craig8130 Its sad when post and movies like this portray Castro as nice guy and when Hollywood elites make movies portraying communist, or socialist leaders as good guys. Remember he is a Communist. But then again the people who posted positive reviews about Cuba and Castro are probably a Communist themselves. Yes, we live in a democracy in good old USA and with democracy there will be side effects such as crime, prostitution, etc. Just like a prescription drug to help us get better. Side effect can be anything, headaches, vomit, etc but one takes the drug to fight the infection or disease, the person will get healed over time using the prescribed drug. This analogy can be similar to Democracy. Yes, there are side effect in our society, however it is the best govt system to live under. The United States would not have been a super power if it weren't for a democratic free society under our great constitution. Now, lets look at Cuba. Has it's Communist government advance the country- No, Technology? NO, it copies from our nation and many others. Does Cuba give personal freedoms to their people that our US constitution gives us. The Right to free speech> Can they openly criticized Castro and not get punished? Can the people of Cuba vote their leader out of office on next election? Can the people throw out the leader if the leader turns on its people when that leader feels he will lose his or her power of the govt? NO. Remember Communist is about control over its people and the freedoms of their people. What gets me is the very freedoms and democratic system that we have in our country. The Hollywood stars enjoy our freedoms of our great country. They have the freedom to make any movies and make a lot of many, yet most of the Hollywood stars end up turning against our country USA, our way of government and they end up supporting Socialist and Communist leaders of other countries such as Chavez and Castro who if these Hollywood stars had lived initially in those communist Socialist countries would have never made it as entertainment stars in motion picture and certainly would not have made the money they make now! Wow, Is the USA great! Land of opportunity. Our country USA, governed by 3 branches of Govnt and not by one man who would rule for as long as he lives with no chance of its people to oust him if the wanted too? Can the people of Cuba leave their country freely to any country they choose to? NO. Communist Govt would not allow them unless they are the cronies of their govt Communist heads. Why don't some of the people here in the USA who are communist supporters and sympathizer who are in support of the Socialist and Communist countries and its leaders leave our country freely and go live happily in those Communist countries that they so admire. Its because they really know that they would lose the very freedoms that they have in our great county- USA! Just a note, I am an Hispanic not a Cuban, born in USA and proud to be an American.

alberto_cascante Oliver Stone, probably one of the most relevant filmmakers of the last decades in the United States, has been trying to get the American public –one of the most ignorant and alienated populations among developed countries– into alternative sides of what in the USA has been called the "official story". Comandante is not an exception in that aim, and it may approach the viewers to some topics that big media corporations and the military-industrial complex have been boycotting through the years in order to avoid the public to ask their government about some big questions. Stone's filmography evidences his own interest in the last half of the recent century –the half he was born in and the events, after WW2, that bring the United States to become what we know today–, and the plots that –in his own words– diminished individual freedom and democratic values in "the land of the free and the home of the brave!" Position for which he has often been criticized "for promoting conspiracy theories and alleged historical inaccuracies." This documentary is an important effort, now that Fidel Castro –one of the 10 most influential politicians of the last century– is probably close to the end of his life. Some analysts have said that the 20th Century will have officially ended after Castro's death.

The_Deputy In the American corporate media, Castro is always played up as some kind of monster. The corporate media (and a host of draconian laws help) prevent us from hearing what he has to say. This documentary is excellent if anything but to give us a chance to hear what Castro has to say.This was geared for an American audience, most of whom are probably ignorant about who Arbenz was, or Allende, and who probably never heard of the MPLA. It's mentioned at some point in the film that all the bad things that American big business and the CIA do around the world is known around the world - known everywhere except by US citizens. This is true, then again, the US is one of the few industrialized countries who for most of the 20th into the 21st century had almost all of it's radio and television channels, as well as newspaper printing presses controlled by corporations. It's unfortunate that Stone thus feels he has to ask about Cubans in Vietnam and this sort of nonsense which takes up time that could have been used asking more about Castro's perspective of what is going on in Latin America.

bijou-2 This film is an interesting document only because it provides a glimpse into the leader's more trivial pursuits. ("I've seen TITANIC on video. It needs a big screen" says Castro.) It fails miserably where Oliver Stones asks tough questions yet fails to pursue the partial answers, or at times total avoidance of the question altogether.Some of the issues talked around are surprising (The CIA role in Angola, Cuba's AIDS quarantine camps, the role of Miami exiles, 1980's prison camps for gays) while others are just bizarre (the lack of multiple parties in Cuban elections, his son's US education, Nicaragua and Venezuela).The documentary instead puts us through yet another series of Che Guevara tales told less than honestly by Fidel. The frequent shots of Eva Peron suggest that Fidel Castro's revolution is not a failed relic but rather the dreamy illusions of yet another misguided albeit glamorous femme fatale.