Review of Looking for Fidel (2004) by Judge L — 09 Oct 2011

Where does it all turn? We expect Stone to be slightly more empathetic, perhaps even sympathetic, of the great long standing Cuban dictator throughout the duration of this film. Yet for almost 1 hour, it seems Stone has never had a more hard-edged, vigilante journalistic mindset in his filmmaking career.

So what's he buttering us up for? Surely we're not to sit through an Oliver Stone film and bash a singe individual for a whole hour, especially if he's a communist, especially if he was one of the few innocents in JFK, are we? Close, but methodically, and through precise editing, Stone changes the pace of his film at just about 1 hr in when Castro reveals a fact that does not seem to be of denial, or hidden shame, or obvious psychoticism.

Rather, Castro finally makes a point we can all agree with: when has the US ever taken anything besides pure surrender as an answer from another nation? Correct you are Castro, the US is a nation of bullies.

Castro made a lot of mistakes, but the lasting impression we're left with is that it's the United States' fault. Very intelligent people will be able to find meticulous answers to the contrary of Mr.

Castro, but I think Stone is right to feed us a ton of mistakes and then point the finger at the most powerful and ideologically disorganized nation on Earth. That's just my opinion. As for filmmaking itself, don't blink and don't leave the room without pausing unless you're an American/Cuban crisis expert.