Product Description
Whether dismissed as a relic or revered as a savior, all agree that Fidel Castro, nearing 44 years as the leader of Cuba, is one of the most influential and controversial figures of our time. Rarely are Americans given a chance to see inside the world of this socialist leader. The new documentary film FIDEL by Estela Bravo offers a unique opportunity to view the man through exclusive interviews with Castro himself, historians, public figures and close friends, with rare footage from the Cuban State archives.

Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, and Sydney Pollack discuss Fidel as a person, while former and current US government figures including Arthur Schlesinger, Ramsey Clark, Wayne Smith, Congressman Charles Rangel and a former CIA agent offer political and historical perspectives on Castro and the long-standing US embargo against Cuba. Family members and close friends, including Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, offer a window into the rarely seen personal life of Fidel.

Bravo's camera captures Fidel Castro swimming with bodyguards, visiting his childhood home and school, joking with Nelson Mandela, Ted Turner and Muhammad Ali, meeting Elian Gonzalez, and celebrating his birthday with members of the Buena Vista Social Club. Juxtaposing the personal anecdotal with history of the Cuban revolution and the fight to survive the post-Soviet period, FIDEL tells a previously untold story and presents a new view of this compelling figure.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 21 reviews)

On the 50th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution

The year 2009 marks the 56th anniversary of the Cuban July 26th movement, the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Cuban Revolution and the 42nd anniversary of the execution of Ernesto `Che' Guevara by the Bolivian Army after the defeat of his guerrilla forces and his capture in godforsaken rural Bolivia. I have reviewed the life of Che elsewhere in this space (see July archives, dated July 5, 2006). The Cuban Revolution stood for my generation, the Generation of '68, and, hopefully, will for later generations as a symbol of revolutionary intransigence against American imperialism.

Thus, it is fitting to review a cinematic biographic sketch of Che's comrade and central leader of that revolution, Fidel Castro. Obviously, it is harder to evaluate the place in history of the disabled, but still living, Fidel than the iconic Che whose place is secured in the revolutionary pantheon. The choice of this documentary reflected my desire to review a recent post- Soviet biographic sketch (originally released in 2002). Usually one must accept by now that most Western biographic sketches have various degrees of hostility to the Castro regime and the Cuban Revolution. The director here, Ms. Bravo, is apparently an exception. After viewing this sketch I find that it gives a reasonable account of the highlights of Fidel's life thus far and for those not familiar with the Fidel saga a good place to start. To get a more detailed analysis one, as always, then goes to the books to get a better sense of the subject.

Let us be clear about two things. First, this writer has defended the Cuban Revolution since its inception; initially under a liberal- democratic premise of the right of nations, especially applicable to small nations pressed up against the imperialist powers, to self-determination; later under the above-mentioned premise and also that it should be defended on socialist grounds, not my idea of socialism- the Bolshevik, 1917 kind- but as an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist revolution nevertheless. That prospective continues to be this writer's position today. Secondly, my conception of revolutionary strategy and thus of world politics has for a long time been far removed from Fidel Castro's (and Che's) strategy, which emphasized military victory by guerrilla forces in the countryside, rather than my position of mass action by the urban proletariat leading the rural masses. That said, despite those strategic political differences this reviewer can honor the Cuban Revolution as a symbol of a fight all anti-imperialist militants should defend.

Ms. Bravo's rather more positive prospective obviously differs from mine. Nevertheless she has presented interesting footage focusing on the highlights of Fidel's career; the early student days struggling for political recognition; the initial fights against Batista; the famous but unsuccessful Moncada attack; the subsequent trial, imprisonment and then exile in Mexico; the return to Cuba and renewed fight under a central strategy of guerrilla warfare rather than urban insurrection; the triumph over Batista in 1959; the struggle against American imperialist intervention and the nationalizations of much of Cuba's economy; the American-sponsored Bay of Pigs in 1961; the rocky alliance with the Soviet Union and the Cuban Missile Crisis; the various ups and downs in the Cuban economy stemming from reliance on the monoculture of sugar; the various periods of Cuban international revolutionary support activity, including Angola and Nicaragua; the demise of the Soviet Union and the necessity of Cuba to go it alone along with its devastating hardships; and, various other events up through the 1990's.

