Rating of
2.5/4
"Che Part One" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 12/11/12
The first part of Steven Soderbergh's Che recounts his experiences during the Cuban revolution during which he waged a guerilla war against the Batista regime. Che Guevara's iconic face has adorned many a T-shirt but few know much about the man himself so I was eager to learn about his role in world politics and history. Soderbergh's heritage as a cinematographer has always meant that he is more at home with the visual side of cinema than story telling however and Che is another example of this. It is certainly a glorious looking film but the episodic, anecdotal format is rather superficial and I never felt like I'd gotten to know the man behind the image. Benicio Del Toro portrays him as an intelligent, modest man of high principal who truly believed in what he was doing but his personal life is glaring in its absence and
the lack of a hook to draw you into his world means that it's a strangely uninvolving experience despite my curiosity about the man. Still, it's an interesting window onto how a guerilla war is fought but it feels more like a war documentary than an in depth biopic of an individual's life.
