South of the Border (2010)

50% of critics liked it
(54 reviews)
70% of users liked it
(2,392 ratings)

Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is a hero in Latin America for his willingness to stand up to the United States (both the government and the private sector) and his desire to use the nation's petroleum resources as a tool to bring a better way of life to the working class under his rule. But… More Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez is a hero in Latin America for his willingness to stand up to the United States (both the government and the private sector) and his desire to use the nation's petroleum resources as a tool to bring a better way of life to the working class under his rule. But Chavez's policies have made him many enemies in North America, and in the American news media (especially conservative outlets such as Fox News), Chavez has been demonized for his rejection of U.S. policy, his pro-socialist stance, and his openly combative stance toward George W. Bush. Are either of these extremes an accurate portrait of the real Hugo Chavez? Filmmaker Oliver Stone presents a portrait of Chavez the politician and Chavez the man in his documentary South of the Border, which is built around a series of in-depth interviews Stone conducted with the Venezuelan president. Stone also includes interviews with a number of other major Latin American leaders, among them Bolivia's Evo Morales, Argentina's Cristina Kirchner, Brazil's Lula da Silva, and Cuba's Raul Castro. South of the Border was an official selection at the 2009 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG, 1 hr. 18 min.
Directed By: Oliver Stone
Written By: Tariq Ali, Oliver Stone
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Jun 25, 2010 Wide
On DVD: Oct 5, 2010
Studio: Cinema Libre

Critic Reviews

Tom Long, Detroit News
What's frustrating about the film is that even though it's clear Stone is making a number of valid and important points about both media manipulation and America's untoward political influence, he's also so obviously biased in his reporting.
Ethan Gilsdorf, Boston Globe
Stone has a crucial, overlooked viewpoint to impart, but as a documentary filmmaker, his content and technique are not terribly engaging.
Kerry Lengel, Arizona Republic
South of the Border offers valuable historical, social and political context, particularly if you aren't an international-news junkie.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Oliver Stone might not be the ideal reporter to send on a truth-seeking mission to South America, but if nobody else wants to do it, we have to take what we can get.
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post
A personal, maddeningly blinkered travelogue through Latin America that, for all its willful naivete, offers a valuable glimpse of historical and social change.
Michael Phillips, At the Movies
I think it's a galling.
S. James Wegg, JWR
Having been conquered, liberated, invaded, beaten, killed and 'Christianized' for centuries, it is cheering to see the collective progress made by most South American countries in mapping their futures by governing themselves.
Brent Simon, Shared Darkness
A terrific, easy-to-digest alternative living history to the mainstream media's by turns atrocious and disinterested coverage of Latin American politics.
Jolene Mendez, Entertainment Spectrum
There is much still to uncover South of the Border and Stone has only sold us one side of it...with so much left to uncover South of the Border is missing it's edge.
Mark R. Leeper, Mark Leeper's Reviews
SOUTH OF THE BORDER points to the need of a good contemporary study of South American political movement rather than actually filling that vacancy.
Jeff Meyers, Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Stone's self-satisfied fanboy agitprop offers little more than a nave tutorial on a topic that deserves so much more investigation.
Jeffrey Chen, ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Worth watching, while keeping its bias in mind, as an introduction to the political events in South America during the last decade.
Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine
Oliver Stone's flawed, fascinating doc receives an appropriately subjective DVD treatment.
Robin Clifford, Reeling Reviews
The DVD is chock-a-block with 90-minutes of extras [that] make a value-added package worth renting.
Mike McGranaghan, Aisle Seat
While it may sound dry on the surface, Stone packs his movie with enough provocative insights to keep the audience invested.
Rossiter Drake, San Francisco Examiner
The film is one-sided, but it's a side rarely seen by U.S. audiences, most of whom get their news from sources including FOX, CNN and even The New York Times. (Stone skewers the lot.)
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A missed opportunity to tell us more than Fox News is bias.
Simon Foster, sbs.com.au
Oliver Stone proves himself to be the anti-Michael Moore; he speaks softly, understanding that it must be the voices of Chavez, Morales, Castro, et al, that resonate most profoundly.
Joe Utichi, Film4
Like the best of Stone's narrative fiction, South Of The Border is packed with big characters and epic storytelling. That this is non-fiction makes it all the more gripping.
David Edwards, Daily Mirror [UK]
[Lacks] the balance you'd expect in a documentary.

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Featured Audience Ratings

Ken S

You mean the Bush White House distorted facts about South America? No Way! Fascinating documentary that sheds a lot of light on subjects often kept in the dark.
Walter M

Once upon a time, Oliver Stone was a superb director, expertly balancing compelling stories and politics, but eventually he would just be more interested in making a point more than anything else. Ironically, I thought maybe that same quality would make him a good documentarian, like… More
Once upon a time, Oliver Stone was a superb director, expertly balancing compelling stories and politics, but eventually he would just be more interested in making a point more than anything else. Ironically, I thought maybe that same quality would make him a good documentarian, like Spike Lee, but "South of the Border" proves that maybe alas it is not meant to be. And that's not only because of his droning narration. In trying to explore the recent rise of progressive leadership in South America, Stone nobly seeks to reverse the perceptions that they are all repressive dictators, forgetting for a second that Fox News has long been a joke.(Okay, admittedly, there is that episode of "The Good Wife" and being photographed with the President of Iran is not going to win you any fans.) Even with access to the presidents, he frames the debates not on the countries' terms of success, but only in relation to the United States, which are very favorable when compared to the failed promise of the Obama Administration. And I like the Ecuadorian president suggesting that he would allow American bases in his country if they allow an Ecuadorian military base in Miami. Stone would have been better off if he had not relied so much on second hand sources and gone straight to the person on the street. You can do better by seeking out superior documentaries, especially the excellent "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" which focused on the failed 2002 coup attempt in Venezuela, proving that sometimes the good guys win.