537 Votes

A very useful documentary for understand the resorts of democracy. Powerful in the context of 2020 presidential elections, interesting for the mechanism of victory of G.W.Bush and great for the reflection of details. It is just fascinating this huge ball of manipulation and precises steps to the expected- forced win. So, just useful proof about the force of a county.

"537 Votes" is an incisive documentary, vividly capturing the anarchy and rows that greeted the election in 2000 for the presidential post in the United States. Briskly helmed by director Billy Corben, this movie fuses archival footage with interviews and an intriguing narrative to give flesh to the political machinations and media frenzy that characterized the Florida recount. Razor-sharp editing, alongside pointed commentary, really helps transform it from a historical narration of events into the thrilling investigation of the tenuousness and strong interplay between politics, power, and media. Subtle humor, used by Corben, does much to lighten what could turn into an entertaining but intrinsically serious subject in "537 Votes.".

Reasonably well done political piece designed to largely make one think the election was stolen from Gore, though, to be fair, it did present some comment from both sides. Wish it had been a straight representation of history and let the viewer decide what actually took place and what affect it had on our country/history. Thought the biggest joke was comments that if Gore had won 9/11 never would have happened. Didn't realize Bin Laden was such a Gore fan. Went in to say the Iraq war would have been avoided as well, which probably would be true if in fact 9/11 didn't happen. Too bad this could have been great. It was trying and interesting time in our history. An honest documentary would have been far better.

"537 Votes" (2020 release; 104 min.) is a documentary that reassesses, now 2 decades later, what really happened in Florida in the 2000 presidential election. As the movie opens, we are in "November, 1999" and life seemingly couldn't be better in the US< with the economy ablaze and Alex Penelas, the 30-something yr. old mayor of Miami, having the time of his life. Then in early January 2000, a 5 yr. old Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was rescued at sea, the only survivor of an attempt by his mom and others to try and reach the US. It sets in motion what would become a political tsunami... At this point we are 10 min. into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from director Billy Corban, whose previous work includes 2018's interesting "Screwball". Here he takes a look back, with the luxury of 20 years in hindsight, what happened in Florida in the 2000 election. I thought it was very illuminating. Frankly the only thing I remember is the US Supreme Court's decision in favor of W. but this documentary explains how the political landscape in Miami was turned upside down by the unexpected arrival of the Cuban little boy. In fact, the initial 35 minutes of the documentary deal with only that. Then just 5 minutes later we are already at "Election Night". The timing of releasing this documentary couldn't be better as the country is bracing what might happen in the upcoming presidential election in less than 2 weeks. Two major thoughts as I watched this documentary: first, even though the opposing sides disagree on much, the tone of it all and the entire political landscape was polite and respectful, in other words, the complete opposite of what is happening today. There is the (in)famous scene in which Gore says: "I strongly disagree with the Supreme Court's decision, but I respect it." Can you imagine Dear Leader in the White House saying this? Second, equally striking, is how the Republican tactics were the same then as they are now: doing whatever they can, legally or otherwise, to suppress the vote as much as possible. It is just absolutely shameful.

"537 Votes" premiered this week on HBO and is now available on HBO On Demand and other streaming services. If you have any interest in politics or are simply curious in a refresher course on what happened in Florida in the 2000 elections, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

This was one of Fidel's biggest worldwide victories. The War for Elian Gonzalez was heard throughout the world. La Familia Cubana de Miami and Cubans in general came out looking like "dirt". Many Cuban Democrats didn't vote for Gore as payback for the Democrats having "taken" Elian back to Cuba with his father (voto de castigo). That of course, contributed to Bush winning, with consequences like the war in Iraq and you know the rest. Excellent documentary.