Reader's Review: Looking for Fidel, by Oliver Stone

Reader Review:

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

Fidel Not a Bad Guy, September 16, 2011

By 

Carioca56

This review is from: Looking for Fidel (Amazon Instant Video)

The start of this video is really boring, with Oliver Stone pressing Fidel Castro on human rights issues, and evaluating him through a wholly American perspective.

But at the end of the movie, which I guess one could call a documentary, Stone loosens up, and actually seems to realize that he is in a foreign country, even though the USA has done its utmost to deny Cubans the god-given right to autonomy.

What I learned from watching the video:

Cubans flee Cuba for Florida for strictly economic reasons.

Fidel can walk the streets of Havana (or anywhere else in Cuba) without a million body guards, bullet-proof plexi-glass, and a cordon of navy seals for protection. U.S. politicians can't.

Of course there is no freedom of speech in Cuba. If there were, the revolution would be doomed, as America is waiting for the first sign of weakness in order to pounce.

Access to health services and education in Cuba is pretty much universal. So what if the Cuban people don't have flat screen TV's, mobile phones, and Gucci handbags. You don't need those in order to survive.

Many Cubans love their leader. We just hear about the ones that don't.

Finally, of the utmost significance. Many of the Cubans interviewed in this movie were single fathers. Now, any country that encourages its people to have smaller families is alright by me.

And probably the best part of the movie is at the end, where Castro and Stone are up on a bluff, overlooking Havana harbor and smiling. Castro points and says, "That's where US warships will come in, should we ever let down our guard," or some such thing. (Not sure exactly what he said, as I was listening to Spanish and reading Korean, as I couldn't hear the English for the simultaneous translation.) And then Castro adds again, "One thing about the Americans that really makes it hard to deal with them is they don't accept anything but unconditional surrender. Complete surrender is all they will accept."

Four stars.

Source: Amazon.com

JG: A big applause for Fidel Castro for never having surrendered to Yankee imperialism. He has dignity and the courage of his convictions.  I only hope that Raul will do the same, and doesn't sell out, like Gorbachev did in the now defunct USSR.