Review of Che: Part One (2008) by Jim M — 26 Aug 2009

Part One of Steven Soderbergh/Benico Del Toro's love letter to famed Marxist Ernesto Guevara, focusing on his involvement in the Cuban Revolution and his trip to the UN.

Well done, and Del Toro gives an excellent performance as Che. Soderberghs direction is top notch jumping between the 50's and 60's almost seemlessly to tell his story. Focusing almost exclusively on Che we see how and why he was so succsessful in Cuba and way the Batista forces where defeated as well as allowing Che to expand on the need for a revolution across all Latin America. However well the film will help some know Che, the film jumps right in to his revolutionary phase givening no information on what lead him to Fidel Castro, or his commitment to Marxist-Leninist Revolution. Soderbergh/Del Toro also travel that annoying path many biographies do by presenting its subject as sort of a St. Che, rather then confront the less heroic aspects of its subject (we see Che the Liberator, the only glimpse of Che the Excutioner is a pair of deserters who have raped and stolen from the peasents), thus the picture isn't complete and one comes away still not knowing much if anything about Che the Man (in fairness Che is a polarizing figure with many different images, it would be difficult to cut threw them all and present Che the Man, one can forgive Soderbergh/Del Toro for going with Che the Icon here). Not perfect but well worth a viewing.