Che, Part 1: The Argentinian (***)

Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
Starrring: Benicio Del Toro, Demián Bichir, Julia Ormond, Catalina Sandino Moreno
Seen: November 29th 2009

*** Out of ****

You can fight your whole life to become on of the most famous revolutionaries in history and still end up on a t-shirt sold by the GAP. That’s a very true and ironic quote/joke I saw on the internet a while back. I had no idea who Ernesto Guevara was, or to put it more accurately, I had completely the wrong idea, not having read up on his life a lot. After seeing Che (still awaiting Part 2 though, so a full image must still form), I feel I understand why people would want his face on a t-shirt.

Ernesto Guevara was a young doctor when he met Fidel Castro, the great and infamous Cuban leader. From their first meeting they were plotting the revolution to free Cuba from the oppression it was under from Fulgencio Batista, even though Guevara was not even a Cuban himself. He did train with Castro’s men however, and landed in Cuba with them to overthrow the government Batista created, and he became a hero for it. Eventually Doctor Ernesto Guevara became Commandante Che Guevara, seen by many as the brains behind the Cuban Revolution.

The film is sporadically extremely immersive, as you continuously lose yourself in the story and the amazing lengths everyone went to for their endeavour to succeed. The film will probably not end up as one of the best remembered movies for its immediate entertainment value, but rather for its historical values as it is based on Guevara’s memoir Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War, and thus would be pretty accurate, if only told from one side.

The film is very long winded, a trait of some of Steven Soderbergh’s films (The Informant, The Good German, and Traffic being a few examples…), but the history around Guevara is so interesting that the viewer forgets about this for the most part (only now and then did I think more time must have already passed than what really did). The film, in essence, feels like a slightly overlong essay, with very long sentences discussing politics and revolutionary ideas and ideals, and is punctuated by short and sudden scenes of fighting and Guerrilla war. I applaud the film for this approach, as this (at least in my mind) mirrors the way things transpired in those revolutionary years. It is also interesting to see that there will always be those citizens of first-world countries who think themselves superior to others in every way, and sees no problem with judging people like, in this case Guevara, for whatever they think the problem is. Leave things that don’t concern you well enough alone (I’m a South African who has also in the past debated the entire political thing with Europeans, and to put it bluntly, you who stand on a street in Washington holding up a banner, you know nothing…).

The acting, especially from Del Toro, is fantastic, as he disappears into Guevara, completely becoming the legend. I can’t wait for more of this in the second instalment, which starts on the 18th of December in South Africa. The supporting cast are all just as believable in their roles as friends, accomplices in the revolution, and outsiders watching in on the revolution, and this speaks volumes of Soderbergh’s directing talents. The music is quiet and low-key, but every now and then you notice how good it conveys the feeling of the time and the circumstances. A big part of the film was shot in forests, focussing on the guerrilla movement Castro and Guevara created and grew to take over Cuba, and the logistics of this must have been quite jarring (both filming and back then for the Revolution). And after all the fighting is done, the film ends on a high note showing one of the many reasons that Che Guevara has become the famous figure that he is, and if you’re a fan of historically significant events, then this film is for you.