Movie Revie

Review: Che (2008)
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Benicio Del Toro

Reviewed by Abak Hussain

BEFORE Che Guevara became the God-like icon he is today, the object of veneration of scores of young males; before his badass face got pasted onto every t-shirt, coffee mug, pop culture parody, MTV skit or even on people's arms as tattoos there was the actual guerrilla fighter. There was Ernesto Guevara, the doctor and revolutionary from Argentina. A quiet sort of man, compulsively driven towards his work, “Che” left behind an image and legacy that is surely beyond what he ever had in mind. A study of this human-all-too-human Che would have been fascinating. It would have been a great subject for a biopic. It was why I approached Steven Soderbergh's four hour epic (in two volumes) Che with great excitement.

I'll be fair. The film delivers. As far as directors go, Soderbergh is one of the best; working today. He deftly shows the chaos and confusion of guerrilla warfare. The direction is flawless, the editing breathtaking. Soderbergh does show, quite clearly, that he is a master craftsman. What he fails to give us is an even-handed story- a treatment of Che that even those of us who are not Che-crazy will find fascinating. It's not that Che goes over the top into the realm of hagiography. It's just that Soderbergh's constant gushing admiration for his leading man is a little too obvious.

The film is told is in two parts. The first part is about Che and Fidel Castro collaborating in Cuba. We know the history- their mission is successful and they overthrow the oppressive Batista regime. Che is careful to always call it a 'revolution' and not a 'coup'. Everything goes well in the Cuban revolution. It is the story of this first part that turns Che into a hero- a man who really can.

But that's not everything. That's why Castro was never as romanticised as Che. The victory in Cuba is only half the job. What's the formula for Che's image? Take victorious hero (Cuban revolution), add tragic martyrdom (capture and execution in Bolivia) and you get your instant poster boy- part Superman, part Jesus Christ.

Yes, the second part is about Che's defeat in Bolivia. He used the same strategy, but it didn't work. Overthrowing a regime, as it turns out, a little more complicated. Nevertheless, Che puts up a heroic fight to the end. Along the way he punishes the comrades that don't conform to the revolutionary code. It should surprise no one to see that Che was capable of being pretty mean when he had to.

Soderbergh, out of respect for Che I believe, resists any easy shots at trying to explain his subject. There is no obvious psychoanalysis here. Nor is there any big new history- the events are what we've already read about. But Benecio Del Toro plays Che as a character inhabited by demons that we will never know about. What was it that drove him to undertake such dangerous and impossibly difficult missions? Why was it that after his victory in Cuba, instead of going on vacation Che hurriedly started planning his project to liberate Bolivia? Was it idealism? Was it really a political goal? Or was it something we will never know, something that only Che Guevara the man was consumed with- an obsessive, compulsive, pathological need to be a guerrilla. To live so close to death. To attack authorities so big that if you fail then they kill you. To place yourself in front of an adversary that tests you to your utmost limits. Soderbergh's epic leaves some needs unmet. As a historical commentary to sweep aside all the deifying mumbo jumbo about Che, it doesn't really work. But as a film it works brilliantly. In lesser hands, I believe, such tricky material would spell disaster.