Comandante
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Comandante |
| Original title | Comandante |
| Country of production | USA , Spain |
| original language |
English , Spanish |
| Publishing year | 2003 |
| length | 99 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Oliver Stone |
| script | Oliver Stone |
| production |
Nancy Abraham José Ibáñez Vincent Joliet Alvaro Longaria Sheila Nevins Alessandra Pasquino Jaume Roures Oliver Stone Fernando Sulichin Robert S. Wilson |
| music |
Alberto Iglesias Paul Kelly |
| camera |
Carlos Marcovich Rodrigo Prieto |
| cut |
Elisa Bonora Alex Marquez |
| occupation | |
Comandante [ komanˈðante ] ( span. , Commandant ) is a documentary film from 2003. In it, the director Oliver Stone portrayed the long-standing Cuban head of government and president Fidel Castro .
Emergence
Stone accompanied Castro for three days in February 2002 with two handheld cameras. He documented both public appearances by Castro, for example visiting a university, as well as many private moments. The director took on the role of the interviewer, who is also often in the picture. Castro's long-time interpreter translated his answers into English, and most of Stone's questions into Spanish as well. Stone regularly added historical film, image and sound recordings of the relevant events to Castro's remarks.
content
Stone spoke to Castro about his companion Che Guevara , his rise to president, his relationship with the United States and a possible successor. Castro also commented on numerous political events over the past 40 years. He expresses doubts about Lee Harvey Oswald's sole perpetrator in the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy and explains the background to the missile deployment that led to the Cuban Missile Crisis .
Stone also addressed critical issues, such as the situation of political prisoners in Cuba and how to deal with critics like Huber Matos . Castro answered these questions aggressively, but mainly made statements that corresponded to official language usage. He explicitly emphasized that under his rule there was never any torture in Cuba because this contradicts the spirit of the revolution. Critics accused Stone, among other things, of tacitly accepting this statement.
Stone also asked Castro about private issues, such as his role as a father, his relationship with women, love affairs, his favorite films, and the waste of time shaving. Castro largely evaded the more important questions concerning his private life and also made it clear that he did not want to comment on them. Stone commented on this by saying that Castro was of the same generation as his own father, who found it difficult to talk about feelings. However, Castro was very open to many questions, such as whether he was afraid of death or whether, like his role model Salvador Allende , he would have killed himself in a hopeless battle.
criticism
For a large part of the film, the viewer has the impression of a private conversation between two obviously sympathetic people. In combination with the fact that Stone described himself as a friend and admirer of Castro, who was widely regarded as a dictator, this earned him some serious accusations of partiality. Stone said of Castro, “He's a driven man, a very moral man. He cares a lot about his country. In this way he is selfless. "
The critic from Salon.com listed numerous human rights violations by the Cuban government and vigorously criticized the fact that Stone largely ignored this and instead demonstrated his friendship with a dictator whose government, among other things, deliberately sunk boats carrying people fleeing the country.
Ekkehard Knörer gave a mixed verdict. He described the film “despite all objections” as an interesting insight into a fascinating person, but at the same time it was also uncritical and gave an idealized picture of the Cuban revolutionary leader. Stone "fell in love with Castro" while filming. Stylistically, the film is “pure Oliver Stone”: a wild onslaught of images and a series of Pavlovian reflections . In addition, the director himself can be seen in the picture more often than "befits a modest man".
At the press conference at the 2003 Berlinale , where the film was presented, Stone emphasized that Comandante should only be a personal portrait of a historical legend. He reacted irritably to critical questions about the political position of his film and said that the situation of the common people in Cuba was “heavenly” compared to Brazil or Honduras .
Web links
- Comandante in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Comandante at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Jake Tepper: Amigos. ( Memento of June 13, 2007 on the Internet Archive ) Salon.com, February 8, 2003, accessed September 19, 2009
- ↑ a b Ekkehard Knörer: Film review to Comandante. Jump Cut Magazine, 2003, accessed September 19, 2009