OLIVER STONE IS ENCOURAGED IN SOUTH OF THE BORDER
After George W. Bush took office, Washington’s attention was directed at Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan in a bold militarization of American foreign policy. Except for an attempted coup in Venezuela, which Bush celebrated in 2001 before being consummated, Latin America was forgotten. Oliver Stone, turned documentarian, has attempted to fill in the gap in South of the Border, where he travels to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Venezuela to interview recently elected heads of state (without pronouncing their names in proper Spanish) who have promoted the cause of the poor in accordance with liberation theology and in opposition to what Stone calls “predatory capitalism.” To fit into a 78-minute format, the tour has more breadth than depth and cardstacks a case for the new leaders rather than answering possible flaws in his thesis. Most of the film depicts Hugo Chavez as the one who is leading the way toward a “21st century socialism” that rejects American military bases, the conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund, and CIA efforts to manipulate the politics to create and sustain puppets of Washington. Stone amply demonstrates that American media, particularly Fox News, relies on pro- and anti-American oversimplifications of developments in the seven countries, where leftist leaders are popular. The culmination of the trend, according to Stone, occurred at a meeting in April 2009, when President Barack Obama met leaders of 34 countries (minus Cuba) at the Summit of the Americas and encountered a united front demanding that Cuba be admitted at the next meeting. The most important story--how the seven leaders have rebounded economically by reversing economic dependency—needs to be told in greater detail, as the documentary only opens eyes. Perhaps the most fascinating detail is that Bush told Argentina’s president that war has always buoyed the American economy, as if to imply that a peaceful Argentina will continually founder. MH
MANY TEARS FALL IN THE DRY LAND
Films featuring returning veterans from the Iraq War might have been played by professional actors, but greater impact can come from nonprofessionals. The Dry Land, directed by Ryan Piers Williams, is one of the latter. Although the action begins with the arrival of James (played by Ryan O’Nan) at the El Paso Airport from a tour of duty in Iraq, the impact of earlier events is crucial. James, the son of a Vietnam vet who was a troubled father, volunteers for the army rather than working in the slaughterhouse of his wife’s father, David Valdez (played by Benito Martínez). Before James returns from duty for medical reasons, his wife Sara (played by America Ferrera) is evidently led to believe that he will face adjustment problems, but she is unprepared when he does. James’s best civilian friends, similarly, bug him about his military experience to the breaking point. At the same time, he is eager to learn what really happened, as he blanked out during a rocket attack. The result is that James cracks up, his wife separates, he gets drunk, and eventually the police pursue him for reckless driving. The point of the film appears to be that those who volunteer for the army are often not prepared to survive PTSD psychologically, in part because their civilian lives are unfulfilling but also due to an inability of the armed services to provide proper post-service counseling. MH
