Steven Soderbergh’s four-and-a-half-hour film Che, starring Benicio del Toro as famed revolutionary Che Guevara, opens today. Much of the two-part film involves Guevara and his fellow rebels marching, fighting and training in the jungles of Cuba and Bolivia. It proves oddly reminiscent of this clip, which probably isn’t what Soderbergh and del Toro had in mind:
WAITING FOR THE MAN: Benicio Del Toro as Che (right) and Catalina Sandino Moreno as Aleida Guevara
Che, Steven Soderbergh’s epic-length consideration of Latin American revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara, feels almost like the director’s bid to atone for his Ocean’s 11 movies. The star-driven caper comedies celebrate Las Vegas, superficial glitz and the joys of money for nothing. What better way to compensate than an austere cinematic portrait of an iconic figure who gave his life in opposition to materialism and poverty?
Watching Che certainly feels like an act of penance. Soderbergh and producer/leading man Benicio del Toro present what could be called an anti-biopic, studiously avoiding the kind of big gestures and historical oversimplifications that define more crowd-pleasing films about real personalities. Guevara’s background as a doctor, his formative experiences, even his wife and children barely get passing mentions in the film’s four-and-a-half hour running time.
Instead, the film splits into two parts to take a clinical look at Guevara during two of the most significant periods of his life. The first half (unofficially called “The Argentine” in reference to Guevara’s Argentinian origins) focuses on Guevara’s crucial, decidedly unglamorous work as a guerilla fighter in the Cuban revolution in late 1950s. Part one switches from the lush greens and yellows of the Cuban jungles to black-and-white recreations of Guevara’s New York visit in early 1960s, granting interviews and addressing the United Nations. The second half, “Guerilla,” follows Guevara’s doomed bid to bring the revolution to Bolivia in the mid-1960s. (more…)
