The Radical Left Conquer Venice

The 66th Venice Film Festival started almost a week ago. Today The Hollywood Reporter published reviews of two politically controversial documentaries, Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore and South of the Border by Oliver Stone. Both films have received largely positive reviews and even though I find myself slightly wary of their content (especially the Stone movie) I look forward to them. The Moore film (watch the trailer below) deals with the recent financial crisis and confronts politicians and businessmen with the question of why it is necessary to bail out failing companies. I haven’t seen the movie but one question I’m expecting Moore to answer as well is what exactly we should have done instead of bailing them out, considering the fact that the entire national (and international) economy would be in jeopardy had we not done that. As long as he confronts that problem honestly the movie could be very interesting.

As for Oliver Stone’s film, I can’t help but remember Comandante, a propaganda piece for Fidel Castro that Stone did in 2003. South of the Border promises to take a deeper look at the left-leaning governments of Latin and South America, and that’s fine as long as Stone makes a distinction between those who simply promote progressive policies and those who play around with the constitutions of their countries and try to make themselves president for life. There is a clear difference between people like Chile’s Michelle Bachelet and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. Unfortunately, judging from the trailer above, Stone is unlikely to convey these differences in a constructive way. Looks like it’s another admiring portrait of people who have too much power for their own good.

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Published by Stefan Hedmark 2009-09-07 14:13

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