Unsurprisingly, Oliver Stone's documentary/movie "South of the Border" (aka LatAm 101) has had brickbats thrown at it by the usual US media channels because the movie is lefty and they're all righty and we can't have people saying nice things in the English language about the Axis of Evo™ now, can we? For a good example of the blahblah, check this link for the ongoing spat between co-writer Mark Whitebread and some guy named Rohter who slagged the movie in the NYT using dubious evidence.
Now me personally, I don't care much about the movie nor what you gringos up there think of it. But it has given us a window into the deep knowledge your average US dumbass with a pen has of the region, so with a roll on the drums (brrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm) step forward Kenneth Turan, the LA Times' film critic. In his meisterwerk, we read the following gem penned by Turan:
Now me personally, I don't care much about the movie nor what you gringos up there think of it. But it has given us a window into the deep knowledge your average US dumbass with a pen has of the region, so with a roll on the drums (brrrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm) step forward Kenneth Turan, the LA Times' film critic. In his meisterwerk, we read the following gem penned by Turan:
If you are interested in the fascinating events around Chavez's rise to power, you can see "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," directed by two Irish filmmakers, Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain, who were on the scene when the events happened.
His rise to power? WTF! Chávez had been Prez for four years when the 2002 coup happened!BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! Try this one for size:
And if you care about the groundbreaking election that brought Morales to power in Ecuador, creating a situation Kirchner described as "for the first time in the region, the leaders look like the people they govern," the film to watch is Rachel Boynton's "Our Brand Is Crisis," which shows how American political consultants tried in vain to get Morales' opponent into office.
Daym an'darnit Jethro, here's me thinking that Evo Morales was President of Bolivia all this time. Oh yes indeedy, once again I'm fully reminded that taking seriously any opinion from a US media source regarding LatAm affairs is a very silly thing to do. The LA Times isn't a freakin' blog, people, these people got lawyers, fact checkers, sub-ed, editors.........UPDATE: Reader 'J' writes in with another good observation:
"Very nice. Could also add that "Our Brand is Crisis" is actually about the 2002 election of Goni and not "how American political consultants tried in vain to get Morales' opponent into office."Thanks J, spot on. Let's also make clear that Goni actually won that election, so that line about "trying in vain" is balderdash and nonsense, too.
And thusly Kenneth Turan, you win this week's coveted award. If ignorance truly is bliss, then you must be in Nirvana right now. All things considered it seems much wiser that in the future you simply
ps: it's a personal treat to get to use owly and the STFU photo in the same post