ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

FIFTY YEARS ago this month, the Cuban Revolution reached its climax as Batista fled the country and Fidel Castro was swept to power. There couldn’t be a more timely moment to release Che, the first part of Steven Soderbergh’s epic portrait of Castro’s comrade in arms Ernesto  ‘Che’ Guevara. and his commitment to the cause of revolution.

An absorbing marathon, Che avoids the David Lean route and opts instead for a more thoughtful, intimate focus on the personalities and politics of the 1950s.

Showing great confidence in the intelligence of its audience, the film makes few concessions to anyone who doesn’t have a modest knowledge of 20th century history. Some attempt at a structure is provided by covering Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) during his visit to New York in 1964.

His speech to the United Nations, television interviews and social appearances are contrasted with a succession of scenes set between his voyage to Cuba in 1956 and the success of the Castro-led revolution three years later.

The second half of the film (to be released in February) jumps forward to 1965 and Guevara’s doomed attempts to lead a revolution in Bolivia.

Filmed in natural light with most characters speaking Spanish, Che is quite a daunting challenge of a film that grips on an intellectual level but often feels overly dry and academic. The film’s saving grace is the committed performance of Benicio Del Toro who makes the selfless, idealistic Che almost saintly in his devotion to the ordinary people.

Nationwide release

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Benjamin Bratt, Franka Potente, Rodrigo Santoro, Julia Ormond
Screenwriter: Peter Buchman based on the memoir Reminiscences Of The Cuban Revolutionary War By Ernesto “Che” Guevara
Certificate: 15
Running time: 126 mins
Country: USA/France/Spain
Year: 2008

© Allan Hunter, 2008