Che: Viva La Revolution!
Steven Soderbergh revisits the myth of Che in 2 episodes of 2 hours each. If the first can be gained by the exaltation of the Cuban victory, the second is lost in the stalemate in the Bolivian conflict.
Rating: 3/5
Cast: Demián Bichir, Rodrigo Santoro, Benicio Del Toro, Catalina Sandino Moreno, María D. Sosa, Raúl Beltrán, Raúl ‘Pitín’ Gómez, Paty M. Bellott, Othello Rensoli
Directed By: Steven Soderbergh
For some, he is a hero. For others, the incarnation of evil. For all, it is, and has remained the strongest symbol of the Cuban revolution. After Walter Salles and his “Motorcycle Diaries”, the turn of Steven Soderbergh (”Traffic,” “Erin Brockovich”) to present his “Che”, with many years of research.
Dividing its ambitious undertaking to recount the two major guerrilla campaigns carried out by Ernesto Guevara – in Cuba and Bolivia – 2 films of two hours each (presented in a separate block with a short intermission), Soderbergh chooses resolutely towards myth than man. Treated as a figure rather than as a being of flesh and blood, Che appears in its most iconic, the most memorable. To learn more about his commitment and his feelings, we must read elsewhere. We are not in a biopic. Like the commitment of his heroes in “Che” are the revolution and inspiring ideas that come first.
In the first part, the process works well. Despite the mounting chaos. Despite the absence of large pieces (the reasons for the involvement of Che, for example). One shudders at the first meeting among friends in Mexico in 1955, between Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir, excellent) and Guevara, the feeling of seeing history written in front of our eyes jumped at the throat. It can be caught by the revolutionary blast leading the 80 men arrived by boat on the island of Cuba.
We admire the ethics and integrity of thought in the process of shaping a new country. It was the breath before the oratory skills of Guevara at the United Nations, extracts of black and white streaky her story. The enthusiasm of the vast history walk takes all in its path. Soderbergh trust our sense of the myth of justice and freedom. Benicio del Toro, who won at Cannes for this role, also producer of the film, is perfect, giving just enough weight and substance to the hero for not letting him go down under the weight of its own idealism.
It’s in the second part, the mechanism starts to creak. After the excitement, the stalemate. The Bolivian campaign, begun in 1967, is a debacle. The local Communist Party drops the guerrilla fighters struggling to convince farmers and Che suffers from increasingly violent asthma.
Soderbergh attempts to transform his film with a kind of clued mysticism, plunging at the pit of harassment and discouragement of a man uprooted, wrongly convinced that the Revolution may extend its tentacles to change throughout the Latin America. Existential poetry was not far away, Terrence Malick would have perhaps found. Unfortunately, it is lost by turning scenes of long and repetitive fighting, filmed without much soul. And it’s not the appearance of Matt Damon that will entertain. The party is well and truly lost. Benicio del Toro remains at the top of his art, fragile and emaciated on the intensity of his incarnation to a climax during a particularly moving final sequence.
