In a move that has surely pissed off the US Government, actor Danny Glover has signed a deal with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez to create one of two movies by the country’s national production company. US officials are already calling the deal tainted.
The Venezuelan National Assembly has decided to give the national production company, La Villa del Cine, $19.7 million to make two films. The first film will be directed by Glover, and is about Haitian independence leader Francois Dominque Toussaint-Louverture. The second movie is a film adaptation of the novel “The General in His Labyrinth” about Simon Bolivar, which was written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Both movies will be filmed in Venezuela.
Chavez is said to have started the national production company La Villa del Cine in 2006 in order to combat the dictatorship of Hollywood, and spread the story of Latin America.
Glover’s film, entitled simply “Toussaint”, is an “action epic, based on the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) and the life of Toussaint Louverture, who led one of the only successful slave uprisings in history, successively defeated the French, Spanish and British imperial armies (including Napoleon Bonaparte), and established the first independent black Republic: Haiti.”
Danny Glover said that he has undertaken the project because he wants to educate the US about the story, which he says has “been essentially wiped out of our historic memory, it’s been wiped clean.”
US Republicans don’t quite feel that way. Rep. Connie Mack (R-Fla) believes that Glover is simply a pawn in “Hugo Chavez’s propaganda machine.” Mack also went on to essentially call Glover a traitor and unfit American:
“It’s sad. What I don’t get is why a well-known American, let alone any American, would be part of a propaganda machine with Hugo Chavez, and that’s clearly what he’s doing. They’ll live in this country and enjoy the freedoms that we all enjoy. We have men and women around the world fighting for and defending our freedom, yet they’ll go and support a communist dictator in Venezuela.”
Mack also added that the films “are just part of that overall plan to try to paint the West or the United States in a bad light.”
I see nothing wrong with sharing a story that producers in Hollywood don’t want to show us. Let’s face facts here: the founders of this country weren’t exactly saints, and they did a lot of not-so-nice things. So yea, the US may come off in a bad light for past actions, but it’s entirely deserved.
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Chris said
May 24 2007 @ 4:19 pm
Some really odd comments there, dude. You claim that Mack is name-calling an actor, then you quote the politician, thus disproving your statement. Then you end your post by somehow making it about imperial western agression. Odd. Even Glover wasn’t really making that claim.
The issue isn’t really about the US versus Glover, it’s about why someone is comfortable enough to do business with a corrupt and unstable anti-semite. Apparently Danny Glover is, and apparently you think the only reason we should be concerned about that is because somehow this puts the “deserved” America in a “bad light”? Again, odd.
Chris
foog said
May 24 2007 @ 4:44 pm
Considering how hip to pop culture and movies you guys are, I’m pretty damned disappointed to see you so woefully uninformed about the world as to call Chavez a “dictator”. I suppose the minor detail of his having been democratically elected has escaped your keen observation.
Frank the Movie Guy said
May 24 2007 @ 6:34 pm
I would go so far as calling President Bush a “dictator” although he is “elected”.
It is also funny how this post seems to piss off both Anti-Chavez and Pro-Chavez people. I have to pat myself on the back for that.
Richard said
May 24 2007 @ 10:25 pm
Though I hate to agree with Quigs at all, let’s keep it to the movies, guys, and stay off the political stuff if at all possible. I know the line is kind of blurred here, but we don’t want a flame war here.
Chavez scares me. I don’t think the guy needs any more influence, least of all in Hollywood. But do you guys really think Glover needed to go all the way to Venezuela to get funding for these flicks? Its not like any of these subjects are taboo by Hollywood standards, especially in a current era where televisions and movies are actively challenging Western pre-conceptions of history and events.
Both films seem pretty legit, and I can’t honestly see much the American government can really oppose in the subject matter, except perhaps for the possibility Chavez might try to draw parallels between himself and Bolivar. But to pre-emptively label both flicks propaganda reaks of overreaction. Let’s wait and see on this one.
joeconrad said
May 25 2007 @ 9:36 pm
Chavez was democratically elected in an election that was judged fair by independent observers. While people shit all over Vladimir Putin (with plenty of good reason) you rarely hear him referred to in the media as a dictator. He has done vastly worse things than Hugo Chavez has even been accused of and yet the fear mongering around Chavez is vastly more rampant. Why is that? Well, might have something to do with Chavez and his legislative branch nationalizing oil and communications within the country. But that is something completely within their legal right to do. Our communications and energy companies lost a bit of cash when that happened. These two industries are the biggest contributors to either political party. They are connected in one way or another to almost every facet of the economy in the US. So, right wing psychopathic murderer in Russia just barely starts getting noticed this year, the second that a leftist gets elected and starts trying to do something for his own people, its time to pull out the dictator card.
Chris said
May 30 2007 @ 3:35 pm
Hey “foog” and “joeconrad”….I’m waiting for your “keen” observations on Chavez now. Maybe you should’ve waited a couple days before opining about his “democracy”.
“Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched in Caracas in a fourth consecutive day of protests over Chavez’s closure of the RCTV network – a move which has sparked international criticism that the leftist leader’s reforms are undermining democracy.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2949211020070530?feedType=RSS&rpc=22
Bridger said
January 7 2009 @ 3:37 pm
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