Che
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Studio: Criterion
Year: 2008
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1/1.78:1 anamorphic
Running Time: 271 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish/English
Subtitles: English
MSRP: $ 49.95
Release Date: January 19, 2010
Review Date: January 6, 2010
The Film
3/5
Steven Soderbergh’s fascinatingly splintered biography of revolutionary freedom fighter Ernesto Guevara makes Che an intriguing if somewhat problematic experience. Spanning the parts of his life from young adulthood in Mexico City meeting Fidel Castro for the first time in 1955 and getting swept up in his movement in Cuba through his last campaign in Bolivia before being captured, Che was at one time intended to be two separate films, filmed in different styles and with very different tones. Put together now into one very long film, both halves contain moments of interest, but on the whole the first part is much more involving than the second. And director Soderbergh never really does penetrate that outer shell of enigma to help us understand what passions drove the man so vehemently.
Ernesto Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) was a doctor, writer, diplomat, and intellectual, but his iconic status internationally was earned as a passionate fighter for the rights of the common man in countries where dictatorships robbed people of their basic rights and freedoms. Raised to the rank of commandant during the Cuban revolution assisting Fidel Castro (Demian Bichir) in his efforts to oust the corrupt dictator General Fulgencio Batista and his forces from power, Guevara serves as a kind of Castro troubadour after their victory showing up during the next five years as an important mouthpiece for revolutionaries. His interest, however, is not about settling into the cushy life in Cuba but in assisting other Latin American trouble spots with overcoming their own dictatorial regimes. He settles on Bolivia and ousting its corrupt President René Barrientos (Joaquim de Almeida), but he finds that once there, the peasantry, who were so anxious in Cuba to overthrow those in power, are not at all sold on the notion of outsiders coming into their country to cause civil war.
The title character’s rise (Part I) and fall (Part II) couldn’t be handled more differently by screenwriter Peter Buchman (the original script of part two was by Benjamin van der Veen) and director Steven Soderbergh. Part I features a non-linear narrative with action jumping back and forth between the Cuban revolutionary expedition of 1957-58 and Guevara’s fiery and defiant appearance in the United States at the United Nations in 1964. There is momentum in the storytelling as the guerrilla fighters gain confidence and added recruits as they cross the country from east to west to bring down Batista climaxing in a wonderfully staged battle royal in Santa Clara when the rebels finally surround the Cuban army and make them surrender. The second half, covering the hideously disastrous eleven and a half month expedition to fashion a similar coup d'état in Bolivia, starts slowly and goes downhill from there with desultory handling by writer and director in making Che’s downfall something truly moribund. The first half was filmed in widescreen splendor using anamorphic lenses; the second half, recorded with the RED high definition camera using spherical lenses, reduces the scope of the storytelling and brings the abject failure of the operation just that much closer in the viewers’ faces making the overlong second half truly a stultifying experience. The writer and director have fashioned an impressive way to introduce both halves of the movie: we’re given a brief, wordless geography lesson, first of Cuba and later of Bolivia (and all of South America) so that the audience who is ignorant of the locales can get some idea of the locations that play such important roles in the stories to come.
As the enigmatic Che, Benicio Del Toro shows quite a few sides to the character as we see glimmers of his passion, his charm, his gentility, and his fire. These moments, however, are doled out rather meagerly by the actor over the course of four-plus hours and never quite manage to combine into making the wondrously charismatic force that Che was rumored to be. Almost all of the other characters in this film are like cameo appearances since the focus is, as it should be, on the title character. Demian Bichir’s Fidel Castro captures some of the look and vocal timbre of the rebel leader while Santiago Cabrera is ingratiating as Che’s close friend and fellow commandant. Catalina Sandino Moreno appears in a few scenes as Che’s assistant Aleida who later becomes his wife. In the second half, Joaquim de Almeida makes an outwardly calm, inwardly frightened Bolivian president while Lou Diamond Phillips as Communist minister Mario Monje makes a couple of scenes count. Look quickly and you might spy Matt Damon and Julia Ormand popping in for quick but minor little moments.
Video Quality
3.5/5
Because they were filmed with the RED high definition camera using differing lenses, the looks of the two films are very different though both are presented in anamorphic transfers. The 2.39:1 first half features bold, warm colors and usually good sharpness though there is some smearing in some of the long shots. The 1.78:1 second half, captured in high definition video, is grain free and consistently sharp but with undersaturated color (likely to mirror the film’s sullen tone). As most of the film is spoken in Spanish, the white English subtitles are very easy to read but often go by very rapidly. The film’s first half has been divided into 42 chapters while the second half contains 44 chapters.
Audio Quality
4.5/5
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio mix makes excellent use of the surround channels to capture the revolutionary sounds of battle with directionalized effects occupying all available channels and the LFE channel being quite active when grenades are thrown and bazookas are fired. Alberto Iglesias’s score is also spare but well threaded throughout the front and rear soundfield.
Special Features
4/5
Each half of the film contains an audio commentary by Guevara biographer Jon Lee Anderson. It’s a masterful four hours of discussion of the man and his life filling in many informational holes left by the sketchy screenplay. If you have any interest at all in the subject, you’ll definitely want to hear this informative, heartfelt tribute to the man and his cause.
The film’s theatrical trailer is contained on disc one of this three disc set. It runs for 2 ½ minutes and is in anamorphic widescreen.
Disc three contains the majority of the box’s special features.
“Making Che” is a comprehensive 49 ¾-minute documentary detailing the pre-production, actual filming, and post production work done on this epic film. Producer Laura Bickford, director Steven Soderbergh, star Benicio Del Toro, and writers Benjamin van der Veen and Peter Buchman all relate their experiences on making the story of the revolutionary come to life. It’s in anamorphic widescreen.
There are deleted scenes for both parts of the film. Part I features ten scenes which can be watched individually or in one 15 ½-minute group. Part II contains four deleted scenes which can be watched together in a 5 ½-minute outing or separately. All are in anamorphic widescreen.
“End of a Revolution” is Brian Moser’s 1968 documentary filmed some three weeks after the death of Che Guevara in which Bolivian officials, ordinary countrymen, and the U.S. ambassador to Bolivia comment on his work and the condition of the country. Presented in 4:3 black and white and in pretty rough shape, this illuminating documentary runs 25 ¾ minutes.
“Interviews from Cuba” features a series of interviews conducted by producer Laura Bickford and star Benicio Del Toro in Cuba with actual participants in the revolution and some historians who discuss its long-range effect on Cuba’s history at the time and after the fact. These anamorphic widescreen interviews are mostly in Spanish with English subtitles. The participants’ interviews last 23 ¼ minutes while the historians speak for 12 minutes.
“Che and the Digital Camera Revolution” is an interesting discussion by Steven Soderbergh and his camera crew discussing the groundbreaking use of the RED digital camera for shooting this film. The discussion lasts 33 ¼ minutes in anamorphic widescreen.
The enclosed 21-page booklet contains cast and crew lists for both parts of the film, some stills from the movie, and an appreciation for the picture by critic Amy Taubin.
Also in the package is a reduced sized poster for the film.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
Che brings a new look and tone to the historical epic biography. Though uneven in its ultimate success of burrowing beneath the patriot to find the man, this DVD presentation is a fine one which will undoubtedly bring the film some of the recognition it was denied at the international box-office.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
