Released in June, 2006, this movie probably didn't play at your local theater. The DVD was released simultaneously and was more available to the public.
Why? Is it that controversial? It's just a reminder of the history of tyranny sometimes masquerading as democracy. It's full of imagery that one NY Times reviewer calls "cliché". He's right, in a way. Repression, murder, torture, brainwashing, assassination have become clichés. Too bad.
But you have to be well-educated to catch the imagery. An old movie of Edison electrocuting a Coney Island elephant that had become violent. The son of a President-for-Life tyrant who may have murdered his father (and didn't poke out his own eyes) and became the tyrant himself. The reformer (Donald Sutherland) who assassinated the son and became the tyrant was himself assassinated in his bath tub á la French Revolution's Marat.
The movie is the story of every Latin American despot, from Papa Doc (Duvalier), Baby Doc, the perverted Trujillos, Somosa, Pinochet, Peron, Stroessner, and the guerrillas/terrorists/populists/socialists/communists who tried to overthrow them in the name of Freedom and Democracy.
What tastes better than a thick juicy steak?
