gavin6942 This is the story of the men who tried to kill Fidel Castro, the "world's most famous socialist".Wayne Smith, former US diplomat, says America has felt that Cuba is rightfully ours to command, Castro is a "committed egalitarian" and Cuban refugees ended up in Miami, making Florida a hotbed of anti-Castro sentiment and activism (leading to Florida politicians being anti-Cuba).There is no voting for president in Cuba, so opponents of Castro had little choice but to kill him, because there were no other ways to remove him.There is a very odd scene in 1959, as New York seemed to welcome him and he and his son chatted openly with Edward R. Murrow. By Christmas the same year, the CIA was authorized to kill him.Robert Maheu, former FBI agent, struggled with his conscience as a Roman Catholic, but ultimately figured if he could save one American life, it was worth killing Castro for, and he hires the Mafia to intervene.The directors actually tracked down Howard Hunt, former CIA station chief, and got him to talk, which is amazing, and there's some very casual talk from the son of a would-be assassin, who is not only proud of his father, but has some very stereotypical and potentially racist views of Arabs, too. The film is somewhat damning of the Bush family, both directly and indirectly... especially Jeb and George, Sr.

sol Since his ascension to power on New Years Day 1959 Cuban President and Dictator Fidel Ruz Castro has been in the cross-hairs of not only free Cubans who were forced to leave their homeland because of his socialistic policies but also the US Government; Ten Presidential Administrations worth. Among the others gunning for Castro's hide is US, at home and abroad, Big Business and last but not least the notorious criminal octopus-like Mafia. It was the Mafia whom Castro kicked out of the country together with their casinos hookers and drug traffickers soon after he took power in 1959.In the film "638 ways to Kill Castro" were shown just how far these groups would be willing to go to knock off Fidel Castro, code name "The Beard" or "El Beardo", and at the same time how they screwed up every time, 638 times as of last count, they tried! Watching the many almost comical attempts on Castro's life the thing that struck me about Castro's would-be assassins is that no matter how much they want him dead their not willing to risk their lives, or even their freedoms, in order to kill him!It's even brought out in the documentary about using an Arab, suicide bomber I would suspect, to get the job done but even that won't work. No matter how extreme an Arab or Muslim Islamic fanatic is in risking or losing his, or her, life he needs to be properly motivated to do it. How could you motivated him to kill Fidel Castro! A person whom an Islamic fanatic has no reason to get himself killed, in killing him, for! Would killing Castro bring him eternal paradise in his slaying an enemy of Islam?Were shown in film clips the "Bay of Pigs" invasion of Cuba back in the spring of 1961 that turned into a major disaster for the then incoming John F. Kennedy Administration. A humiliated JFK became so obsessed to get Castro that he personally planned, through the CIA and Mafia, 42 attempted "hits" on El Beardo's, Castro, life up until the time that he himself was assassinated on November 22, 1963. The attempts on Castro's life increased with every preceding US Presidential Administration reaching the final count, as of November 2000, of 638! With a record high reached during President Ronald Wilson Reagan's Administration, 1981-1989, of 197! An average of 24 attempts on Fidel Castro's life a year!The movie shows just how hard ,if not impossible, it is to get close enough to Castro in order to knock him off. One thing that the film seems to ignore or overlook is how popular Castro is in his native Cuba which may well be the reason why he's been in power for almost 50 years. Those shown in the movie who want to do Castro in come across as what we, or the Bush Administration, would consider to be members of El-Qeada or the Taliban terrorist organizations. The film brings out how disingenuous US President GW Bush is in his statement that "Either your with us or with the Terrorists". It's both sad and ironic how that fighting and sh*t-kicking statement compares to GW's whole hearted support of those who want to do in "El Beardo". Who in their actions, like the bombing in 1976 of a Cuban passenger airliner with over 70 people killed, more then fit the bill that President Bush describes as the terrorists that he's so dedicated to eradicate!With Fidel Castro now voluntary out of power, having his younger brother Raul take over, even if he's assassinated it will just be a hollow victory to those who've been out to get him for almost half a century. All the attempts and lives lost, by both sides, in trying to take Castro out has now become history with Fidel Castro no longer a factor in running Cuba. A history that many in the CIA US State Department and free Cuban Community, in both the USA and abroad, will very well want to forget.

JustCuriosity 638 Ways to Kill Castro screened at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, TX. It is a fun and entertaining film to watch, but the lightheartedness and focus on the silliest of the plots against Castro often seems to undermine the audience's ability to take the film and the issues they are raising seriously. The choice of editing in footage from old black and white crime noir movies into a documentary to illustrate plots to kill Castro is an odd one that seems to detract from the factual nature of the documentary.The film starts by focusing on the humorous nature of the CIA and Cuban exile plots against Castro and then seems to turn suddenly to the subject of terrorist acts by the anti-Castro groups. The two subjects really seem to be separate, albeit related, ones. The film's style and approach mocks the anti-Castro groups even though their actions and their influence in American politics is very serious. These groups are easy targets, because they are so outlandish and often ridiculous. On the other hand, they give short shrift to genuine reasons that the anti-Castro groups hate the Cuban dictator and what he's done to their country. In so doing the film portrays Castro as a heroic figure and mostly ignores the human rights violations of his regime. Just because the anti-Castro groups are ridiculous, doesn't mean that Castro should be viewed as the savior of Cuba.Late in the film, the documentary focuses on the fundamental contradictions between the U.S. "War on Terror" and its support of anti-Castro "terrorists." This would have made a much more substantive topic for a documentary than the putting so much focus on the many silly plots against Castro. While the documentary provides a good window on an important subject, it could have been a much better and more informative film than it ended up if the film makers were more focused and less interested in mocking the anti-Castro groups and U.S. policy.

bob the moo After a bit of calculation and counting, 638 is the number of plots and conspiracies against Fidel Castro arrived at by his former head of state security Fabian Escalante. This documentary looks back at the history of this continual attempts by the US Government to kill Castro via various proxies. Whether it be the infamous Bay of Pigs incident or the plans to undermine him by making his beard fall out, we get interviews from those involved from both Cuba and the US.A rather mixed bag this documentary. On one hand it feels all a bit cheeky and light hearted, using film stock from unrelated films (Angels with Dirty Faces) to illustrate what the narrator is saying. But on the other hand it is a film that includes footage of executions and does, at the end of the day, deal with a dictator who killed dissidents within his own country and has been a target of the US for decades. Some others have praised this light hearted approach but personally I found it distracting. Yes at times the plots are daft (powder to make his beard fall out, exploding cigars, LSD in a TV studio to make him freak out etc) but mostly this serious stuff. That said though, the film is still interesting regardless of this mixed approach and has done really well to get access to lots of significant players within this story. Infamous terrorist Orlando Bosch (granted residency in the US by Bush Sr even though 30+ countries refused to accept him) and it is chilling to watch him confess to a plane bombing that killed all the passengers but also more! The standard of the rest of the contributors is similarly high, including former US diplomats, former friend Enrique Ovares (who committed suicide just weeks after this film was made) and others. The narration is a bit flat but the biggest problem is the direction from Cannell. With so many great contributors talking so honestly about state-sanctioned terrorism, the death of innocents and so on, why was it felt necessary to overuse stock footage of a house exploding, or clips from old spy b-movies? I have no idea but it did seem that the film was interesting in spite of the delivery rather than because of it.Damning and fascinating stuff then. Really well researched and with great access to key people, many of whom are astonishingly frank. The comic tone to it and use lots of inappropriate stock footage were big mistakes though and undermine the importance and quality of the film. A very mixed bag then, but the good outweighs the bad but it is very much worth seeing.