Steven Soderbergh occupies a unique and rather contradictory position in the filmmaking world. On the one hand, he continues to turn out those glossy, big-budget, no-brainer Oceans films every three or four years, to quite staggering box office returns. Ocean's Thirteen (2007), for example, grossed $300 million-plus from an $80 million budget. On the other hand, these big-hitters are interspersed with more low-key and obviously personal projects: the philosophically meditative Solaris (2002) or the noir-ish The Good German (2006), both of which were stylistically interesting, though proving to be box office poison.
Given this pattern, an assessment of a new Soderbergh film means, to an extent, figuring out which category it falls into. A budget of $60 million may suggest that Che is no minor vanity project, but neither is a four-hour film largely in Spanish about a famously anti-American icon likely to appeal to the Oceans demographic. However, it seems safe to presume that Guevara's iconic status both in Latin America and the wider world guarantees this film an audience independent of the director's fan base.
On its arrival in Cannes last year, the film was subject to both praise and criticism in almost equal measure, and it is not hard to see why; not only is its protagonist a figure of much historical controversy, but the film itself is far from conventional. In its original form, it was screened as a single 268 minute film simply entitled Che, a running time which was dramatically cut by 30 minutes by the time it made its arrival at the Toronto Film Festival some four months later. Now it hits cinema screens as two separate films, The Argentine and Guerilla, and, in the UK at least, released several weeks apart. Having only seen the first part, The Argentine, it is a little difficult completely to pass judgment on Che as a whole, but it is possible to make some key assessments of its structure, tone, and intentions.
The life of Che Guevara reads something like a film plot - young, well-to-do doctor is transformed into a revolutionary leader, only to meet a messy and premature demise - and there have been several prior Ches on screen, most notoriously Omar Sharif (unbelievably!) in 1969's Che!, and more recently in Walter Salles' warm portrait of the young Ernesto in The Motorcycle Diaries (2004). His life has been portrayed in books, art, and music for the last fifty years, and his legacy the subject of fiercely partisan debate for just as long. The question facing anyone approaching this contentious subject matter is this: which Che do I examine?
Article comments
1 - pappy
I thought it was great, but then Che is my hero anyway. He saved so many lives, and taught people how to stick up for themselves and fight against US terrorism.