Oliver Stone ("Platoon," "The Doors" and "JFK") has made a propaganda film on Fidel Castro, yet another icon of his youth. For the "documentary," Castro gave the filmaker three 10-hour filming sessions.
The result, says a review by the BBC: a compelling and sympathetic portrait of the man, hallmarked by El Commandante's frequent display of humor – he chuckles about about his inability to keep up with Boris Yeltsin's drinking and teases that Stone should leave a skinny cameraman behind in Cuba so Castro can fatten him up.
From his personal fitness regime to his taste in movies, the dictator waxes on.
He admits to crushes on all the movie stars of his youth, especially Brigitte Bardot; chats about the Cuban missile crisis; and reminisces about Kennedy, Khrushchev and Che Guevara.
But the leader gets testy at the suggestion that Cuba is full of informers working for the security forces, and denies that prisoners are tortured in his country.
The best that "documentarian" Stone can do to give viewers a balanced view of the bloodthirsty dictator: The camera pans over the communist leader's BMW and Nike trainers.
"I wanted to show the portrait of a dictator that very few people know about," Stone, 57, told reporters. "I just wanted to say, 'Listen to Fidel Castro speak in his own words, then make up your own opinion.'"
Yes, Oliver, and even fewer know that Castro, according to both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, operates one of the most brutal regimes in the world.
From brutal killings of dissidents to quarantining of AIDS victims to decimating Cuba's Jewish community, Castro deserves to be depicted by Stone as just a nice guy. Stone should just call the movie "Uncle Fidel." Every fellow traveler in the world will love this one.
Maybe Ann Coulter was right about treason in this country?
Editor's note:
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