According to the review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Stone's crew included "legendary documentarian Albert Maysles." I think this further suggests that whatever your sister-in-law didn't like about the film should not be attributed to lack of experience or technical skill.
Oliver Stone goes latin The director questions the 'official' story in 'South of the Border' http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/movies/2477972,MOV-News-oliver09.article July 9, 2010 BY LAURA EMERICK Oliver Stone does not shirk from controversy. After lobbing political fireballs with the films "Salvador" (1986) and "Platoon" (1986), he shot down the Warren Commission report with "JFK" (1991). His biopic "Nixon" (1995) explored the tortured soul of the president perhaps best remembered for declaring "I am not a crook." More recently, his "W." sketched out the oedipal drama in which Bush 43 embarked on a quest for the presidency as a means of exacting revenge on his godlike father. Now the Oscar-winning director strikes once again into the political heart of darkness with his documentary "South of the Border," opening today in Chicago. Billed as "a road trip across five countries," the film sets out to explore the rise of new governmental forces and leaders in Latin America dedicated to freeing the region from the centuries-old grip of the United States. (In a clever visual metaphor, the film's poster depicts the continent caught in the claws of the American eagle.) As Stone states in his narration, "There's a revolution underway in South America, but most of the world doesn't know it." To that end, Stone and his crew (including legendary documentarian Albert Maysles) interview the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay and Venezuela, all left-leaning. "This is the first time in history where many countries in South America have united with democratically elected leaders to say, 'We want to control our own destinies and resources. To the U.S. we say, stop trying to own us,' " said Stone in an interview en route to one of his many "South of the Border" promotional appearances. "Of course, these countries do not share the same goals but they do share the same sentiments, and they are allies in that region. That's quite rare, given the history of U.S. involvement in Latin America. Every time someone has come along with what's perceived as radical ideas, they've been picked off. Individually, they might die as one, but to quote [Bolivian president] Evo Morales as he says in the film, we are now millions." [...] On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 11:03 PM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > Robert Naiman <[email protected]> wrote: >> I don't know what it means to say that it's "bad as a documentary." >> It's trying to get a story out about Latin America that is not widely >> available in the US. At the moment, unfortunately, it's in a class by >> itself so far in that regard, as far as a movie you have a chance of >> seeing in a commercial theater. > > obviously, the word should be gotten out. I thought it was clear that > she was referring to its form, not its content, with her point of view > being that of judging the quality of the craft. She thought the > content was interesting. > >> Whatever your sister-in-law may think of it, it's not attributable to >> a feature film director making his first documentary; Stone has made >> several, going back many years; they have not been widely seen in the >> U.S. > > I may have read more into what she said than she would have done > (about his attitude as a maker of . Her problem was with the form, > which was slip-shod (with stuff like white subtitles on a white > background). Maybe to us civilians (non-documentary-makers) "a > raffish, easy-going style" is a good thing, as Louis suggests,but if > you can't read the subtitles.... > > I haven't seen the film yet, so I can't really comment. I just report > 'em as I hear 'em. (speak about "raffish & easy-going"!). > -- > Jim Devine > "All science would be superfluous if the form of appearance of things > directly coincided with their essence." -- KM > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] Urge Congress to Support a Timetable for Military Withdrawal from Afghanistan http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/act/feingold-mcgovern _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
