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07/27/05
Fidel (2002)
63 %
Reviews Counted: 19 Fresh: 12 Rotten:7 Average Rating: 5.8/10
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Synopsis: This biographical documentary takes a rousing, invigorating, emotional look at one of the most complex and endearing figures of 20th Century global politics, Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Through a mix of archival footage and talking heads (which include writers, celebrities, and personal... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Starring: Fidel Castro, Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, Sydney Pollack, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Reviews
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
A landmark work that should have viewers across the world reaching for history books to learn not only politically expedient accounts of Fidel’s life, but also the real deal.
01/27/04
Bravo reveals the true intent of her film by carefully selecting interview subjects who will construct a portrait of Castro so predominantly charitable it can only be seen as propaganda.
03/11/03
An overview portrait more impressionistic than anything else, hardly psychologically plumbing... Still, leftist politics aside, the film undeniably works on a human level.
03/10/03
Any film that doesn't even in passing mention political prisoners, poverty and the boat loads of people who try to escape the country is less a documentary and more propaganda by way of a valentine sealed with a kiss.
03/07/03
Purely propaganda, a work of unabashed hero worship, it is nonetheless -- and likely inadvertently -- a timely and invaluable implicit reminder of the role that U.S. foreign policy has played in the rise of Castro.
03/06/03
Top Critic
It's a refreshing change from the self-interest and paranoia that shape most American representations of Castro.
03/06/03
Full of detail about the man and his country, and is well worth seeing.
01/31/03
Has the kitsch appeal of a farm implement on a restaurant wall, or an Andy Warhol Mao poster: Interesting, but not for its original purpose.
01/31/03
Audiences will find no mention of political prisoners or persecutions that might paint the Castro regime in less than saintly tones.
01/03/03
Although Estela Bravo's documentary is cloyingly hagiographic in its portrait of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, it's still a guilty pleasure to watch.
12/06/02
Sacrifices the value of its wealth of archival foot-age with its less-than-objective stance.
10/18/02
Top Critic
Ninety minutes of Viva Castro! can be as tiresome as 9 seconds of Jesse Helms' anti- Castro rhetoric, which are included
10/17/02
The lack of opposing viewpoints soon grows tiresome -- the film feels more like a series of toasts at a testimonial dinner than a documentary.
10/17/02
Top Critic
We get an image of Big Papa spanning history, rather than suspending it.
10/15/02
1 - 19 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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