An overview portrait more impressionistic than anything else, hardly psychologically plumbing... Still, leftist politics aside, the film undeniably works on a human level.
Comment
03/10/03
Fidel (2002)
60
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:20
Fresh:12
Rotten:8
Average Rating:5.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: This biographical documentary takes a rousing, invigorating, emotional look at one of the most complex and endearing figures of 20th Century global politics, Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Through a... [More]
Starring: Fidel Castro, Alice Walker, Harry Belafonte, Sydney Pollack
Director: Estela Bravo
Reviews for Fidel
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; Australian critics are listed first)
Although Estela Bravo's documentary is cloyingly hagiographic in its portrait of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, it's still a guilty pleasure to watch.
12/06/02
Top CriticNo review available.
07/27/05
Makes an aborbing if arguable case for the man's greatness.
01/31/03
We get an image of Big Papa spanning history, rather than suspending it.
10/15/02
Purely propaganda, a work of unabashed hero worship, it is nonetheless -- and likely inadvertently -- a timely and invaluable implicit reminder of the role that U.S. foreign policy has played in the rise of Castro.
03/06/03
Top CriticA landmark work that should have viewers across the world reaching for history books to learn not only politically expedient accounts of Fidel’s life, but also the real deal.
01/27/04
Has the kitsch appeal of a farm implement on a restaurant wall, or an Andy Warhol Mao poster: Interesting, but not for its original purpose.
01/31/03
Full of detail about the man and his country, and is well worth seeing.
01/31/03
An exhilarating experience.
10/18/02
It's a refreshing change from the self-interest and paranoia that shape most American representations of Castro.
03/06/03
No review available.
11/25/02
This is an exercise not in biography but in hero worship.
10/17/02
Top CriticSacrifices the value of its wealth of archival foot-age with its less-than-objective stance.
10/18/02
Any film that doesn't even in passing mention political prisoners, poverty and the boat loads of people who try to escape the country is less a documentary and more propaganda by way of a valentine sealed with a kiss.
03/07/03
Ninety minutes of Viva Castro! can be as tiresome as 9 seconds of Jesse Helms' anti- Castro rhetoric, which are included
10/17/02
Audiences will find no mention of political prisoners or persecutions that might paint the Castro regime in less than saintly tones.
01/03/03
Offers a completely one-sided view of Castro and his life and career.
11/18/08
Bravo reveals the true intent of her film by carefully selecting interview subjects who will construct a portrait of Castro so predominantly charitable it can only be seen as propaganda.
03/11/03
The lack of opposing viewpoints soon grows tiresome -- the film feels more like a series of toasts at a testimonial dinner than a documentary.
10/17/02
1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating; Australian critics are listed first)
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