Just Watched Half of Errol Flynn's "Cuban Story"

[fascisthunter]

Every American should see this movie. It's an eye-opener.... the US today is now doing the same shit it's done to Cuba in Honduras and all other nations it once supported. The US has been supporting capitalistic US friendly dictators for a long time... no wonder the US government hates Fidel.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0000639GA/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=130&s=dvd

[Peace Patriot]

1. I'm getting so old that I don't often come across things I don't know--whether books or films ...

...or ideas. (I should probably take up botany or astrophysics, to stay curious.)

This is something I REALLY, REALLY DIDN'T KNOW and would never have guessed--that Errol Flynn was present during the Cuban Revolution (because he owned a nightclub in Cuba) and filmed the Revolution! Filmed Fidel Castro! Filmed Batista's mass graves! Filmed the whole thing! Now on DVD. I missed Flynn's "Cuba's Rebel Girls" (an obscure bad film that he made)--so wasn't aware that he even had a connection to Cuba--and this documentary has apparently been on ice for forty years!--the victim of our country's idiotic, nay insane, policy on Cuba.

It's rather expensive to buy. (About $70, used.) I doubt that Netflix has it yet. I'll check. But I sure want to see it. Here are two blurbs on it. And the Amazon site has 12 customer reviews, some of which are worth reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Cuban-Story-Errol-Flynn/dp/B0000639GA/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Amazon.com

Cuban Story takes an astonishing look at the Cuban Revolution--from the inside. This documentary owes quite a bit to fate. Writer-producer Victor Pahlen and film star Errol Flynn owned a business in Cuba when the revolution broke out. Realizing they had an amazing opportunity on their hands, they stayed, hung out with the revolutionary troops, and filmed right through Castro's ascent. The film is fascinating as an insider's look at the revolution, but also as a record of the times in many unintended ways: the narration refers to Castro's "girl soldiers," and we get a rare glimpse of a clean-shaven Castro. The filmmakers were in Cuba to witness and film the cruelties of Batista's reign, and thus take a decidedly pro-Castro stance. Viewers should be warned that the film also adopts what will come off to today's audiences as an oddly pro-terrorism point of view**--is a sabotaged airport a brave blow for freedom or a senseless waste of life? Pahlen and Flynn follow the revolution beyond the end of the fighting as Castro reopens the university and tries to right some of Batista's wrongs. American viewers are rarely able to see such a pro-Castro piece and may find it alternately infuriating and thought-provoking. --Ali Davis


Product Description

This truly revolutionary motion picture is certainly the only film in history to star both Errol Flynn and Fidel Castro! Back in the 1950s, Errol Flynn and producer Victor Pahlen owned a movie theater in Havana. They happened to be there when Castro's revolution broke out around them, so they took to the streets with their cameras to document history as it happened, at ground zero. The result was a unique documentary of Castro's uprising, hosted by Flynn, featuring unrivaled footage of the conflict and Castro himself. Circumstances outside their control shelved the film for nearly fifty years; "Cuban Story" has never been screened, never seen, never released--until now. All Day Entertainment is proud to have worked with the Pahlen family to restore this landmark documentary from the only surviving negative materials, stored in England for nearly a half century. Includes an introduction by producer Victor Pahlen's daughter, Kyra Pahlen.

(my emphasis)

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**(just a comment on the demurs in this blurb: A rich and powerful country slaughtering a million innocent people to steal their oil isn't terrorism, but poor people taking up arms against a heinous dictator (Batista) IS? You're being "pro-terrorist" if you support them? What if Iraqis had rebelled against Saddam Hussein, and inflicted casualties on civilians when they did so? Would we have called them "terrorists"? What about George Washington? He would have been hung by the British as a "terrorist" if he had been caught!

This blurb suffers from 40 years of U.S. propaganda against the Cuban Revolution. If you found your family's body parts in a mass grave, would you take up arms to overturn the government that did it? I don't know if I would, but I certainly wouldn't condemn someone who chose otherwise.

What strikes me about this blurb is the insufferable attitude that the perpetrators of U.S. mass terrorism against people who did nothing to harm us, get to define what "terrorism" is. The Cuban rebels may have bombed an airport; the Bushwhacks bombed a whole country, including many, many city neighborhoods, and wantonly slaughtered one million civilians, for no good reason! Who are the "terrorists"?)

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It isn't always true that you learn something new every day. But today it's true--for me! THANK YOU FOR POSTING THIS, FASCIST HUNTER!

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[fascisthunter]

3. I was fortunate to come across a copy of it

the quality wasn't great but it beats the $70 it would cost to buy it. One day, I will own a brand new copy.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Really want to see this one. Thanks for sharing the news it's out there. n/t

[EFerrari]

4. News to me! Thank you!

K&R