Fidel – The Untold Story
Picture: C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Documentary: C+
As this
review is being written, it is now exactly the 45th Anniversary of
the takeover of Cuba by Fidel Castro. This is the same Castro who they have been
predicting the downfall of for all those 45 years, the same one the CIA tried
to kill with everything from poisoned boot polish to deadly chocolate
milkshakes! This is even the same Castro
who has managed to hang on long after the end of the Soviet Union, East Bloc,
Warsaw Pack, and just about all of its strongholds worldwide.
Estela
Bravo’s Fidel – The Untold Story
(2001) does not even deal with the thousands who have died trying to escape the
country in its perpetual backwardness, or those thousands who have died trying. It does not even mention his severe
oppression of homosexuals, his herding of AIDS victims against their will, his
ethnic cleansing of culture and free speech that does not agree with him, his
torturings and murders. Instead, it
talks about how he came to power and managed to keep it. How he grew up there and managed to
eventually overturn the Batista regime and kick Capitalism (especially some of
the biggest American companies ever) out, not to mention U.S. organized crime, which had hid
and lost tens of millions of dollars to Castro’s regime with nothing any
organized crime family or other entity could do about it.
The
biographical part of his life is important, and both friends and foes
contribute, but no psychological profile is this. On the one hand, there is the odd thing that U.S. media has gone out of its way not
to tell his personal story at all. Can
they really be naïve enough to think this will inspire admiration, especially
from someone who helped bring on the Cuban Missile Crisis? On the other hand, do the persons fraternizing
with him see him as the opposite number of all the evils in the world that they
ignore, or suffer that thinking flaw of “moral relativism” that is one of the
great short-cuts in thinking? Either
way, the work is informative, but is absolutely a pro-Castro propaganda film
that makes him into a friend you want to high five. Those who know the truth will be more likely
to think in terms of bitch-slapping!
The full
frame image varies in quality with the usual mix of old film footage and new
analog videotape. Much of the older
footage is in black and white, but this is all full color for the most
part. The newer footage has the usual limits
for analog video and is a bit soft, while the film clips have survived well
enough. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is
not bad, but it is a surprise that it is in monophonic sound. What is it with Socialism/Communism that
seems to have an aversion to stereo? The
extras include a text portrait of Bravo, several First Run trailers, and a
bunch of outtakes from the main program.
It is
obvious that this film celebrates a hatred of at least Conservatives in the United States, but the extreme left view makes
it more likely that a) the country is perpetually that way and is to be hated
or 2) world Capitalism is the enemy no matter who operates it. I laughed when they tried to discuss
Socialism as more moral, then continued to show Castro. I know when I am being lied to and hoodwinked,
especially when it is done so thoroughly.
When it comes to that great measure of how we know things are or are
not, that great measurement we know as the “B.S. factor”, Fidel – The Untold Story is like no other DVD on the market – it sends
that measure off the charts into record territory!
- Nicholas Sheffo
