Fidel

Rating:
Summary: Very good!
Review: Having recently read Tad Szulk's excellent biography of Fidel Castro, I was curious to see this movie. Although based on different material, the movie story line is indeed similar and covers a substantial amount of detail. Perhaps because it is not a Hollywood production, the director takes great pains in trying to present an unbiased view of Castro. In this he is indeed succesful, as the Castro we see is here is far from being the evil being that many would like us to believe. Instead, we see a man driven by his relentless desire to correct many of the injustices and social problems existing in Cuba in the 1950's, and tormented by his failure to achieve a better life for his countrymen.

The only problem with the movie is the superficial treatment of the Cuban missile crisis and the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Both topics are dispatched within barely a few minutes of the film. Even so, the film is long (over 3 hours).

All in all, this is a very good film, with good, credible acting.

Rating:
Summary: Castro Bias
Review: I also saw this film @ the Toronto Film Fest. While it gave a different (Castro) Point of view, that was refreshing, but it was clearly biased, especially after having recently been to Cuba. Things aren't great... and it's not completely the fault of the US... Fidel Castro is a Capitalistic Opportunist. Communist? Socialist? Maybe 40 years ago... Now, he's living the POSH life and hated in Havana.

Rating:
Summary: Fidel
Review: I happened to see a brilliant film called Fidel at last year's Toronto Intl. F.F. It was the # movie on my list and it far surpassed my expectations. It shows the Cuban leader as a private man, and a socialist who set his native Cuba free 40 years ago and gave it back to the people as opposed to American Imperialistic swine. It was also a movie dir. by an American, Estella Bravo who moved to Cuba over 25 yrs. ago, this movie is great and I recommend it to anyone either socialists/or capitalists, political or none, it is a true representation of a man who has been one of the most influential leaders of the 20th century, and highly mis-understood. For the truth, look no further than this masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: could be better
Review: If somebody wants to tell a story on Fidel Castro, it has to be told in Spanish. Listening to Fidel and the Ché speak broken English is I guess like listening to Chairman Mao tell his life story in French, or something like that. The film loses a lot of power by just not allowing the characters express themselves verbally in their own language. Still, a good film not to me missed.

Rating:
Summary: Been There, Done That
Review: Then that happened, then that happened, then that happened.... Anyone with a passable knowledge of Castro and the Cuban Revolution will realize that "Fidel" is little more than a dramatic chronicle of the most familiar episodes of Castro's life. The film is nearly a cliché. Add that the film is a three hours plus long and the acting is mediocre at best, the resulting sense of chore viewers experience is predictable.

Yet with all the time the movie allots itself (and sentences the viewer to), time, in places, is oddly prioritized. The Cuban missile crisis was a blip in history apparently.

Oh, there's more. There is the dissonance in film's perspective about Castro himself. The film doesn't suggest that Castro is a multifaceted, complicated character. Rather, the film takes a sudden and unpredictable shift in its point of view. Actually, the shift resembles a conversion. Castro goes from a visionary and precocious revolutionary leader to--presto!--the failed tyrant we know from the news and White House press briefings. I'm sure the conversion saved the film from the charge of pro-Castro ... that is all too familiar when anything the least bit laudatory about Castro or post-revolutionary Cuba is depicted. But, then, that's how propaganda works here.

Rating:
Summary: The 26th of July Movement
Review: This English language film does well in bringing Fidel Castro to life as a personality and showing his role in the Cuban revolution. It has a great deal of excitement and drama, especially during the revolutionary period of the 50's, including a fair amount of military life and action.

The filmmakers try to give a balanced view of Castro--illustrating his passion for the welfare of Cuban people but also showing how power in some ways went to his head. As Celia Sanchez tells him (around 1980 I believe), "Listen to what I have to say--don't interrupt me--you're losing touch with the people."

"Fidel" is historically accurate from what I know and all the major characters in the Cuban revolution are depicted here including Sanchez, Raul Castro, Ernesto (Che) Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.

I think the filmmakers took on too much, however, in attempting to cover Fidel's life from 1949 to present. Many events are given too little exposure. Yet this film is much too long at about 3 hours and 20 minues. A better film might have focused on the revolution up through 1959 and ended with the march into Santiago--about two-thirds of what this one covers--leaving the rest for another day.

All in all, "Fidel" is well done. For people in the U.S. it gives a good account of a major, and fairly recent, historical event (the Cuban Revolution) occuring just south of our border--an event of which most U.S. people have little knowledge.

