Features > Movie Reviews > Che: Part One…

Kicking off in 1955, just four or five years after the events of The Motorcycle Diaries, this first panel in Soderbergh?s Che diptych is an account of his role in the Cuban revolution: his initial meeting with Fidel Castro in Mexico, involvement in the training of the guerilla army (the 26th July Movement), and emergence as a key strategist and leader in the two-year campaign to oust US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Originally planned as a (single) Terrence Malick film, which Soderbergh was going to produce with Benicio Del Toro starring, Che goes out of its way to avoid the conventions of the biopic. We learn next to nothing about Guevara’s background or his personal life. That’s not inappropriate for a man who devoted his life to the cause. There’s also very little contextualization about what the guerillas are fighing and why, save for some flash-forwards to Che addressing the United Nations in New York in 1962 (virtually the only English language scenes in the film). Soderbergh sticks close to Del Toro?s side, giving us the equivalent of an embedded report on the revolution from the guerilla’s perspective.

Presumably Malick would have augmented this with voice over narration, as in his other movies. Soderbergh keeps it very lean and spare. You are well advised to pay attention to an introductory map of Cuba, because it’s about all the orientation you’re going to get over the next 126 minutes.

What’s up there on screen feels as authentic as an insect bite. Del Toro makes a great Che: vigorous, focused, intensely smart. Definitely someone you would follow into battle. Soderbergh shows him almost always at work, whether that’s practicing medicine, teaching, preaching or waging war. This is a dynamic figure, thinking on his feet, pushing harder and faster than his comrades.

The movie reaches a compelling climax with a detailed re-enactment of the rebels taking the town of Santa Clara, a street battle laid out with diagrammatic clarity and precision. In that regard Che has some similarities with the classic insurgency movie The Battle of Algiers. Soderbergh, more plainly, has talked about John Sturges as a model – evoking The Magnificent Seven and Gunfight at the OK Corral.

It must be said, though, it’s a long and arduous jungle trek to get to that point. Traditional Hollywood war movies give us danger and suspense. Soderbergh concentrates on the hard slog. Admirable, no doubt, but not an easy watch. And when it’s over, there’s surprisingly little triumph. The director is as disciplined as his hero. It doesn’t feel like an ending, only the end of the beginning.

Part Two, which hits cinemas on the 20th February, skips Guevara’s contentious role as in the Castro government to replay essentially the same tactics in 1966-67, as Che attempts to export the Revolution to Bolivia. It’s like a mirror image of this first part, or a twin, and neither movie really makes sense in isolation from the other. They have been shown back to back in film festivals and are ideally seen that way, if you have the stamina. As it is, it will be very interesting to see how many people have the appetite for the more grueling and downbeat Part Two on the back of this tough, impressive but somehow underwhelming accomplishment.