Che [Criterion Collection] [3 Discs]

Director: Steven Soderbergh Steven Soderbergh

Overview

"Nearly 40 years after Che Guevara's execution in Bolivia, director Steven Soderbergh retraces the life of the iconic Cuban revolutionary in this nearly four-and-a-half-hour saga. Part 1 begins on November 26, 1956, as Fidel Castro (Demián Bichir) sails into Cuban waters with 80 rebels in tow. Among those rebels is Argentine doctor Ernesto ""Che"" Guevara (Benicio Del Toro), a man who shares Castro's dream of overthrowing corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista. As the struggle gets under way, Guevara proves an indispensable part of the revolution due to his firm grasp on the concepts of guerilla warfare. Guevara is heartily embraced by both his comrades and the Cuban people, and quickly rises through the ranks to become first a commander, and ultimately a revolutionary hero. Part 2 of the saga begins with Guevara at the absolute peak of his fame and power. Disappearing suddenly, Guevara subsequently resurfaces in Bolivia to organize a modest group of Cuban comrades and Bolivian recruits in preparation for the Latin American Revolution. But while the Bolivian campaign would ultimately fail, the tenacity, sacrifice, and idealism displayed by Guevara during this period would make him a symbol of heroism to followers around the world. Part 1 and Part 2 were screened together as Che at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and also received a limited theatrical release under that same title in U.S. theaters later that same year."

Product Details

Release Date:	01/19/2010
UPC:	0715515049511
Original Release:	2008
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	4:21:00
Sales rank:	19,987

Special Features

Che: part one- ; New audio commentary featuring Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che Guevara: a revolutionary life; Theatrical trailer; Che: part two-; New audio commentary featuring Anderson; The supplements-; Making "Che," new documentary featuring Soderbergh, producer Laura Brickford, actor-producer Benicio Del Toro, and writers Peter Buchman and Benjamin Van Der Veen; Interviews with participants in and historians of the cuban revolution and Che's bolivian campaign; End of a revolution, a short documentary made in Bolivia right after Che's execution in 1967; "Che" and the digital cinema revolution!, an original video piece looking at the red camera and its effect on modern film production; Deleted scenes; Booklet featuring an essay by critic Amy Taubin

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Benicio Del Toro	Ernesto Che Guevara
Demián Bichir	Fidel Castro
Rodrigo Santoro	Raul Castro
Catalina Sandino Moreno	Aleida March
Franka Potente	Tania
Joaquim de Almeida	President René Barrientos
Lou Diamond Phillips	Mario Monje
Santiago Cabrera	Camillo Cienfuegos
Jorge Minguez	Joaquin,Actor
Victor Rasuk	Rogelio Acevedo
Armando Riesco	Benigno
Unax Ugalde	Little Cowboy
Yul Vazquez	Alejandro Ramirez
Carlos Bardem	Moises Guevara
Eduard Fernández	Ciro Algaranaz
Marc-André Grondin	Regis Debray,Actor
Oscar Jaenada	Dario
Kahlil Mendez	Urbano
Matt Damon	Guest
Julia Ormond	Lisa Howard
Mark Umbers	Roth
Jorge Perugorría	Joaquin
Juan Salinas	Actor
Gastón Pauls	Ciros Bustos
Edgar Ramírez	Ciro Redondo
Vladimir Cruz	Actor
Pablo Guevara	Actor
Maria Isabel Diaz	Actor
Mateo Gómez	Actor
Pedro Adorno	Actor
Jsu Garcia	Actor
Roberto Santana	Actor
Jordi Mollà	Capt. Vargas
Rubén Ochandiano	Rolando
Antonio Peredo	Actor
Othello Rensoli	Actor
Elvira Mínguez	Celia Sanchez
Cristian Mercado	Actor
Edgar Ramirez	Actor
Jorge Perugorria	Actor
Jordi Molla	Actor
Unax Ulgalde	Actor
Alberto Inglesias	Composer
Alberto Iglesias	Composer

