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CHE: PART 1
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Stars Benicio Del Toro, Demian Bichir, Julia Ormond, Catalina Sandeno Moreno, Yul Vazquez, Rodrigo Santoro, Unax Ugalde
Not Rated

Smart, gripping reconstruction of Ernesto "Che" Guevara's struggle against Batista during the Cuban Revolution with Fidel Castro, interspersed with his historic visit to the United Nations. Totally immersive and naturalistic, "Che" dumps is right in the middle of the action giving us an honest, hard hitting look at what it was like on the ground. Benecio Del Toro is fantastic in the title role.

A flat biopic. We move from date to date, small battle to larger battle, but we don't really get to know Che - no real insights, no emotions.

Great movie. Informative and entertaining, gorgeously shot in color and black and white. Sheds a necessary light on a critical part of our modern history. Del Toro is spellbinding as Che in his best role to date. Definitely recommend it to people who crave more than mindless and meaningless kicks in movies. Funny at times, it seems to be historically accurate as it chronicles the movement of Che's column of revolutionaries as the make their way across the island towards La Habana. See it!

Steven Soderbergh has now joined the ranks of credible biographical film makers, such as James Mangold (Walk the Line) and Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose), with his mammoth four-hour-split-into-two-parts biopic The Argentine (AKA Ch

Director Steven Soderbergh's stated intention with regards to Che (both parts) was neither political nor about glorifying the man - he specifically wanted to show Che Guevara "as he was". For all I know (nothing), it's mission accomplished as far as the first part is concerned, but, uh...does it make a good film? I'd answer with a "yes", but a hesitant one.

Che Part One is a staunchly documentary-style film which eschews narrative drive and various Hollywood trappings too tiresome to list in favour of...this sentence has become far too fancy for my taste. You know, this is the fourth time I've tried to write a coherent review of this film. Fuck it.

It's a 6/10 film because it's more informative and admirable than it is entertaining and enjoyable. Thing is, I'm mildly optimistic about the second part, and there is a strong chance that, viewed together, both films might add up to something more. I certainly hope that's the case.

RATING (0 to ****): **1/2

Steven Soderbergh's much-anticipated two-part epic "Che" is going through a slow roadshow tour given the apparent success of its NY/LA release last month (IFC, being remotely associated with the Weinstein Company, utilized the two-city "Oscar release" which I'm shocked is still in use as it fails to earn any nominations). One would hope for the sake of the film that a wider release is decided on, but the version being reviewed here has both parts shown in their entirety complete with overture, intermission, and exit music, a souvenir program with all the credits for both parts, and an admission price ranging from $10-13 depending on what screening you pick.

(in other words, if it shows up in your town as two separate movies, you're not really being ripped off since the prices are just about equal)

But all of that blah blah blah aside, the interest in the movie for those who are just as well-researched on their iMDb as they aren't on their Wikipedia is how the new miracle of digital cinematography, the Red One, fares on the big screen. The answer is that it indeed lives up to its publicity, offering almost too-sharp images with an incredible color range; Part Two has an intentionally-grainy visual style, but Part One offers vibrant hues, better exposure latitude than seen in any digital camera as of late (there's nary an instance of overexposure in what was apparently available light), and in night scenes not a speck of noise in surprisingly-detailed blacks. Given that many upcoming films are using this camera for second unit footage, don't be surprised if there's a sharper increase than ever in digitally-shot productions thanks to the Red.

Now, for the rest of you: my point in being so detailed about the picture quality for a four-hour movie? If you want to geek out on footage from the most talked-out camera among zero-budget filmmakers, "Che" is your paradise.

The movie itself, for its length, doesn't leave so much to talk about. Given the amount of dialogue in the film as well as it being in the events' native language (Spanish), it was hard to adequately judge the performances, although Benicio Del Toro's talent with facial expressions shines here.

In Part One, done in what Soderbergh describes to be the "Jerry Bruckheimer take" on the events, the film operates in a back-and-forth narrative between interview segments in 1964 (done in overstylized documentary camerawork which gives a new, disorienting definition to "extreme close-up") and the Cuban Revolution. Much time is spent on Che recruiting and preparing his comrades. The distanced nature of Soderbergh's direction makes it difficult to make a real connection, but some of the vignettes here do like a couple of cute segments involving a couple of teenagers who will stop at nothing to join the revolution (they happen to be more dedicated than some of the older comrades who want to drop out), and a soldier who's completely lost his morale because he gravely misconstrued a nickname to being a vulgar insult. Its conclusion, too, is precious.

Other than when he does show the raw emotion on the soldiers' faces in all-too-rare close-ups, the most compelling parts happen to be the battle sequences. Whereas peaceful sequences were too distanced to really invest in the characters, this approach works to great effect when bullets are flying. Soderbergh gives us one of the most restrained war films in decades, letting the events speak for themselves on-camera without the gore quotient we've grown used to, or any slow motion whatsoever. When Che's only female comrade, Aleida, runs excitedly to a telescope in order to find where a nasty sniper is, we feel that same excitement and fear that a bullet would easily strike her.

Part Two takes place a decade later in Bolivia, which thankfully drops the bookend approach in favor of a very straight narrative. Part One wins in which has more involving battle sequences, but that's mainly because Soderbergh cuts away from them. It's the superior of the two parts although "Che" as a whole suffers from being too dense to fully take in, but rather than the vignette approach, Bolivia is clearly about one thing: Che's revolution in Bolivia over the course of a year, with his men desperate for food as the army tracks down their whereabouts. After all the war is over, the segment allows itself time to breathe in its last moments with Che.

A film that should have been either an hour longer or an hour shorter, "Che" is a flawed epic that has just the right material but for the unacquainted can be trying to keep up with. For a fuller impact, I implore you to watch something just as grand in scale but much tighter, consistent and rewarding: the 2.5-minute trailer which, of last year's slate of movie ads, no live-action film's was better than. It hooks you into the war, Che's revolution and his later desperation-- even his ideals-- and as a film experience is more satisfying than this four-hour package.


MPAA: Not Rated (but would be R for language and some battle scenes)
Runtime: 4 hours, 20 minutes (roadshow version; 248 minutes of "real movie")

I found this first part of Che very interesting and truely enjoyed the performance of Benicio Del Toro as Ernesto Che Guevara, the revolutionary Argentine who helped Fidel Castro and the rebels to overthrow the Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. The film works as sort of a guerilla film slash biography of Che`s involvement in the Cuban revolution. During the film we experience several cuts to the future when Che was in the United States being interviewed about his accomplishments and in a Conference in the United Nations all shot in black and white reminiscing Soderbergh`s film Traffic. Benicio del Toro defintely deserved an Oscar nomination for his work in this film. He depicted the character very well with true human passion for the revolution. This film only gives us a small glimpse of why el Che is considered the symbol of revolution everywhere you go. I am looking forward to seeing the second part. I also enjoyed the supportive characters in this film, such as Demian Bichir playing Fidel Castro, but especially Santiago Cabrera who played Camilo Cienfuegos who delivered several laughs and every time the movie began to slow down a bit his interventions brought a smile to my face. Overall very good movie which will interest all those fans of world history.

Notwithstanding any objection to the mythopoiisi of Czech film with the rotation of pictures in black and white and color film help viewing the movie with interest, gives a PARALLILA ntokymantairistiki dimension. I expect new special interest the second part of the film for Che Guevara called "the, Guerilla"

An amazing movie!

NOWwithSUPERSPOILER!!!

great crisp clean directing and action scenes. Watching this movie in the same sitting as che, part one the quality of che really shows.

SUPERsPOILER

che's love interest makes it to the end.