic protagonist to the moral weight of vengeance. There’s real craft here, a sense that the director isn’t just making a genre film, but reimagining it through a Caribbean lens, rooted in place, language, and rhythm. I love the fact that characters are introduced by the names of their customised Machetes. But for all its promise, the momentum stumbles in the second half. The middle drags, repeating themes without deepening them, and the final act veers into predictability, the showdown we saw coming from mile off, the redemption arc that doesn’t quite land. It’s clear the film is trying to say something about justice, legacy, and the cost of violence, but it takes too long to get there. Still, it’s a powerful, visually stunning achievement for Puerto Rican cinema, ambitious, authentic, and beautifully made. Just a bit too long, and a little too familiar by the end.
Rating: ★★★ | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2025-08-23
Where to watch (UK)
Physical: Amazon UK
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