Technical Credits

Peter Buchman

Benjamin A. van der Veen

Steven Soderbergh

Benicio Del Toro

Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Peter Buchman	Screenwriter
Benjamin A. van der Veen	Screenwriter
Steven Soderbergh	Producer,Director,Screenwriter
Benicio Del Toro	Producer,Screenwriter
Laura Bickford	Producer
Bill Pohlad	Producer
Mary Vernieu	Casting
Alvaro Augustin	Executive Producer
Frederic W. Brost	Executive Producer
Philip Elway	Executive Producer
Greg Jacobs	Executive Producer
Alvaro Longoria	Executive Producer
Andreas Schmid	Executive Producer
Ernesto 'Che' Guevara	Screenwriter
Belén Atienza	Producer,Executive Producer
Vincent Maraval	Executive Producer
Brahim Chioua	Executive Producer
Aitor Berenguer	Sound/Sound Designer
Gabriel Gutierrez	Sound/Sound Designer
Larry Blake	Sound Editor
Antonio Betancourt	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

The mythic persona of revolutionary leader Che Guevara, whose legend has only grown in the decades since his death in the Bolivian jungle, makes tackling a biopic about the man all that much more daunting. To some he's a heroic martyr of the political left, to some he's a terrorist, and to some he's little more than a T-shirt logo. Steven Soderbergh sidesteps almost all of these problems in his nearly four-and-a-half-hour movie Che by focusing on what Che experienced, rather than concentrating on the politics. The first half of the film follows Guevara as he helps lead Fidel Castro's Cuban Revolution. After an opening scene where Castro recruits the Argentinean doctor, the movie places us in the jungle alongside a small band of guerrillas that steadily grows into the army that conquers Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista's military. Soderbergh shoots their various attacks in a fly-on-the-wall cinéma vérité style that gives the audience a genuine immediacy -- a sense of both place and danger. We get an understanding of how these soldiers do what they do, and, miraculously, Soderbergh never bores us by trying to explain battlefield strategy. He keeps us aware of the forethought and planning that Castro puts into each of their missions, and because we trust Che, we never worry that the characters don't know what they're doing. As the revolutionaries make their way to Havana, Soderbergh intercuts their exploits with flash-forwards to Che's 1964 trip to New York, including his address to the United Nations, and the grainy black-and-white cinematography used in these sequences lends them a documentary feel that contrasts with the lush, colorful jungle settings. While in the Big Apple, Che sits down for an extensive interview with a reporter, and Soderbergh uses Che's answers to her questions as a soundtrack during some of the battle sequences. While this should distance a viewer from the action, it actually has the opposite effect: these are the only times we feel we're inside Che's head, as Soderbergh avoids almost any mention of Che's personal life. This blending of the cerebral technique with visceral content makes the first half of Che a compelling and unique experience. However, with the second half of the movie, Soderbergh shifts gears. After a brief opening sequence with Che entering Bolivia in disguise, the movie never leaves the jungle. There are no voice-overs or flash-forwards to give us any relief from the growing dread that mounts as the Bolivian Revolution fails in every way that the Cuban campaign succeeded. This is cinéma vérité in the extreme -- we are trapped right alongside Che, forever sensing that the end could come at any moment, but never abandoning the fight. It's a thoroughly exhausting feeling to experience for over two hours. Separated from the movie's first half, this is by no means a conventionally entertaining movie, but it's a remarkable piece of filmmaking. If the movie has a major flaw, it might just be that the second half is so insistently unvaried that the audience may start to ask the kinds of questions -- like why would Che leave his wife and kids to go to Bolivia -- that Soderbergh has no interest in answering. However, even with that fault, the first half of the movie succeeds so grandly that Che's eventual demise still hits us with the power of classic tragedy. In fact, Benicio Del Toro deserves just as much credit as Soderbergh for making us feel the enormity of Che's personality. Because his dialogue never reveals his personal feelings, Del Toro must express Che's inner life almost solely through his physicality -- and, remarkably, he does. From Che's long, confident strides as he approaches the podium at the United Nations to his delicate care in lighting a cigar, Del Toro inhabits this often taciturn leader, and keeps us involved by imbuing even the smallest gestures with significance. At nearly four and a half hours, Che plays at a resoundingly uncommercial length, and while it could have been shaped into an easier to digest three hours, it seems clear that Soderbergh has no interest in satisfying the typical audience's expectations in this regard. He wants the audience to feel Che's desperation and pride more than he wants to conform to the traditions of Hollywood filmmaking. And, for those able to meet the movie on its own terms, Che ranks as one of the most ambitious biopics in recent memory.