Posted on 01/13/2005 7:09:51 AM PST by Jay777
On Monday, January 31, PBS's American Experience will broadcast "Fidel Castro," a two-hour biography produced by Cuban native Adriana Bosch, who also produced "Jimmy Carter," "Reagan" and "Ulysses S. Grant" for the PBS series. "This is the first profile of a non-American leader to air as part of the series," Mark Samels, executive producer of American Experience, said in a press release.
The Castro program also is the first American Experience biography to carry closed-caption Spanish subtitles, which Samels described as an effort to reach out to millions of Spanish-speaking viewers nationwide.
"Fidel Castro and his impact on the American experience is an important story, and as many people as possible deserve to see this," said Jacoba Atlas, Sr., PBS programming vice president.
A companion website to the "Fidel Castro" TV program describes him as a controversial, charismatic dictator who has had an "inordinate" impact on the latter half of the twentieth century....
(Excerpt) Read more at thomasmore.org ...
Where's the barf alert?
Castro will get better treatment than if they did 'Pinochet'.
Sorry, wish I could go back and do it.
"...the "Fidel Castro" TV program describes him as a controversial, charismatic dictator..."
Uh huh...and Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin were misunderstood patriots.
Worse than that....Castro will get better treatment than President Reagan....
PBS in the title has an implicit "barf alert"
I bet the Rats are getting together with their popcorn so they can worship their savior!
touche'
I detect a trace of condescension in their close-captioning this in Spanish.
Most Cuban-Americans I've encountered have pretty good English.
If the producer talks about Castro's successes, he might be reasonably asked why he's in America and not building the Revoluction back in Cuba.
But since the production is a "cautionary tale", perhaps we have misjudged the man. I'd be very curious to hear a review of the documentary.
It does seem horribly ironic to make this part of the "American Experience" series. You could make a documentary on Cuban-Americans and their success in the US, but one on Castro?
Come on.
D
Since when is Castro part of the American Experience? Apart from Hollywood and the rest of the American neo-Marxists, nobody cares about him. It would be more accurate to rename the program "The Soviet Experience".
Yep. Dead people, or "disappeared" people, don't engage in controversy.
I am not suggesting that you should, but for future reference, you can contact the Admin Moderator for changes to a title posted in error.
This is, admittedly, a personal pet peeve, but why the constant use of the phrase "reach out to"? It is way over-used, and here it is just silly where saying it is an effort to "reach" Spanish-speaking viewers would do just as well.
Why don't I feel the need to watch this? Is it because of who Castro is, or is it PBS? Why should I waste my time?
Did anyone watch this? I did tonight because the Wall Street Journal's Dorothy Rabinowitz said "you do not want to miss this".
PBS may be PBS but IMHO Castro was portrayed for what he is - a monster.
You learn all you need to know in the first 15 minutes of the two hour (no commercials except at the beginning). Castro and Raul are expelled from a Jesuit school for being violent troublemakers. Castro was born illegitimately to a woman who was the mistress of his father. She was essentially illiterate. But he tells his mother that if she does not send him back to the school that expelled him he would burn down the family home. The woman may have been illiterate but she knew her 15 year old son meant what he said.
Later, in an amazing historical irony, when Castro first starts expropriating property the old woman's farm is the first to go and she never forgives him.
As Castro moves on to the world stage he starts looking for bigger things to "burn down". At the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis he "gives permission" to Kruschev to annihlate Cuba for "the cause" and is bitterly disappointed when Kruschev doesn't do it. Same story as the 15 year old monster - just a bigger stage.
In the end Castro is defeated by none other than Reagan who does what Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and Carter have failed to do before him which is to put Castro in his place.
This is a good show and not the usual PBS tripe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.