Hugo Rethought – Oliver Stone examines the South American revolution

 Director Oliver Stone and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez talk to the media in Stone's documentary "South of the Border." Courtesy photo

Director Oliver Stone and Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez talk to the media in Oliver Stone’s documentary “South of the Border.”
Courtesy photo

First Fidel, now Hugo.

Director Oliver Stone doesn’t mind incurring the wrath of the mainstream media with his documentaries, which he has recently been releasing in between his studio features. “Finding Fidel” and “Comandante” attempted to rescue Castro from decades of demonization, with Stone sitting down and chatting up Cuba’s leader. In the new “South of the Border,” Stone travels down to Venezuela to do the same thing with Hugo Chavez.

The brisk and informative “South of the Border” begins with the talking bobble heads of Fox News’ morning show, snarking about how Chavez must be insane because he eats a bowl of cocoa every day. The most intelligent of the three hosts steps in to bravely ask if they mean coca. Nobody is really sure, and who cares, right? (Knowledge is so elitist.) It’s a scene that promises to melt your brain right there and then, and then make one despair for modern media in general. But after a quick history lesson on the West’s finagling in South America, Stone brings in Hugo Chavez and sits down with the man we’ve been led to believe is a bloodthirsty monster.

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