DVD Talk Review of "Fidel"
05-27-02, 08:20 PM
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DVD Talk Review of "Fidel"
I have just read the review of this, and frankly felt compelled to register to DVD Talk to take strong exception to some of the remarks made about Fidel Castro.
"The US has been punishing the island for 40 years out of spite that Fidel didn't surrender to our will."
This is total baloney. The reason why we have an embargo against Cuba is because Fidel Castro is a Stalinist despot responsible for the worst human rights abuses in this hemisphere in the last half century. There is no reason why the United States should pump its own money to prop up this despot who refuses to allow one shred of political democracy in his country, especially since so many of the people demanding we kiss up to Fidel are the same people who talked about the moral imperative of imposing sanctions against the white South African government in the 1980s.
And if "surrendering to our will" is how we now describe the long-standing American committment to the principle that people have a right to choose their own leaders and that governments should respect such mundane principles as freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, something that tens of thousands of American soldiers have paid for in blood over the last century, then we are a very sorry society indeed.
Since its obvious that this miniseries is one designed to appease the Hollywood myth about Castro, which shows him as noble because of his communism and decides that his phony "reforms" in edcuation and health care matter more than freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, then at least I know there's one thing I don't need to waste my money on.
"The US has been punishing the island for 40 years out of spite that Fidel didn't surrender to our will."
This is total baloney. The reason why we have an embargo against Cuba is because Fidel Castro is a Stalinist despot responsible for the worst human rights abuses in this hemisphere in the last half century. There is no reason why the United States should pump its own money to prop up this despot who refuses to allow one shred of political democracy in his country, especially since so many of the people demanding we kiss up to Fidel are the same people who talked about the moral imperative of imposing sanctions against the white South African government in the 1980s.
And if "surrendering to our will" is how we now describe the long-standing American committment to the principle that people have a right to choose their own leaders and that governments should respect such mundane principles as freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, something that tens of thousands of American soldiers have paid for in blood over the last century, then we are a very sorry society indeed.
Since its obvious that this miniseries is one designed to appease the Hollywood myth about Castro, which shows him as noble because of his communism and decides that his phony "reforms" in edcuation and health care matter more than freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion, then at least I know there's one thing I don't need to waste my money on.
05-28-02, 08:03 AM
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I also reviewed Fidel, and I have to admit the film/miniseries caught me off guard.
I don't know if you've watched the film, but it is good (or at least the first 2/3), and though the message is probably homogenized, it is still insightful.
I don't know if you've watched the film, but it is good (or at least the first 2/3), and though the message is probably homogenized, it is still insightful.
