Oliver Stone - USA, la storia mai raccontata

For the history buffs and those interested in a less partisan view of U.S. History, that's not always completely told in our school history books, I highly recommend Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States.

History itself, and memories in general, inherit the bias of the observer. Further retelling, teaching, and writing of the event also serve to inject patriotism, nationalism, bias and opinion into the mix. This documentary series does well to attempt to strip out all of that, and to see the gray beyond just the black and white.

The show looks and sounds like the history shows we all grew up on in school. This should be known going into it, it is not an enthralling Oliver Stone dramatic movie, but it is well produced. For those interested in the subject matter it will easily keep your attention. In fact it's often difficult to break away momentarily because the pacing of the imagery and information rarely has a lull.

I never knew how little I really knew about our American history until I found out everything that I didn't know. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid about some capitalist conspiracy to exploit and oppress the masses for personal gain or some distorted need for power and control. Even if only 10% of Stone's history was actually true, It turns out that what I thought was already bad enough was just the tip of the iceberg. The fact that 100% may be true is simply horrifying.

This series is absolutely riveting and magnificently written. I found myself repeatedly rewinding to make sure I caught every ounce of information packed into each episode. My only issue with the entire series was I found Oliver Stone's narration very distracting -- his pregnant pauses and melodramatic delivery sounded to me like William Shatner doing a riff of William Shatner as James T Kirk. Nevertheless, this should be required viewing by all Americans, especially in an election year.

What strikes me the most is that the negative reviews of the series actually confirm everything Stone wants to say.

The series is actually brilliant. The book might be even more brilliant. Yes, it is subjective. And yes, it focuses on certain issues more than other issues. And that's because human beings are subjective; history is written and examined by human beings. On the other hand, the series -- and the book-- say right out from the start that this is not the complete history, it's only the part that people don't hear about. That's why it doesn't concentrate on 'other views' or the 'other side' of what it says. Add to that, film is a form of art. And this is the difference art can make when it deals with history.

The series does, in 99% of the cases, state facts very clearly and don't see events and people in black and white. And I have come to believe that people who accuse material of being propaganda are the very victims of propaganda. They are those who want to paint the whole world in one brush and put label on people, things, countries, races, ideas, etc. as 'good' and 'bad.' Personally, I think that is the definition of intellectual terrorism.

First off, I had not learned in my most recent 10 years of formal education even half of what I've learned after watching this series.

If you have many times got confused, felt something missing, frustrated by concealed fallacies after reading numerous texts on recent history, then you'll be relieved by Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick's Untold History of the US. Some say there's nothing untold here, which may be true, but it's never been told in such compact, coherent, true way and void of propaganda. It helps you connect many dots, backed by real archives of footage, articles, papers, interviews, etc.

This is not just about the US, it's about the world. Don't miss it.

Interesting how most of the negative reviews come from America or countries that do not suffer this "intervention." Cause here in Latin America, no need to tell us. We saw it. We saw an arrogant policy that for years it was believed that he had the right to overthrow democratically elected presidents and replacing them with dictators. Today we know that the tortures were applied during the dictatorship methods taught by the CIA. This is not a theory, documents prove it. And just as I know that the vast majority of Americans politicized are / were against it, I'd like others to at least open their eyes so that it never happens again. Your freedom should not mean the enslavement of others. I leave a loving hug to all Americans who know that. Cause you were as much victims as we went.