Far from a conventional biopic, Steven Soderberghs film about Che Guevara is a fascinating exploration of the revolutionary as icon. Daring in its refusal to make the socialist leader into an easy martyr or hero,
Che paints a vivid, naturalistic portrait of the man himself (with a stunning, Cannes-award-winning performance by Benicio del Toro), from his overthrow of the Batista dictatorship, to his 1964 United Nations trip, to the end of his short life. Originally released in two parts, the first a kaleido-scopic view of the Cuban revolution and the second an all-action dramatization of Che's failed campaign in Bolivia,
Che is presented here in its complete form.
Stills from Che (Click for larger image) Lauded for its documentary approach yet also experimental in nature, Steven Soderbergh's
Che spends over four hours chronicling different phases in the revolutionary career of Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro). In
Che: Part One, the successful Cuban campaign is covered, interspersed with glimpses of Guevara's camera-ready visit to New York in the Castro Revolution's aftermath. This section can't help but approximate the outline of a battle epic, despite Soderbergh's anti-romantic approach, and ends up being a sti! rring account of guerrilla action (it also has the bonus of De! mian Bec hir's uncanny impersonation of Fidel Castro).
Che: Part Two jumps ahead to Che's grueling later experiences in Bolivia, where he traveled to aid the homegrown insurgents but found much less fertile ground than in Cuba. Here Guevara is--figuratively and visually--lost in the jungle, as Soderbergh reduces the characters and story to a series of factual sequences laid end-to-end. It's not Dr. Zhivago, that's for sure, although it does last longer. By spotlighting two specific sections of Che's life, Soderbergh sidesteps the less heroic aspects of his struggle, including the executions that followed the Cuban Revolution (omissions that brought criticism from anti-Castro Cubans). But the film's approach is so intentionally flat that such criticisms are almost not worth the trouble. And while Benicio Del Toro sinks into the role of the asthmatic jungle fighter with total commitment, his Guevara is an elusive protagonist, seen from a distance except for the scenes in! which he's being turned into a celebrity during his NYC interlude. In short,
Che is a very intriguing idea for a movie, and not a terribly engaging film.
--Robert HortonAcclaimed around the world and a national best-seller, this is the definitive work on Che Guevara, the dashing rebel whose epic dream was to end poverty and injustice in Latin America and the developing world through armed revolution. Jon Lee Anderson’s biography traces Che’s extraordinary life, from his comfortable Argentine upbringing to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from the halls of power in Castro’s government to his failed campaign in the Congo and assassination in the Bolivian jungle.
Anderson has had unprecedented access to the personal archives maintained by Guevara’s widow and carefully guarded Cuban government documents. He has conducted extensive interviews with Che’s comrades—some of whom speak here for the first time—and with the CIA men and Bo! livian officers who hunted him down. Anderson broke the story ! of where Guevara’s body was buried, which led to the exhumation and state burial of the bones. Many of the details of Che’s life have long been cloaked in secrecy and intrigue. Meticulously researched and full of exclusive information, Che Guevara illuminates as never before this mythic figure who embodied the high-water mark of revolutionary communism as a force in history.
Even to those without Marxist sympathies, Che Guevara (1928-67) was a dashing, charismatic figure: the asthmatic son of an aristocratic Argentine family whose sympathy for the world's oppressed turned him into a socialist revolutionary, the valued comrade-in-arms of Cuba's Fidel Castro and a leader of guerilla warfare in Latin America and Africa. Journalist Jon Lee Anderson's lengthy and absorbing portrait captures the complexities of international politics (revolutionary and counter); his painstaking research has unearthed a remarkable amount of new material, including information about Gu! evara's death at the hands of the Bolivian military.Far from a conventional biopic, Steven Soderberghs film about Che Guevara is a fascinating exploration of the revolutionary as icon. Daring in its refusal to make the socialist leader into an easy martyr or hero,CHE paints a vivid, naturalistic portrait of the man himself (with a stunning, Cannes-award-winning performance by Benicio del Toro), from his overthrow of the Batista dictatorship, to his 1964 United Nations trip, to the end of his short life. Originally released in two parts, the first a kaleido-scopic view of the Cuban revolution and the second an all-action dramatization of Ches failed campaign in Bolivia, Che is presented here in its complete form.
Stills from Che (Click for larger image) Lauded for its documentary approach yet also experimental in nature, Steven Soderbergh's
Che spends over four hours chronicling different phases in the revolutionary career of Che Guevara (Benicio Del Toro). In
Che: Part One, the successful Cuban campaign is covered, interspersed with glimpses of Guevara's camera-ready visit to New York in the Castro Revolution's aftermath. This section can't help but approximate the outline of a battle epic, despite Soderbergh's anti-romantic approach, and ends up being a stirring account of guerrilla action (it also has the bonus of Demian Bechir's uncanny impersonation of Fidel Castro).
Che: Part Two jumps ah! ead to Che's grueling later experiences in Bolivia, where he traveled to aid the homegrown insurgents but found much less fertile ground than in Cuba. Here Guevara is--figuratively and visually--lost in the jungle, as Soderbergh reduces the characters and story to a series of factual sequences laid end-to-end. It's not Dr. Zhivago, that's for sure, although it does last longer. By spotlighting two specific sections of Che's life, Soderbergh sidesteps the less heroic aspects of his struggle, including the executions that followed the Cuban Revolution (omissions that brought criticism from anti-Castro Cubans). But the film's approach is so intentionally flat that such criticisms are almost not worth the trouble. And while Benicio Del Toro sinks into the role of the asthmatic jungle fighter with total commitment, his Guevara is an elusive protagonist, seen from a distance except for the scenes in which he's being turned into a celebrity during his NYC interlude. In sho! rt,
Che is a very intriguing idea for a movie, and not ! a terrib ly engaging film.
--Robert HortonThe book of the new, two-part epic movie on Che Guevara starring Benicio Del Toro as the legendary revolutionary.
Director Steven Soderbergh has based his two-part movie "Che" (Part 1: The Argentine and Part 2: Guerrilla) on two classic diaries written by Che Guevara: Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War (an account of the guerrilla movement led by Fidel Castro that overthrew the Batista dictatorship in 1959) and Bolivian Diary (Che’s famous, unfinished diary discovered in his backpack when he was captured and killed in Bolivia in October 1967).
Che includes a selection from each book, showing the young Argentine’s evolution from the wide-eyed medical student of the Motorcycle Diaries-era to the revolutionary hero the world knows as Che.
Features:
- Key excerpts from Che’s Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, his final ! Bolivian Diary, and his fiery address to the UN General Assembly, New York in December 1964.
- Che’s first encounter with Fidel Castro in Mexico, when he immediately commits himself to join the guerrilla expedition to Cuba.
- The dramatic moment when Che has to decide his future either as a doctor or a guerrilla fighter, symbolized by the choice of two backpacks: one with medicine, the other with ammunition.
- Che’s poetic letter to his parents before he sets out on the fateful Bolivia mission.
- Maps, chronology, and a useful glossary.
- 24 pages of original photos from the period
- Movie tie-in cover.
- Blurbs by Benicio del Toro and Steven Soderbergh.
Also published in Spanish this season is Che: Los Diarios de Ernesto Che Guevara, 978-1-921235-48-1.
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