Che (Steven Soderbergh, 2008): USA

Reviewed by Cora Hubbert. Viewed at the Chinese Theatre, Hollywood.

What a story. I’m sure Soderbergh (director of such blockbusters as Ocean’s 11, 12 & 13)  knew what he was taking on when he embarked on the journey to tell the history of such a prevalent image and symbol as Che Guevara. He must have, because the movie winds to a close after no less than 4 1/2 hours of holding the audience captivated. Well technically it is two movies, The Argentine and Guerrilla, the first written by Peter Buchnan and the second by Buchnan and Benjamin Van Der Veen, but it is a complete story viewed all at once, as I got to at the US premiere in Grumman’s Chinese theatre in Hollywood.  Soderbergh himself spoke before unveiling his epic depicting the heroic acts of the world’s most famous revolutionary.  I went in expecting something satisfyingly grandiose, and I was definitely not disappointed… although I do have a certain bone to pick with Mr. Soderbergh.

Benicio Del Toro (Traffic, 21 Grams) magnificently becomes Che (for which he won Best Actor award in Cannes), the modest asthmatic doctor with big plans for the oppressed people of South America. The Argentine begins with a clean-shaven Guevara making plans with Fidel Castro (Demian Bichir) and a few others in a comfortable living room in Mexico, and soon after they are on a boat to Cuba where they plan to start the revolution.  There they gather up their small but passionate army and Comandante Che soon becomes Castro’s right-hand man.  His compassion and toughness earns him the respect and friendship of the guerrilla men. The film cuts frequently to black and white close up hand held shots of Guevara being interviewed, classic Cuban cigar in hand.  These scenes are so realistic seeming, and Del Toro is such a convincing Che that you wonder whether it is actual footage of the real event.  In another scene shot similarly in black and white, Guevara addresses the UN, everything looking incredibly genuine.  His powerful speech receives applause from the world representatives in the room, and I was so drawn in by his words and delivery that I found myself clapping too-before realizing that I was not actually present in the room with him, at which point I felt embarrassed and looked around me to see if anyone had noticed.  Of course, no one was paying attention to me but to the amazing man before them. Part one concludes with Che’s victory and Castro’s assumption of power.  Guerrilla is a much slower film.  It shows Che in disguise traveling to Bolivia in hopes of liberating the people there.  His following is much less loyal and more depressed seeming in Bolivia, and the movie consists mainly of the repeated failures and hardships of Che’s soldiers.  Its filming emphasizes the scenery, beautiful small Bolivian towns and landscapes, as well as more music, or so it seemed to me.  Overall much more of a tragedy than the first film, but that was to be expected.

My main issue with the whole thing this is the portrayal of Che himself.  Not that I didn’t like the acting, indeed Del Toro’s performance was stunning, and it wasn’t that I didn’t like the character-rather i liked him too much.  I have a feeling that the man who spawned a million and one t shirts could not have been the romanticized hero shown in Soderbergh’s movies.  I wish I could believe that he was truly as perfect a guy as he is made out to be, but I can’t-at least not from what I have been shown thus far.  There is still too much doubt in my mind because of the many people who speak ill of the man, and I feel that the film would have been even more powerful for me if the Che character had revealed some of his faults, simply to make him more relate-able.  However, this problem had little sway in my appreciation of the movie as a whole. The 2004 film The Motorcycle Diaries was the chronological prequel to these films; it tells us of the adventures of  Ernesto Guevara de la Serna before he became Che.  I am really glad to see these recent expositions of the history of Che because they have not only been exceptionally well done, but can serve as an education for the  somewhat uninformed youth who have sported shirts, posters, and pins emblazoned with Guevara’s face as a symbol of rebellion for more than a decade.