{"id":7364,"date":"2010-02-17T22:58:46","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T06:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7364"},"modified":"2010-02-18T06:55:17","modified_gmt":"2010-02-18T14:55:17","slug":"south-of-the-border-oliver-stone-2009-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7364","title":{"rendered":"South of the Border (Oliver Stone, 2009): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 In an attempt to\u00a0cast Hugo Chavez in a different light other\u00a0than\u00a0how the American press portrays him, controversial filmmaker\u00a0Oliver Stone went South of the Border<\/a><\/em>\u00a0 to Venezuela, and interviewed Chavez personally.<\/p>\n

President Chavez is a socialist who acts like a reformist but behaves like a revolutionary.\u00a0 His career began in the military where he eventually formed the Revolutionary Bolivarian Movement and in 1992 staged a coup d’etat\u00a0against then President Perez.\u00a0 The coup failed but Chavez was ultimately elected president in 1998.<\/p>\n

Stone shows us highlights of Chavez’s career with VO narration, simultaneously cutting to a sit-down interview with the president himself.\u00a0 While we expect thought-provoking questioning from Stone, instead we witness Stone ask Chavez to instruct him on the use of coca leaves – Chavez obliges with a look and tone of idiocy towards his interviewer.\u00a0 In a separate cut we are again deflated as Stone requests Chavez to ride around a field on a child’s bicycle, and this time Chavez idiotically agrees and damages the poor\u00a0kid’s bike!<\/p>\n

Stone then visited with Socialist\u00a0Bolivian president\u00a0Evo Morales, and again he inquires about coca leaves and requests that Evo play soccer with him out on the lawn – Evo politely agrees.<\/p>\n

By the time Stone heads down to Argentina to interview President Christina Kirchner, it seems he’s been chewing too many coca leaves, when he seriously\u00a0inquires of the president how many shoes she owns.\u00a0 Kirchner retorts back “why is it men are never asked that question?”\u00a0 To which the sexist\u00a0Stone stupidly replies “she’s a\u00a0feisty one.”\u00a0 \u00a0Kirchner was however able to deal with him patiently and politely – it’s no wonder Americans get a bad rap.<\/p>\n

Outside of the one-on-one interviews, the film actually takes an interesting turn when we discover that the South American leaders appear friendly and supportive of each other.\u00a0 It is their goal for their respective countries to get out of debt, be self-sufficient, and not rely on the IMF (International Monetary Fund) for help.<\/p>\n

Chavez is highly critical of the U.S. government, yet despite being “democratic” himself, his own government has seized control over the media outlets, increased state powers, and put an end to term limits for presidents.<\/p>\n

President Lugo of Paraguay (former Catholic Bishop w\/three paternity suits) and President Raul Castro of Cuba were interviewed as well.\u00a0 Yet in Stone’s attempt to show the rest of the world that what the media or politicians label as dictators, are really just ordinary\u00a0heroes working for the good of the people, he falls short – the Bolsheviks were ordinary too!<\/p>\n

All of these presidents appeared to be intelligent and\u00a0have honorable intentions, however most politicians (wherever they serve) have a problem with honesty – wake up Oliver, you should\u00a0know that.\u00a0 In an attempt to broaden our minds, your film was very one-sided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. \u00a0 In an attempt to\u00a0cast Hugo Chavez in a different light other\u00a0than\u00a0how the American press portrays him, controversial filmmaker\u00a0Oliver Stone went South of the Border\u00a0 to Venezuela, and interviewed Chavez personally. President Chavez is a socialist who acts like a reformist but behaves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}