All of this is complete with the inevitable `talking heads' experts interspersed throughout the documentary giving their take on the meaning of various incidents. Of interest here is the take of the former CIA interest section head Smith, former American radical Angela Davis and the novelist and long time Castro friend Gabriel Garcia Marquez. There is plenty of material to start with and much to analyze. As mentioned before Che's place is secure and will be a legitimate symbol of rebellion for youth for a long time. Fidel, as a leader of state and a much more mainline Stalinist (although compared with various stodgy Soviet leaderships that he dealt with over the years he must have seemed like their worst Trotsky nightmare) has a much less assured place. Alas, the old truism holds here - revolutionaries should not die in their beds. As always though- Defend The Cuban Revolution- End The U.S. Blockade.

December 09, 2008

A rare appraisal... clearly intended to balance the predominant view of Castro...

First off I have to say I agree with another viewer, when he wrote, "... This documentary shows a perspective not often represented by the mainstream media and I appreciated it very much." I cannot think of a single world leader who made a mark in history that hasn't done both good and awful things along the way... but that doesn't mean, ideological opponent or not, that we should denigrate major accomplishments, like deposing a hopelessly corrupt regime, providing a nation with social services and medical care where none existed before. When we let the ideological blinders fall before our eyes, we run the risk of underestimating opponents, trusting self-interested people who parrot our own party line, missing opportunities for constructive change, and betraying our own principles. Now more than any other time, when we're entering a multi-polar world, and have a woefully damaged economy to repair at home, we have to access the good and bad in highly placed people on "the other side" of any potential conflict with clear-eyed rationality, realism and fact-based historical perspective. And documentaries like this, can only help us, as the world moves away from a US dominated international system.
November 01, 2008

Fidel: The Untold Story

Very good film, everyone should be able to see both the bad side of Fidel which we read about in our history books and see in the media, and the good which I got to see for the first time in this film. Only then can we draw our own conclusions and stop being puppets who only believe what the media wants us to believe. Very insightful movie and very easy to understand.
April 03, 2008

Obvious Bias and Agenda

The video is totally onesided and ignores tons of facts to show Fidel as a romantic revolutionary hated by a select few.All the people interviewed are either of the Castro family or the people that benefited from his regime. It also paints the exile cubans as a small extremist minority in Miami. A huge point totally ignored is the fact that his own daughter defected to the United States and is one of his strongest protesters. I was born in the United States and both of my Parents are from Cuba. It was insulting to hear how "great" the dictator was portrayed. It was also comical to hear that any problem in Cuba is because of the Embargo, not Fidel's Communist regime. You can't blame the embargo on the fact that there has not been free elections in 45 years, you cant blame the embargo on the Human rights atrocities, you can't blame the embargo on the thousands of "political" prisoners.
To make matters worse, "educated" journalists and low lives from America praise Fidel's achievements. It strikes me as incredibly ignorant seeing that these people praise fidel from the comforts of the US. This video is just as much a documentary as Farenheit 9/11
November 15, 2007

True Propaganda.

This movie was somewhat astounding to me as, from the very beginning, it makes a point of depicting Fidel Castro in the kindest of lights. We see him as a man and a man alone which, frankly, is not an honest way to portray him. Certainly, humanizing him is appropriate as a human being is exactly what this mass murderer is, but to treat him as an underdog is to miss the real point of his reign--regardless of what Harry Belafonte might think. The increased poverty and suffering of the Cuban population that he produced is what should be remembered first and foremost. I refer viewers to Ron Radosh's memoirs if they'd like to know what its like in Cuba in the eyes of a disinterested third party or the other excellent works written about him like Against All Hope or Inside the Pirate's Den. In Cuba today, the arrests continue as does Castro's repulsive totalitarian regime. I do not wish death upon Mr. Castro, but hope Revolucion! ends as soon as possible.
March 24, 2007

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