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Che: Part One (2008)
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Overview
User Rating:
Writers (WGA):
Peter Buchman (screenplay)Ernesto 'Che' Guevara (memoir "Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War")
Release Date:
24 January 2009 (USA) morePlot:
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. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
3 wins & 8 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(38 articles)
Actor Suarez Passes Away (From WENN. 2 April 2009, 5:15 AM, PDT)
Penn: 'I Should Be Competing For An Oscar With Del Toro'
(From WENN. 7 February 2009, 6:00 AM, PST)
User Comments:
Rage Against the Machine moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
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)
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Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
134 minAspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 moreCertification:
Spain:7 | UK:15 | Brazil:14 | Argentina:13 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Czech Republic:15 | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Finland:K-13 | Canada:14A (Alberta) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Sweden:11 | USA:Not Rated | Singapore:M18Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The scene where Che takes the cannon from his colleague (who keeps missing) and blows up the barracks with his first shot, was meant to show Che miss once then hit the target on his second attempt, but the crew were losing light so they had him get it in one. moreGoofs:
Factual errors: The film leads the viewer to believe that Guevara was hired as a mercenary and a combatant. In actuality, he was hired as a medic. It wasn't until he was seen running into battles that he became a combatant. moreQuotes:
Ernesto Che Guevara: [addressing the United Nations in Spanish] Executions? Yes, we have executed. We execute, and we'll continue to execute. moreSoundtrack:
Basura moreFAQ
Does this movie explain Che's politics or how he adopted them?What is the song with vocals that plays in the trailer?
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
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Maybe the most refreshing thing about Che, both parts, is that its director, Steven Soderbergh, didn't know anything about Ernesto "Che" Guevara before taking on the project. This is like a good few in the audience, like yours truly. I didn't know much at all about Che except that he was involved with communist uprisings and revolutions, was buddy-buddy with Castro, and died in execution-style as a guerrilla (that, and his image appears on t-shirts everywhere). What Soderbergh provides for an audience that will go to see it for what he will do with the project- and what Benicio Del-Toro does with the character- is that it's a history lesson made vibrant and urgent and passionate and, according to the director in interviews and Q & A's, honest portrayal of events.
If this means that we may not get exactly a fully rounded portrait of its titular protagonist/hero, then that's probably the only real liability that the picture has. Maybe, perhaps, rightfully so; Che wasn't a guy, at least in his prime revolutionary years, to be one that had much warmth or moments of doubt (and if he had them, they were behind closed doors and out of any record of diaries). So what we get in Part 1, the conventional "Rise" of the character in the story, is the tale of how to do a revolution right- or rather, how to take over a government by military force, and it's Che as a man who pretty quickly becomes a natural leader, a stern taskmaster and also someone who "loves" as a revolutionary must, Che says.
It's gripping film-making nevertheless, with Soderbergh commanding the narrative wonderfully between a color-filmed part-digital-part-35mm Red-camera on the 1957-1959 events in Cuba and the 1964 trip to the UN in New York filmed in grainy black and white. What we get is part documentary and part bio-pic, words straight from the guerrilla's mouth, as it were, and the events that led up to the take-over (which serves as the climax of the picture) in Santa Clara, Cuba. Some of the elements, as noted, are conventional of just a war picture: we get the young kids (16 and 14) who will do anything to fight with Guevara and his group; we get the supposed love interest, only (thankfully) muted with only one scene with small talk; and we get the moments of enthusiasm, humor, camaraderie, and unlikely bravery in the heat of battle.
But most importantly we see Benicio del-Toro take command of this role like he does seemingly often but rarely with such force. In fact, he probably elevates this Che past some possible pit-falls (this project was actually his baby, as he serves as co-producer and developed the project for years), and makes him as human as he can be, using Che's health-tic (asthma) to its fullest, and reveling in going for broke as far as gusto and revelation go. For all of Soderbergh's command of the film-making style- most of all, for me, during the climactic battle where we get to see him awesomely direct a battle sequence- del-Toro, for any scene he's in, steals the show. If for nothing else, whatever your political stance or thoughts on Che, he's worth the admission. 8.5/10