Review of the Disney+ series ‘El Commandante Fort’
Messy and insincere documentary about a shallow and uninteresting person.
Due to the product, sometimes there can be a bit of cheating when making a documentary. That’s allowed, as long as it doesn’t compromise authenticity. fort commander It’s a false misfire. In fact, as you watch the four-part series, you increasingly get the feeling that the wealthy Fort family devised and paid for this series.
In Argentina they don’t know Patty Brard, in Holland they don’t know the Argentine socialite Ricardo Fort. He is one of the sons of a very wealthy chocolate producer and the only one who chose a different path in life. He wanted to be a singer, also trying to be an actor, presenter and youtuber. In the end, he only became famous for what he was: a kind of Patty Brard of today, but with less talent and more money. And the Argentines ate it.
An excerpt from the series’ brief description: “While seeking fame and popularity, he became an LGBTQ+ activist.” That could be all very well, but you won’t find this in these four episodes. In reality, very little can be gleaned from this documentary series, because it seems to have been made for people who are already completely familiar with Ricardo Fort. In other words: people living in Argentina.
For the rest of the world this is a chaotic event. First of all, if you don’t speak Spanish: good luck, because the subtitles go by quickly. It was not made by someone who understands how to do it. Second, each episode has a different style. Third, there are many moments covered but rarely explained.
In the first episode, a brief introduction is followed by a plethora of incidents from the late Ricardo Fort’s later life. It goes too fast for you to have no idea who he really was. For example, you talk about a discussion during an interview. It looks like Fort physically attacked someone, but that’s an incident the creators think you as a Dutch viewer will be familiar with, so they don’t have to explain or show it.
More importantly, this Ricardo Fort really is a big jerk. To each his own, but despite being a billionaire, he seems like a stupid, shallow, ordinary guy. In every episode someone says that he was so authentic. Strange, because in terms of looks he’s completely revamped and in terms of personality he’s someone who says he loves A one minute and then says he doesn’t like A. He only talks, because he only likes to hear himself talk.
Besides the fact that you never see that he was an activist, you never see what this man was good at. Yes, he could sing a little (you won’t know until the second episode), but nothing special. We never really see him acting, playing an instrument, anything. He was just a guy who made sure he was on TV with money and apparently the people of Argentina thought he was charming. Especially the women.
The third episode focuses on her two children that she had through a surrogate. It’s too bad for them that his father led an unhealthy life and died long before she was 50 years old. But hey, they are rich. The son seems to have inherited his father’s arrogance and her daughter her lack of intelligence, judging by the vacant look in her eyes. Ricardo Fort is already fully praised, but when you see a bizarre and embarrassing video clip made by those kids at the end of that episode, it seems clear: they made this documentary themselves.
The last episode deals with Fort shortly before his death. Chronic pain, multiple surgeries, to no avail. Does the director suppose that we have already forgotten that Ricardo said in the first episode that the doctors told him how to deal with his physical discomfort but that he was not going to listen to them because nobody tells Ricardo what to do?
Fort was in favor of more nonsense. The Secret, a lifestyle that says if you scream that you’re going to get something, you’ll get it. Nice and easy, if you have enough in your account to pay for everything. Or karma, which is explained during a brief conversation by stating that an earthquake in Haiti occurred because apparently the population did something to deserve that disaster.
fort commander it’s a mockumentary about a fake figure, a styleless brat who likes to tell you how many Rolls Royces he owns, but pretends it’s not his fault that a breakthrough as an artist never happened. In any case, he was not an LGBTQ+ activist. He stops making stupid people famous, even when they try at his expense.
fort commander can be seen in Disney+.