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Che: Part One
(2008)
After nearly a decade of primarily entertainmening fluff-pieces, director Steven Soderbergh has returned to his auteur roots with the epic biopic Che, a two-part film chronicling the adult life of legendary revolutionary Ernesto 'Che' Guevara. Anyone who has read any of my past reviews knows that I tend to dislike biopics but this work transends the genre, ignoring archetypal tropes in favor of an intimate and personal exploration of a man. The film is being screened both as two separate films and as a combined four-hour epic, but I viewed it as two films and will comment on it as such. I actually feel that it works so well in two parts that I can't concieve of any reason that one must see it in its four-hour entirety. Both films have independent tones and tell complete stories and while I feel that Che: Part Two is the superior half of the pair, both are among the best films of 2008.
Che Guevara is one of the most controversial and influential public figures of the twentieth century. His face has appeared on posters and tee-shirts for decades and his message of revolution has been co-opted by radicals and hipsters worldwide. But Soderbergh avoided such obvious appropriation, instead presenting an honest and personal look into the man's life. This is not a glorification of Che the icon, this is an exploration of Ernesto the man. Guevara's humanity can be attributed to the fact that, like Walter Salles's The Motorcycle Diaries, the film is directly based on Che's own writings. By getting into his head, the filmmakers, and by extension the viewer, can truly understand the man behind the myth.
Che: Part One begins in Mexico City in 1955 when the already radicalized Che meets a charismatic young Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir) and quickly jumps to the following year as the 26 of July Revolution began in Cuba. From here, the film is a fairly detailed narrative of the revolution itself, from the early battles in the Sierra Maestra mountains to the decisive battle at Santa Clara, intercut with scenes of Guevara's visit to New York to speak before the United Nations in 1964.
While the main thrust of the film is the revolution, the New York scenes wonderfully emphasize the ideological conflict between Che and the United States which would eventually contribute to his death, as explored in Che: Part Two. Further underhanded criticism of the United States' policies on Cuba are inferences that the ongoing embargo against Cuba has rendered the sacrifices of the revolution a vain pursuit by preventing their idealized economic utopia from coming to fruition. Soderbergh's use of grainy, high contrast, black-and-white film for the 1964 scenes is an effective artistic choice and is reminiscent of his 2000 film Traffic, arguably his last great work prior to Che.
The Che depicted in the film, as I've mentioned before, is not as much the iconic radical as you might expect; he is humanized in a similar manner as he was in The Motorcycle Diaries. A lot of time is spent showing Che meeting the new recruits, shaking hands and learning all their names. Despite this, we never really see him forming real relationships with them, even with his future wife Aleida (Catalina Sandino Moreno) and Castro. Instead, he seems focused on everyone's humanity more than any single person, and scenes of him giving medical attention to his soldiers or Cuban peasants show his real motivations for violent revolution. While he is every bit a soldier and guerilla mastermind, he is just as much a compassionate humanist, and the seemingly contradictory aspects of his personality mesh together seamlessly here.
Perhaps the largest strength of Che is the monumental performance by Benicio Del Toro, who becomes with this outing as iconic an actor as Guevera was a revolutionary. I never thought it possible for a performer to embody such a legendary persona to such a degree, but any doubts I possessed going into the film were quickly quelled by Del Toro, who transforms into Che more than acts as him. Were there not a six-month overlap between his and Che's lives, I would consider the possibility that he is a reincarnation of the slain revolutionary. The Academy has given a disproportionate number of Oscars to performers playing real people in recent years and if the trend continues with a statue for Del Toro it is completely deserved. This is more than the performance of the year; it's one of the most memorable and powerful characterizations of the decade.
For all my praise for Che: Part One, I must admit that I liked it less than Part Two. There is less personal struggle here than I would have liked, and we see very little growth from our protagonist. That said, this is an amazing work of cinema, worthy of carrying the name of one of modern history's most compelling individuals. As part of Ernesto Guevara biographical trilogy, this may be the weakest entry, but it is still an incredible and important film.
-Mark Moreland
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Director:
Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Peter Buchman
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Julia Ormond
Distributor: IFC Films
Runtime: 126
min
Rating: Unrated
Release Date: December 12, 2008
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