Che: Part One (2008)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writers (WGA):

Peter Buchman (screenplay)
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (memoir "Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War")

Release Date:

24 January 2009 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Plot:

In 1956, Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (Benicio Del Toro) and a band of Castro-led Cuban exiles mobilize an army to topple the regime of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

Plot Keywords:

Fidel Castro | Che Guevara | Illiterate | Surrender | Violence

Awards:

3 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Benicio Del Toro	...	Ernesto 'Che' Guevara
Demián Bichir	...	Fidel Castro
Santiago Cabrera	...	Camilo Cienfuegos
Vladimir Cruz	...	Ramiro Valdés Menéndez
Alfredo De Quesada	...	Israel Pardo
Jsu Garcia	...	Jorge Sotús (as Jsu García)
Kahlil Mendez	...	Leonardo Tamayo Núñez (as Kahlil Méndez)
Elvira Mínguez	...	Celia Sánchez
Andres Munar	...	Joel Iglesias Leyva (as Andrés Manuel Munar)
Julia Ormond	...	Lisa Howard
Jorge Perugorría	...	Vilo
Édgar Ramírez	...	Ciro Redondo García (as Edgar Ramírez)
Victor Rasuk	...	Rogelio Acevedo
Othello Rensoli	...	Pombo
Armando Riesco	...	Benigno

Also Known As:

The Argentine (International: English title) (alternative title) (USA) (working title)
Che - 1ère partie - L'Argentin (France)
Che, el argentino (Spain: Castilian title)

Runtime:

134 min

Country:

France | Spain | USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Spain:7 | UK:15 | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Czech Republic:15 | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Finland:K-13 | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Sweden:11 | USA:Not Rated | Singapore:M18

Filming Locations:

Campeche, Mexico

Company:

Estudios Picasso

Trivia:

Benicio Del Toro chose Ryan Gosling to play Benigno 'Beni' Ramírez. Gosling met with the real Ramirez and learned some Spanish to prepare for role. But delays during pre-production caused Gosling to drop out of the project.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the guerrilleros are in the Sierra Maestra, we can hear the coqui (Eleutherodactylus coqui) singing in the night. However, this small frog is endemic to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, thus not possible to be heard in Cuba.

Quotes:

Ernesto Che Guevara: Ours is a fight to the death.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Heroes Unmasked: Isaac (#1.18)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Basura

Atmospheric and well made but...

Nothing quite like getting your teeth into an epic is there? Sitting back and letting yourself get immersed into a struggle, a journey, in this case the Cuban revolution that has become such a cause celebre for many since the 1950s. By the time I left the cinema I sadly felt as though the epic had been squashed down into an easily swallowed period piece with all the epic grandeur of a Dan Brown novel. The problem with Che Part One is that it doesn't say anything particularly interesting or contain any memorable moments. There is lots and lots of shooting which is actually fairly sanitised (this is certainly no Saving Private Ryan), there is some mistreatment of people who are then avenged and there are lots of shots of Benicio del Toro looking quite idealistic and cool.

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing specifically wrong with this film. It portrays a fairly accurate (if, as I said, sanitised) picture of the March on Santa Clara and the victory of Castro's rebels. However much in the same way as the kind of perpetually running museum film that you can dip in and out of it is largely uninspiring and leaves you feeling quite detached. The problem is not the direction or the acting which does manage to transport you into the heart of a Civil War ravaged Cuba. It is the fact that we learn next to nothing about Cuba, Che himself or the goals of the revolutionaries. We learn nothing of why the Batista regime was so bad that people wanted to overthrow it. Which means that this simply stands alone as a war film where there are lots of explosions, lots of running around and some scenes of people celebrating in the streets. While I understand from reports that Che Part Two is rather different I think that nevertheless the slight blandness of Che Part One means that, though it looks good, it does feel like a rather wasted opportunity.