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46th N.Y.F.F

Che

Written by Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

An ambitious two-part, four hour film, "Che" is a diary of a guerrilla on two missions, one upward, the other downward. Here, director Steven Soderbergh tackles a studiously eccentric drama about the revolutionary life and times of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The first part, "The Argentine," examines the charismatic youth rising in the Cuban revolution, from doctor to rebel army leader and then revolutionary hero.

It all starts in 1955, when he was a Argentine physician who dreamed of uniting Latin America through revolution. In a small apartment in Mexico City, Guevara was introduced to a exciting man named Fidel Castro by the latter's younger brother, Raul. Together, they assembled the nuts and bolts of a revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista's corrupt dictatorship. A lot of the action takes places in the mountains, where Guevara and his fellow revolutionaries plot their next moves, intercut with scenes of a visit to New York where Guevara made a speech to the United nations General Assembly. Once they overthrew Batista, Guevara's humane ideals were tested and compromised by the Castro regime as it, too, edged toward dictatorship.

Part Two, ”Guerrila," finds Che at the height of his power after the Cuban Revolution, when he became an intriguing figure in the world political arena. But even he yearns to be a "true revolutionary, the highest level of humanity," so he disguises himself as a Uruguayan diplomat to sneak into Bolivia to recruit the rebels to begin his dream for a new future, a united Latin America. But the rebels are a bunch of squabbling egos, with barely the will to sacrifice or die. Even the peasants have a doubt that this ragtag army is going to bring a better world. On top of that, Che has been battling his asthmatic coughing fits. A long battle leads to a pair of brutal insurgencies, and the rebels seem to be marching toward doom.

Director Soderbergh obsessively focuses on guerrilla strategy on a grass-roots level. This doesn't fall into the typical war-film spectacle; he shoots with a new lightweight camera called "Red" that captures great panoramas despite not having enough light. Soderberg intentionally overlooks the naive and fuzzy side of politics, only to shed light on the depth of Guevara's human soul. Benicio Del Toro infuses this character with the full and considerable measure of his own charisma. After you've seen the four hours of Guevara that he strides toward, you don't feel that Jean-Paul Sartre was exaggerating when he once called Guevara "the most complete human being of our time."

Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Part 1 written by Peter Buchman
Part 2 written by Mr. Buchman and Benjamin A. van der Veen
Director of photography: Peter Andrews
Production designer: Antxón Gómez
Produced by Benicio Del Toro and Laura Bickford
Released by IFC Films. At the Ziegfeld Theater, 141 West 54th Street, Manhattan.
In Spanish and English, with English subtitles. Shown in two parts: “Che Part One,” 2 hours 9 minutes, and “Che Part Two,” 2 hours 8 minutes, with an intermission.

Cast: Benicio Del Toro (Che)
Demián Bichir (Fidel Castro)
Santiago Cabrera (Camillo Cienfuegos)
Elvira Mínguez (Celia Sanchez)
Jorge Perugorría (Joaquin)
Edgar Ramirez (Ciro Redondo)
Victor Rasuk (Rogelio Acevedo)
Carlos Bardem (Moises Guevara)
Joaquim de Almeida (Barrientos)
Eduard Fernández (Ciro Algaranaz)
Marc-André Grondin (Régis Debray)
Catalina Sandino Moreno (Aleida Guevara),
and Franka Potente (Tania).