Rating:
Summary: The 26th of July Movement
Review: This English language film does well in bringing Fidel Castro to life as a personality and showing his role in the Cuban revolution. It has a great deal of excitement and drama, especially during the revolutionary period of the 50's, including a fair amount of military life and action.

The filmmakers try to give a balanced view of Castro--illustrating his passion for the welfare of Cuban people but also showing how power in some ways went to his head. As Celia Sanchez tells him (around 1980 I believe), "Listen to what I have to say--don't interrupt me--you're losing touch with the people."

"Fidel" is historically accurate from what I know and all the major characters in the Cuban revolution are depicted here including Sanchez, Raul Castro, Ernesto (Che) Guevara and Camilo Cienfuegos.

I think the filmmakers took on too much, however, in attempting to cover Fidel's life from 1949 to present. Many events are given too little exposure. Yet this film is much too long at about 3 hours and 20 minues. A better film might have focused on the revolution up through 1959 and ended with the march into Santiago--about two-thirds of what this one covers--leaving the rest for another day.

All in all, "Fidel" is well done. For people in the U.S. it gives a good account of a major, and fairly recent, historical event (the Cuban Revolution) occuring just south of our border--an event of which most U.S. people have little knowledge.

Rating:
Summary: Chronicles of a Revolution
Review: This is a dramatical and remarkable portrait of a man who tries to free his country from injustices, dictatorship, illiteracy and economical domination. An honest man with a strong passion for revolution and love for his people despite many attacks against himself and his country, Cuba.
His stuggle for the independance of Cuba is well represented in this political drama but it doesn't show his resistance against US imperialism. The movie start in a very promising manner: the acting is perfect, the plot is interesting, the direction is excellent and the historical accuracy is very good. But, it chooses the easy theory that power went inside Fidel's head. He seems to be a man who still fights for equality and socialism, but his impossible projects are bad for the economy. This is where the movie loses its objectivity but never becomes biaised. The fact that Castro is losing the touch with the people, which is not true, takes too much place. The movie finishes by showing all the hate campaign against Fidel(like Bush saying that he would like to see a free Cuba)and the magnificient face to face between the viewer and Fidel, who denounces all the opportunism of the US (''before 1959, you had one policy for Cuba, that we must be exploited, after 1959, you had one policy for Cuba, that we must be destroyed'');
Another default of the movie is that Fidel is not portrayed with enough heroism, while the movie never suggests that the economical problem in Cuba was the embargo.
The Miami mafia said that this movie was a love-letter, and others said that this was anti-castro.
It is more complicated than that and it goes behind the simplist concept of bad vs good. Even though I do not suggest it for those who are particulary right wingers. Others will love it.
Despite some defaults, it's a must-see!

Rating:
Summary: Great portrait
Review: This is the first movie I see where Castro is portrayed as what he truly is, a tyrant. It happens that I know someone who knows Castro first hand; his descriptions of Castro's outbursts matches the movie's portray of his dealing with ministers. The movie also describes quite accurately some important moments of the "revolution", the so called "el cordon de la Habana", "la zafra del 70" and other Castro monumental economic failures. All based on his direct top-down command style, absolute ignorance of agriculture practices, economics and his refusal to acknowledge human nature. Coffee trees do not grow in plain fields even if commanded by Castro, they are not cuban citizens and therefore, they are inmune to Castro's wrath.

I was also quite impressed by the portray of Che Guevara, an inept doctor who ruined the Cuban economy and did not hesitate in sending thousands of people to firing squads without trial. This movie is probably the first that dares to portray him as what he was. Somehow Che has been elevated to some kind of hero by people who did not know him or lived under his rule. It has become almost a sacriley to say anything that may "offend" his memmory. Fortually for the rest of the world, the commander who lead his capture was a Cuban, he knew what happened when Castro was captured in 1956, after attacking an Army garrision, sentenced to 12 years in prison and then released after two. He did not hesitate in ordering Che's killing. We have a say in spanish "muerto el perro se acaba la rabia" ("dead the dog, no rabies").

The movie closes with a couple of Castro statements that I clearly remember and that reflect his absolutist nature..."if one day I am told that 100% of the population does not support the revolution, I would keep going..."

Thanks to the producers, actors and director.
Kudos for your courage to stand up for the truth.

Rating:
Summary: awesome
Review: This movie from start to end is very good, except some parts went to fast. I felt like that I was there in the movie. For the most part, it had actual events and the storyline is almost accurate. The actor for che guevara should have been more of hero then what he protrays in the movie. I would watch it again many times over.